On sharing testimonies

Caravaggio: The Conversion on the road to Damascus

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/c/caravagg/05/29ceras.html

‘Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature’s night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee.’ John Wesley’s ‘strange warming of his heart’ came not from hearing our first reading from Acts 16 (Acts 16:16-34) but from Luther’s introduction to St Paul’s epistle to the Romans, but its depiction in hymn is one of the greatest personal statements of conversion, akin to the great story in Acts about the conversion of the family of Paul’s jailer.

What are we to make of statements of conversion? We can’t all put them into the compelling language of John Wesley because we are not all great evangelists in his mould. But we need these testimonies. Here’s why: firstly, because it keeps us humble. If we remember when we first committed ourselves to Jesus, then it reminds us of that time in our life, earlier, when we had not done so – when, in effect, whether we knew it at the time of not, we were still sinners on a much greater scale than today. Secondly, it’s a personal help to keep the Gospel at the centre of all our stories. If we talk about the way in which obstacles to our faith, and our doubts, were overcome, then it enriches our Church with the evidence of conversion that has taken place already and may yet arise again. Thirdly, it provides an example of the importance of sharing a personal testimony. We need our faith to be refreshed by the experiences of others. That is part of what our fellowship is about. As a practical action step, we are advised to create a one-page, two-minute conversion story testimony; and to practise sharing it with at least one person a week, asking the other person to share their conversion story with us. If my own statement is not one page, it is because of the length of the Biblical passage which I refer to.

Now it’s important to stress here that some people don’t feel that they have a clear ‘conversion story’ to tell: their faith came upon them gradually or else was in them from a very early age and it proceeded and grew without any single blinding ‘road to Damascus’ type experience that Saul underwent before he became Paul. ‘The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners’, St Paul tells us (1 Timothy 1:15). The greater the sinner, the more important the conversion story: but there is no harm in hearing the story of those who were not sinners on Saul’s scale.

So here is a quick review of a more modest sinner and how he was converted. Between my confirmation at the early age of 12 or so and middle age of 41 or so, I was not an agnostic, let alone an atheist, but I had also not committed myself to follow Christ. Marriage to a committed and practising Christian and agreement that our children would be educated as Christians in so far as that is possible in our society had led to a significant event, which was to attend church on a regular basis from the time of our marriage in 1987. When living in Paris two years later we were quite actively involved with the English-speaking Anglican community and I was asked to be a reader in the church. On Easter Sunday 1991 I was asked to read the epistle, which was from 1 Corinthians 15. I believe that the text I read from was from the NIV, so here is that translation, beginning at verse 12, where Paul addresses the implications of Christ’s resurrection:

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹ If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

²⁰ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. ²⁴ Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. ²⁵ For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed is death.²⁷ For he “has put everything under his feet”. Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. ²⁸ When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

²⁹ Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? ³⁰ And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? ³¹ I face death every day – yes, just as surely          as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. ³² If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,

“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die” (Isaiah 22:13).

Now what we do not ever get from Paul is a sense that less is more. There he and Silas were, in prison, still praying and singing hymns at midnight! And elsewhere at Troas, in chapter 20 of Acts, Paul is still preaching at midnight whereupon a young lad called Eutychus, who had been listening to him while sitting on a window ledge on the third floor of the building, fell asleep and then fell out of the window and had to be brought back to life by Paul! (One can’t help feeling that Luke liked telling this story to make the point about Paul that he could have learned that sometimes less is more.)

But whether or not it is a long and difficult passage, 1 Corinthians 15 is the definitive statement on why, as Christians we need the Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, Paul tells us, our faith would be in vain. We would deserve pity for our false hopes. But our faith is not in vain. There are countless witnesses to the Resurrection as Paul had earlier recounted in the chapter. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.

All I can say about my own conversion is that physically my legs went weak as I realized the significance of that text on Easter Sunday 1991. I wanted to fall down on my knees and thank God. And I have remained a Christian and grown as a Christian ever since. Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!