Fruit With Feet
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series II, Cycle C
Object:
There has rarely been a transformation from sinner to saint as dramatic as that of Paul, former persecutor of Christians, who became the apostle to the Gentiles. However, the story of Cain Lackey from Patrick County, Virginia, comes close.
Cain Lackey was known as the Meanest Man in Patrick County. He was rough and tough. The year was 1892 and Patrick County, Virginia, was a place of dirt fields and mud roads. There wasn't always enough food. People died because there were no doctors. Some places were almost impossible to get to because of the roads.
For all that, it was still very beautiful. There were the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains, and the music of winding rivers racing over the boulders in their streambeds. In the western part of the county were rich fields and long grasses. There were dairy farms, and orchards so plentiful that the smell of the fruit was like perfume.
Two ministers, Brother Dove and Brother Elgin, were standing at the edge of a swamp. Down below, a tough, wiry man was digging a ditch. Brother Dove was a revival preacher, new in town, and Brother Elgin warned him about the man who was digging: Cain Lackey, the Meanest Man.
Brother Elgin proceeded to tell Brother Dove about Cain Lackey, how he could carry a railroad tie the way most men carried a two-by-four, how he could out-wrestle and out-fight anyone else who'd ever passed through these parts. And he told him about the famous fight against a man known as Champion Ben, who he'd laid low with a single blow, and how it had required twelve men with mule spurs to pull Cain Lackey off the former champion.
Brother Elgin also told him about the man's father, who kept him from school, worked him from dawn to dusk, made him sleep outdoors all summer long, and how Cain had built a working mill by himself at the age of ten.
No one could level another man with his fist like Cain. No one was stronger or meaner.
"Well, he certainly looks like the strongest man in the county,"Brother Dove said, watching the way Cain Lackey thrust his shovel into the swamp, and sent great clouds of mud into the air behind him.
"I'm going to invite him to the revival," Brother Dove said suddenly.
"He'll never come," Brother Elgin said.
"He'll definitely never come if we don't ask him," Brother Dove replied.
Brother Elgin watched as the Brethren minister descended into the swamp. Brother Elgin could see Brother Dove step first ankle deep, then knee deep into the swamp, getting mud and gunk all over him. He watched as Brother Dove stuck out his hand to Cain Lackey. After a moment, Cain took the hand.
A few moments later Brother Dove was walking back to Brother Elgin. Mud clung to his boots and pants.
"What did he say?" Brother Elgin asked. Cain Lackey had already returned to digging. Not much seemed to keep him from work.
"He said he'd come. Is he as good as his word?"
"Yes," came the reply. "If he tells you he'll come he'll be there. He's just that way. He'll do what he tells you. But if he tells you he'll give you a whipping, he'll do that, too."
That night at the revival, the church was full. People had come from miles around to hear Brother Dove. There were young people and old people. There were children and mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, and plenty of babies. All the windows were open, and still it was hot, very hot inside, yet no one left. No one wanted to leave, because when someone like Brother Dove came to preach it was something special, very special.
The songs were the sorts of songs that everyone already knew. A sweaty man in the front of the church moved his arms up and down, right and left, to direct the singing, but everyone already knew the songs. They didn't need songbooks, which was a good thing, as there weren't enough for everyone.
Brother Dove looked out over the congregation, and then he saw, in the doorway of the church, a big man standing. It was Cain Lackey, all right, and he had a child in his arms. He hadn't thought about it, but he now knew that Cain Lackey was married, and had children. There was a darling child in his arms. There was no room for anyone else in the church, but when Cain came in the door, people were afraid of him and made room for him to sit down.
Opening his Bible, Brother Dove began to read, and to talk. It got hotter and hotter in the building, and Brother Dove was dripping with sweat, and so was everyone else. It had gotten dark outside, and it was getting dark in the church as well. He could barely see into the back row, and he wondered, what did Cain Lackey, the Meanest Man in Patrick County, think about what he was saying?
The song went on and on, louder and louder. Some were crying in the church, and some were squeezing forward so that Brother Dove and Brother Elgin and all the other Brethren ministers could pray for them. Sometimes they were so weak they could hardly stand. Many people were coming forward.
Brother Dove could see a dark shadow, a silhouette of a man, standing at the back of the church. Cain Lackey was standing, but he could see there was no way Cain Lackey could come forward, even if he wanted to. The church was too packed.
And then he saw something that surprised him. Cain Lackey was standing on top of a church bench. He was holding a little girl in his arms, and she was fast asleep. This person who was supposed to be the worst person in Patrick County had a little girl asleep in his arms, and he was coming forward by walking on top of the church benches.
The other ministers stood back as if they were shocked, but Brother Dove welcomed Cain Lackey, and hugged him very tightly, him and his daughter. Then Brother Dove invited Cain Lackey to kneel while they prayed together. All along, the singing continued.
Then a cool breeze blew in the window, a breeze that brought relief and comfort.
When he was through praying, Brother Dove raised his hands and suddenly everyone was quiet. No one was singing. No one was crying. Everyone was listening.
"Today you have seen a miracle of grace," he said. "God has called this man to do great things. You will be the ones who will see these things. Welcome this man into our church!"
Cain Lackey went on to learn to read and write. He became a minister and built many churches. He was elected to public office and spent tax money to build roads to improve access to rural areas even though it made him unpopular. He worked to provide social services for poor people who had been ignored by other politicians. He smashed stills where he found them. He changed lives. He stayed extraordinarily strong to the end of his days, once lifting a sack full of anvils over his head when he was told -- erroneously -- that another man had done the same. Most of all, he lived a life of grace and service to Jesus Christ.
One of his descendents went on to become a college president. Another became the head of a denominational pension plan. His many descendents proudly told stories of the fellow who was known as the Meanest Man in Patrick County.
Our faith is all about transformation. There's an old saying, "The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree." It's a way of saying that people can't change. But that's not the Christian belief. We believe that fruit can sprout legs and run to Jesus! When Luke wrote his history that we call "The Acts of the Apostles," he lived in a time when biographies were written to show you could never change. If you were great you were born great, grew up great, and stayed great. If you were rotten, you were born rotten, grew up rotten, and stayed rotten.
But Luke's Gospel showed that people could be transformed. The stories of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son demonstrated how love could change attitudes and lives. Jesus invited people to a new relationship with God. And Saul's conversion is the greatest act of transformation -- and kindness -- in the New Testament. It's one of those "if he can change I guess I can change"stories that we need to prove that our gospel truly transforms lives.
Paul must have seemed an unlikely apostle. Luke reminds us that though Paul was not an active participant in the execution of Stephen, he approved of his death. Paul himself recalls elsewhere how he was fervent in persecution, determined to eradicate the Jesus movement by any means possible. In Galatians 1:13 he says that he "violently" laid hands on Christians. Perhaps Luke was reluctant to talk about Paul helping to get Christians executed, but Paul knew what he had done.
In a sense, Paul represents all those people, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and other faiths as well, who kill in the name of God. There have been such people in all times who believe that God is pleased with their killing. In the past, Christians killed other Christians, along with Jews and Muslims, who did not profess the same beliefs, often over minor points of theology that today would seem ridiculous to us.
On the one hand, it's sad to think 2,000 years later, people of faith are killing others in the name of God -- but perhaps Paul's example can give us hope as well -- he was changed by a living Jesus. Others can as well.
That's another part of this scripture that is important. Jesus, who ascended into heaven, is shown to be still risen, still alive, and still active, able to change lives and direct history. Jesus is able to use the same fire that drove Saul to fanatically preserve the purity of his faith to open the doors of that faith to include others. Saul believed that Christians were contaminating the faith he grew up with. Jesus showed him that the circle was going to be widened until the promise given to Abraham -- that all nations would be blessed in his name -- would finally come true.
An encounter with the risen Jesus changed Saul. This personal experience resulted in his loss of sight, then its restoration, and finally a lifelong commitment to the gospel. Surely John Newton was thinking of this when he wrote in his famous hymn, "I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see."
Paul went on to become the prime interpreter of Christianity to the Roman Empire and by extension to all of Christendom even to the present day. Although we know him as Paul, he remained Saul to the end of his days as well. There is a misconception that when Saul was converted, his name was changed to Paul, but he lived in both worlds, had a Jewish and a Greek name, and was comfortable in cosmopolitan settings. After his conversion, he continued to use his Hebrew name Saul until he became active in the larger Roman Empire. And he continued to worship using Jewish practices because they were comfortable for him, even while standing up for others so they could be allowed to retain their ethnic heritage when they became Christian.
That's because there is no one ethnic heritage that is Christian. People of all nationalities, races, and ethnic backgrounds are welcomed into the faith and can retain these backgrounds when they become Christian. Our faith is not an American faith, for instance. It is a faith in Jesus.
Initially, believers were skeptical of this former persecutor. When Paul recovered from his experience with the risen Jesus he began to preach the gospel. The skepticism expressed about Paul's conversion is understandable. Even today, people are suspicious of jailhouse and celebrity conversions. They want to see if they will last.
Fortunately Barnabas, himself a respected Christian leader, stood up for Paul when others were skeptical, even though his own reputation might have been at stake in so doing. As a result, Paul preached until people got angry enough to want to kill him, a sure sign of his effectiveness!
In the same way, people were skeptical of Cain Lackey when he accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, and at first they were not sure they wanted to accept him in their church. But he was patient, attended worship faithfully, learned to read and write, and eventually impressed people so much he was called into the ministry.
When others join our fellowship, we must be ready to stand up for them -- and to give them a little space to grow. We don't welcome a person one week and force them onto the stewards committee the next! But we must be open for the time when new people are ready to join us in the work for Jesus, because if we don't demonstrate to the world that Jesus changes lives, who will?
In the end, this isn't about Saul or Cain Lackey or Barnabas or Brother Dove. Or you. Or me. The real news in the book of Acts always centers on the action of the Spirit. Luke tells us: "Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers" (Acts 9:31). The Spirit of God is alive and active in our midst. The only thing holding the Spirit back is our own skepticism, our own reluctance to accept people, our hardened hearts and closed minds.
After all, if Saul could accept Jesus, if Jesus could use Saul, then perhaps God can even use us. Amen.
Cain Lackey was known as the Meanest Man in Patrick County. He was rough and tough. The year was 1892 and Patrick County, Virginia, was a place of dirt fields and mud roads. There wasn't always enough food. People died because there were no doctors. Some places were almost impossible to get to because of the roads.
For all that, it was still very beautiful. There were the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains, and the music of winding rivers racing over the boulders in their streambeds. In the western part of the county were rich fields and long grasses. There were dairy farms, and orchards so plentiful that the smell of the fruit was like perfume.
Two ministers, Brother Dove and Brother Elgin, were standing at the edge of a swamp. Down below, a tough, wiry man was digging a ditch. Brother Dove was a revival preacher, new in town, and Brother Elgin warned him about the man who was digging: Cain Lackey, the Meanest Man.
Brother Elgin proceeded to tell Brother Dove about Cain Lackey, how he could carry a railroad tie the way most men carried a two-by-four, how he could out-wrestle and out-fight anyone else who'd ever passed through these parts. And he told him about the famous fight against a man known as Champion Ben, who he'd laid low with a single blow, and how it had required twelve men with mule spurs to pull Cain Lackey off the former champion.
Brother Elgin also told him about the man's father, who kept him from school, worked him from dawn to dusk, made him sleep outdoors all summer long, and how Cain had built a working mill by himself at the age of ten.
No one could level another man with his fist like Cain. No one was stronger or meaner.
"Well, he certainly looks like the strongest man in the county,"Brother Dove said, watching the way Cain Lackey thrust his shovel into the swamp, and sent great clouds of mud into the air behind him.
"I'm going to invite him to the revival," Brother Dove said suddenly.
"He'll never come," Brother Elgin said.
"He'll definitely never come if we don't ask him," Brother Dove replied.
Brother Elgin watched as the Brethren minister descended into the swamp. Brother Elgin could see Brother Dove step first ankle deep, then knee deep into the swamp, getting mud and gunk all over him. He watched as Brother Dove stuck out his hand to Cain Lackey. After a moment, Cain took the hand.
A few moments later Brother Dove was walking back to Brother Elgin. Mud clung to his boots and pants.
"What did he say?" Brother Elgin asked. Cain Lackey had already returned to digging. Not much seemed to keep him from work.
"He said he'd come. Is he as good as his word?"
"Yes," came the reply. "If he tells you he'll come he'll be there. He's just that way. He'll do what he tells you. But if he tells you he'll give you a whipping, he'll do that, too."
That night at the revival, the church was full. People had come from miles around to hear Brother Dove. There were young people and old people. There were children and mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, and plenty of babies. All the windows were open, and still it was hot, very hot inside, yet no one left. No one wanted to leave, because when someone like Brother Dove came to preach it was something special, very special.
The songs were the sorts of songs that everyone already knew. A sweaty man in the front of the church moved his arms up and down, right and left, to direct the singing, but everyone already knew the songs. They didn't need songbooks, which was a good thing, as there weren't enough for everyone.
Brother Dove looked out over the congregation, and then he saw, in the doorway of the church, a big man standing. It was Cain Lackey, all right, and he had a child in his arms. He hadn't thought about it, but he now knew that Cain Lackey was married, and had children. There was a darling child in his arms. There was no room for anyone else in the church, but when Cain came in the door, people were afraid of him and made room for him to sit down.
Opening his Bible, Brother Dove began to read, and to talk. It got hotter and hotter in the building, and Brother Dove was dripping with sweat, and so was everyone else. It had gotten dark outside, and it was getting dark in the church as well. He could barely see into the back row, and he wondered, what did Cain Lackey, the Meanest Man in Patrick County, think about what he was saying?
The song went on and on, louder and louder. Some were crying in the church, and some were squeezing forward so that Brother Dove and Brother Elgin and all the other Brethren ministers could pray for them. Sometimes they were so weak they could hardly stand. Many people were coming forward.
Brother Dove could see a dark shadow, a silhouette of a man, standing at the back of the church. Cain Lackey was standing, but he could see there was no way Cain Lackey could come forward, even if he wanted to. The church was too packed.
And then he saw something that surprised him. Cain Lackey was standing on top of a church bench. He was holding a little girl in his arms, and she was fast asleep. This person who was supposed to be the worst person in Patrick County had a little girl asleep in his arms, and he was coming forward by walking on top of the church benches.
The other ministers stood back as if they were shocked, but Brother Dove welcomed Cain Lackey, and hugged him very tightly, him and his daughter. Then Brother Dove invited Cain Lackey to kneel while they prayed together. All along, the singing continued.
Then a cool breeze blew in the window, a breeze that brought relief and comfort.
When he was through praying, Brother Dove raised his hands and suddenly everyone was quiet. No one was singing. No one was crying. Everyone was listening.
"Today you have seen a miracle of grace," he said. "God has called this man to do great things. You will be the ones who will see these things. Welcome this man into our church!"
Cain Lackey went on to learn to read and write. He became a minister and built many churches. He was elected to public office and spent tax money to build roads to improve access to rural areas even though it made him unpopular. He worked to provide social services for poor people who had been ignored by other politicians. He smashed stills where he found them. He changed lives. He stayed extraordinarily strong to the end of his days, once lifting a sack full of anvils over his head when he was told -- erroneously -- that another man had done the same. Most of all, he lived a life of grace and service to Jesus Christ.
One of his descendents went on to become a college president. Another became the head of a denominational pension plan. His many descendents proudly told stories of the fellow who was known as the Meanest Man in Patrick County.
Our faith is all about transformation. There's an old saying, "The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree." It's a way of saying that people can't change. But that's not the Christian belief. We believe that fruit can sprout legs and run to Jesus! When Luke wrote his history that we call "The Acts of the Apostles," he lived in a time when biographies were written to show you could never change. If you were great you were born great, grew up great, and stayed great. If you were rotten, you were born rotten, grew up rotten, and stayed rotten.
But Luke's Gospel showed that people could be transformed. The stories of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son demonstrated how love could change attitudes and lives. Jesus invited people to a new relationship with God. And Saul's conversion is the greatest act of transformation -- and kindness -- in the New Testament. It's one of those "if he can change I guess I can change"stories that we need to prove that our gospel truly transforms lives.
Paul must have seemed an unlikely apostle. Luke reminds us that though Paul was not an active participant in the execution of Stephen, he approved of his death. Paul himself recalls elsewhere how he was fervent in persecution, determined to eradicate the Jesus movement by any means possible. In Galatians 1:13 he says that he "violently" laid hands on Christians. Perhaps Luke was reluctant to talk about Paul helping to get Christians executed, but Paul knew what he had done.
In a sense, Paul represents all those people, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and other faiths as well, who kill in the name of God. There have been such people in all times who believe that God is pleased with their killing. In the past, Christians killed other Christians, along with Jews and Muslims, who did not profess the same beliefs, often over minor points of theology that today would seem ridiculous to us.
On the one hand, it's sad to think 2,000 years later, people of faith are killing others in the name of God -- but perhaps Paul's example can give us hope as well -- he was changed by a living Jesus. Others can as well.
That's another part of this scripture that is important. Jesus, who ascended into heaven, is shown to be still risen, still alive, and still active, able to change lives and direct history. Jesus is able to use the same fire that drove Saul to fanatically preserve the purity of his faith to open the doors of that faith to include others. Saul believed that Christians were contaminating the faith he grew up with. Jesus showed him that the circle was going to be widened until the promise given to Abraham -- that all nations would be blessed in his name -- would finally come true.
An encounter with the risen Jesus changed Saul. This personal experience resulted in his loss of sight, then its restoration, and finally a lifelong commitment to the gospel. Surely John Newton was thinking of this when he wrote in his famous hymn, "I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see."
Paul went on to become the prime interpreter of Christianity to the Roman Empire and by extension to all of Christendom even to the present day. Although we know him as Paul, he remained Saul to the end of his days as well. There is a misconception that when Saul was converted, his name was changed to Paul, but he lived in both worlds, had a Jewish and a Greek name, and was comfortable in cosmopolitan settings. After his conversion, he continued to use his Hebrew name Saul until he became active in the larger Roman Empire. And he continued to worship using Jewish practices because they were comfortable for him, even while standing up for others so they could be allowed to retain their ethnic heritage when they became Christian.
That's because there is no one ethnic heritage that is Christian. People of all nationalities, races, and ethnic backgrounds are welcomed into the faith and can retain these backgrounds when they become Christian. Our faith is not an American faith, for instance. It is a faith in Jesus.
Initially, believers were skeptical of this former persecutor. When Paul recovered from his experience with the risen Jesus he began to preach the gospel. The skepticism expressed about Paul's conversion is understandable. Even today, people are suspicious of jailhouse and celebrity conversions. They want to see if they will last.
Fortunately Barnabas, himself a respected Christian leader, stood up for Paul when others were skeptical, even though his own reputation might have been at stake in so doing. As a result, Paul preached until people got angry enough to want to kill him, a sure sign of his effectiveness!
In the same way, people were skeptical of Cain Lackey when he accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, and at first they were not sure they wanted to accept him in their church. But he was patient, attended worship faithfully, learned to read and write, and eventually impressed people so much he was called into the ministry.
When others join our fellowship, we must be ready to stand up for them -- and to give them a little space to grow. We don't welcome a person one week and force them onto the stewards committee the next! But we must be open for the time when new people are ready to join us in the work for Jesus, because if we don't demonstrate to the world that Jesus changes lives, who will?
In the end, this isn't about Saul or Cain Lackey or Barnabas or Brother Dove. Or you. Or me. The real news in the book of Acts always centers on the action of the Spirit. Luke tells us: "Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers" (Acts 9:31). The Spirit of God is alive and active in our midst. The only thing holding the Spirit back is our own skepticism, our own reluctance to accept people, our hardened hearts and closed minds.
After all, if Saul could accept Jesus, if Jesus could use Saul, then perhaps God can even use us. Amen.
