Series: August 2025
Speaker: Rob McClellan
Today's Sermon
"Seeing the Light: On the Road Series"
In case I was wondering whether I was on the right track with this “On the Road” sermon series, exploring life’s various journeys, last Tuesday I parked next to a car with the bumper sticker, “Journey before destination.”
In 2017, Rebecca Gummere set out on a journey not because she had a lot of energy, but because her light had burned out. After fourteen years as a pastor, followed by seven a rape crisis center, her faith was gone. She couldn’t stay where she was, so she set out in a camper van and hit the road.
Eight months into her journey, she made her way to Hopkinsville, Kentucky to experience totality during a solar eclipse to catch a glimpse of some other form of light in a moment of darkness.[1] Her story is an interesting juxtaposition to the famous story of The Apostle Paul being blinded by the light on the road to Damascus. Paul, then called Saul, had not lost his faith, though he was deeply lost. He was so sure of his way, he was ruthless to others, viciously persecuting these new followers of Jesus. He walked deeply in the dark. Listen:
Acts of the Apostles 9:1-20a
9…Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ 5He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ 7The men who were travelling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ 11The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.’ 13But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; 14and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’15But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; 16I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ 17So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ 18And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, 19and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, 20and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus…
This is Paul’s conversion. Paul isn’t seeking a new light. It finds him, good news because it’s not always up to us. And, who Paul is persecuting? You might answer “Christians,” but notice that’s not the term used in the text. The earliest term for the followers of Jesus is “People of the Way.” I love that term. Sometimes people get caught up in the exclusivity of the definite article, but the point is not our dogma over yours. The point is faith is about living out a way of being, one rooted in love, radical mercy, mutual care, and sharing of resources. Faith is a way of being. In one sense, it’s not an easy way, but neither is the rat race of our culture, and this way is more fulfilling and more joyful. With deeper purpose comes deeper satisfaction.
Rebecca Gummere had lost her purpose, her sense of direction, her experience of the light. When she arrived in Hopkinsville, where thousands were gathered for the darkness of the eclipse, she caught a glimpse. Many people describe the experience of a total eclipse as spiritual. I’ve heard this countless times, and to Gummere it was too, but maybe not in the way many people usually describe it. For most people gathered, the spiritual experience came from looking up. For her, it came looking around. She wrote,
At one edge of the pavilion, two couples reclined in expensive camping chairs, eclipse glasses covering their eyes, their faces upturned as they chattered and pointed at the sky, and in an instant, I was stabbed with tenderness. They looked like small children, overcome with amazement. I loved them — the man with the coarse cinnamon-colored hair and his slender wife with her small mouth opening and closing, and the other man with the gleaming forehead and beside him his wife with her hand to her cheek.
I loved the cranky man who glared at everyone as he stood protectively by his polished camera with its lens the size of a Buick. I loved the tired, whiny kids and the sweaty, impatient vendor who just wanted it to be over. I loved the cops strolling back and forth with their hands resting on their stiff leather belts.
I loved the couple playing Scrabble and the dad frying eggs over a small propane stove in a quiet corner. I loved the homeschooling mom and her excited daughters with their shell-pink skin.
I loved them all, and I loved myself in the midst of it. I loved myself in the sea of congregated humans, in this blink-of-an-eye slipstream of our fragile, finite, wondrous story. All those miles and all those months, searching high and low for illumination, when all along the truth had been right there, around, within, and with me — sparks of the Divine in every person I’d encountered.
Conversion is about seeing everything differently. We are people of the way, so even if you’re being pushed out on the road, do your grieving, and then look around for the chance to look for the love and connection at the heart of all being. And, if you can’t find your way, don’t worry; sometimes the light will find you.
Amen.
[1]https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cross-country-drive-search-divine_n_65ea501be4b024897f7bfe6f