Blinded By Stephen P. Bouman H
as there ever been a song that really caught you, a song that said something about your life? Maybe it was a hymn, a love song or the blues. For me, it’s Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded by the Light.” I think of it whenever I see Caravaggio’s painting of Paul on the road to Damascus.
The resurrection of Jesus plays in our lives like an
unforgettable soundtrack. Even when budgets become about deficits and dwindling numbers seem the only story, we are left stunned by this refrain: Christ is risen. We, like Paul, begin to see everything, including our challenges, with new eyes. And as people of the ELCA, we can begin to reclaim our evangelical mission.
Never get over it When you read Paul’s letters in Scripture, you’ll notice something: He never gets over being blinded by the light of Jesus’ resurrection. Nor should we. To truly give ourselves to God’s mission in the world, we must again (or for the first time) become stunned by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead—stunned enough to reclaim our vulnerability and utter dependence on the risen Lord.
Paul knew his mission, our mission, was born on Eas-
ter. The risen and living Christ calls us to evangelism. As Paul knew, giving our hands to God’s work of evange- lism is not a mere matter of human organization. It rises from Christ’s own seizure of those he chooses. Christ wrestles, humbles, transfigures and embraces us as we are endowed and sent. In Caravaggio’s painting, Paul is flat on his back, legs outstretched, arms raised up to heaven. His eyes are shut, blinded by the resurrection light. The horse, the central figure in the painting, sensitively lifts its hoof so as not to tread on the poor creature sprawled beneath it in the dust.
This is a devastating encounter, and one we must
replicate. Every ELCA baptized missionary (each of us is one), every congregational center for mission, every
institution or network must lie in the dust, blinded by God’s light, or we will never recover the Great Commis- sion to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16-20). As Paul knew, to be an apostle is to be utterly dependent on grace, ready to be broken by an encounter with truth. What does this road have in store for us? When we
become stunned by the resurrection of Jesus, we live where contradiction and controversy cross and clash. We find ourselves opposed as well as loved; confronted by grotesque unfaithfulness in the church as well as won- ders of love and creativity. While enduring crucifying obscurity, we struggle to understand what the Spirit is doing in and to churches as old ways and forms die. We find ourselves—bishops, pastors, laypeople, synods and congregations—traveling on a road where we are thrown into the dust again and again by the Christ who has seized hold of us. See yourself, like Paul, blinded by the light. Unseen hands reach out to lead you in the right direction. Paul was led to community in Antioch and catechesis
with Ananias. God’s call to evangelism is also your call to community, discipleship and teaching of Scripture. It is a call to create new space with neighbors, space where we can know and be known in the light of Jesus’ resurrection.
Can you see in this painting the opportunity to renew our mission as the ELCA and reclaim our solidarity, community and mutual dependence on one another and the risen Christ for the life of the world?
Bouman is executive director of ELCA Congregational and Synodical Mission. March 2013 17
by the light We must be like Paul
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