Transformation: We are on the road to Damascus

He is persecuting those who disagree with him, having them thrown in jail. Some of them are killed. Silenced and jailed because they do not see the world—-understand the world—-the way he does. So as far as he is concerned, instilling fear, using violence and threats, is the way to stop them. Remove the opposition so that his way becomes the rule.

You know of whom I am speaking, right?

Paul, I’m talking about the apostle we know as St. Paul. Well, when Paul was still Saul, that is.

So, when we find ourselves living in similar times—as we are right now—-when fear, threats and violence are being used to silence any opposition—we should be asking: What changed Saul? How did he become Paul—an apostle of Love rather than the persecutor of all who opposed his way? How did one who lived by violence become someone so differently inspired?

Love, of course. Paul was stopped short by the voice of Love in the flesh. I mean that’s the moral of this story of the life of the man we know as Jesus: “How to Be Love in the Flesh 101”. Love in Human flesh. Love in our own human flesh.

This love is what Jesus speaks of in today’s Gospel story. Around the breakfast BBQ on the beach, when Jesus gives Peter 3 chances to declare his love—erasing his guilt and shame of his 3 earlier denials of Jesus—Jesus tells us his followers what this love in the flesh looks like: Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.

Which ones, Lord? The deserving ones? The ones like us? The ones who belong? The Good ones?

God looked over everything God had made;

it was so good, so very good!

It was evening, it was morning—

Day Six. Genesis, chapter 1, verse 31

John, chapter 10, verses 14, 15, and 16

Jesus says: “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me. …I put the sheep before myself, sacrificing myself if necessary. You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They’ll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd.

Which ones? Who is deserving? Who is like us? Who belongs? Which ones are the good ones? All of them. All of us. All of Creation. All of humanity.

Now, not all actions are good; not all choices are good; not all ways of being are good. But the beings themselves? In God’s eyes: good, very good. Because all are made by God, this Source of all Being, and God has declared it all, us all, good. God does not live in a quid-pro-quo economy where you have to earn what you need. God has already given us all that we need, the abundance that is needed, so that every one has enough.

But we have redefined who matters, who belongs, who is enough, who is deserving. Creating smaller and smaller circles of concern, of obligation. And with those smaller circles comes abuse of power and corruption. Just as we see in Saul’s story. Because with the smaller circles those on the outside become the opposition. And then those in power become obsessed with how to silence, how to stop, how to end the opposition. If they keep the circle small, they will get a bigger share. This means some will go without since the authorities, the rulers have a bigger share of the abundance that God has provided for all.

Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.

Why does Jesus stress this; why is this what he leaves with his followers as he passes off the baton of being the Good Shepherd into their hands, into our hands? Let me share some social media content that I think does a good job of explaining the why, and I quote:

The clearest, most immediate path forward is improving quality of life. And I don’t mean in some abstract sense—I mean the tangible, material conditions that shape people’s daily lives. Because when people are exhausted, overworked, in debt, and constantly anxious about housing, healthcare, or whether they can afford gas or groceries next week, they are vulnerable. Not just emotionally, but politically.

It’s in those moments of fragility that bad actors make their move…

So yes, we need universal healthcare. Accessible education. Guaranteed paid family leave. Reproductive rights protected by law. Vacation time that isn’t a luxury. Childcare people can actually afford. And a broader reorientation of our economy to value human well-being over corporate quarterly earnings.

Because let’s be honest: this American culture of endless work, chronic burnout, and performative “grind” is killing us—physically, mentally, spiritually. People are exhausted. Isolated. Disconnected. And in that loneliness, anger and resentment start to look alot like identity. Enemies and scapegoats become easier to invent.

Investing in the public good isn’t just some idealist dream—it’s how you build a society resilient to extremism. When people have hope, stability, and time to think beyond survival, they stop looking for someone to blame. They start looking for someone to build with.

None of this is a pipe dream. It’s all possible—financially, logistically, technologically. What’s missing isn’t capability. It’s priority. And the will to act. Because what can be done? Plenty. But it starts with believing people deserve better—not just in rhetoric, but in policy, in resources, and in time to be fully human again. The rest will follow.  https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122192336924095915&set=a.122110416848095915

Beloved, in this moment when fear reigns instead of love, when circles are crafted ever smaller instead of being widened, in this moment when we find ourselves on the road to Damascus, we are called to recognize just where we are and who we are. To be honest with ourselves and then to choose wisely. To choose love. Even when the opposition stands just before us. Like Ananias, God calls us to put aside our fear and our loathing in order to be able to enter this moment, to respond in this moment, with love.

After his arrest for praying in the rotunda of the US Capitol this past week, Rev. William Barber shared this: “We are Christian preachers. When we made a vow to preach the good news to all people, in season and out of season, we committed to address life or death issues. This is often intimate and deeply [personal] work. We bless babies when they are born, we visit the sick, we welcome strangers to our dinner tables, and we pray with people when they are dying. But life and death work is also public work. As Christian preachers, we are also public theologians. When someone dies from poverty and a lack of healthcare, we cannot lie and say, ‘God called them home.’ We have to tell the truth. They died because we live in a society that has chosen not to care for them.”

Barber goes on to write “The extreme minority of elites promoting this disastrous budget understand the potential power of a coalition of people coming together across race and region, across faiths and family traditions, to build an America that works for all of us. In fact they may understand better than many of us how much power we have. That power is unleashed when we stand up and say: “We are not afraid. We will not hate you. We will transform you through the power of love.”

Activist and author bell hooks writes that love is when we put another’s needs on equal footing with our own. Love is when we put another person’s needs on equal footing with our own. This is Gospel, Beloved. It is the parable of the laborers who earn equal pay for varying degrees of work because the pay is what is needed to survive, to live. God calls us to want—and to work for—each and every one on the face of this earth having what we deem necessary for ourselves. To put their need on equal footing with our own.

Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.

When Saul is struck down by the voice of Love on that Damascus road, Love in the flesh says to him: Why do you persecute me? Not why do you persecute them? Why do yo

u persecute me? Because, Beloved, whenever we deny another in their need, we deny God. Now, there is more than one way to meet that need. And it may require the other person’s participation—for which he/she/they may not be ready. But when we hear their voice, when we see their face, when we grasp their hand—it is the voice, the face, the hand of Jesus we are connecting with, we are responding to.

Times such as this, this hard Damascus road we find ourselves on as a nation—it requires Love’s voice to speak into it. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has passed the Shepherd’s duties on to us: Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. As Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us: “The secret of transformation is in the way we handle this very moment.”