My Award Winning Sermon

Acts 26:1-24 NRS Acts 26:1 Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself: 2 "I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews; therefore I beg of you to listen to me patiently. 4 "All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem. 5 They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee. 6 And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors, 7 a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, your Excellency, that I am accused by Jews! 8 Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? 9 "Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death. 11 By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities. 12 "With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13 when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. 14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.' 15 I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' The Lord answered, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. 17 I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles-- to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' 19 "After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance. 21 For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. 22 To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place: 23 that the Messiah must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles." 24 While he was making this defense, Festus exclaimed, "You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!"

Much learning has driven you mad. All the little letters have accumulated in your head until your brain is clogged and now you’re disoriented. I know that I’m a little shaken myself. I don’t think I can stand right now. I haven’t even started drinking but I could use one now. You know a little lubrication of the gyroscope and I’ll be right as rain. But you Paul, seriously, the mid-day sun has effected you. I know a cool place you could go. We could all go there now and get a fine porter or ale. I’ll buy. They know me at this place and know that I’m good for it. It’d be a fine respite from our troubles and now I’m thinking you’re the most troubled of us all. I didn’t know. But come and we’ll talk in a more convivial circumstance and get you back out on the street in no time. This is what I do. I do this for people. That’s how you get to be procurator. Not by knowing too much and – really – not by doing too much. Yet here I am and there you are. Chained and knowing too much. All the words and all the letters zooming in at once.
And what do I wish to say, “that little learning has kept me sane?” Well if you must know, I don’t do more than I need. I read and know what I need to know. Although in truth, it’s not that I don’t know nothing. I did pass the procurator’s exam: laugh at the right times and voice assent without hesitation. I have been educated. I know some passage is from Livy and another from Horace. I know my Aneid too.
Where was I? Yes, Much learning has driven you mad. The letters and words approaching an interchange in your head are jammed together and unable to exit. Like some great circular highway, filled with vehicles, there is no stopping off place. That is, I’ve not followed you. You’ve left me dizzy with your talk of messiahs and resurrections. It’s not incredible that God should raise the dead, to me, but that God should care. Why should I care that God should care? Should it matter to me that the world was created good and that the creator still creates goodness – though frankly what I see is pretty crappy It doesn’t take much learning to see that we’re living in a desert and that enough people here are more concerned about killing those they disagree with than improving the living conditions of a desert. I know for instance that a cool place to talk and have a drink would help us all here.
Did you say that we must turn from darkness to light? From the power of Satan to the power of God? That we should have faith in this dead man, Jesus? See this is where I fall off. I can’t see how faith in this man, (Jesus?) will make a difference for me. But I can see that it’s put you in chains. That’s how I know that you’re mad. It’s the desert and this word heavy culture, all these people with their books and history, fighting to do what? To continue living on a rock in the desert by a still stream. No one here is disobedient to a heavenly vision – would that they were.
Much learning is driving mad. Madly driving you and all these people. And what can I say, that if you try to keep the learning down, you might do something more practical than having heavenly visions. I have no doubt that heavenly visions are occurring right now and that if I knew too much I might feel compelled to obey one. But let me tell you that ignorance, when properly applied, is a good and powerful thing. A bush is still burning in the desert but I don’t want to know it. Let me stupidly gaze at this bright light and then continue on my journeyings.
What I want to say is that much learning is getting you killed. Doesn’t that drive you mad? Heavenly visions; history; salvation: Wouldn’t it be nice to build a home, tend a garden, father a family? You don’t have to know much to be like the rest of us. Disobey the heavenly vision a bit. It gets easier each day – I imagine. Soon you’ll be walking down the street having conversations about the weather and wishing people a nice day. You won’t be here, chained, mad.
Great, learning is driving you mad and me a little tipsy. Did you see the apple orchards on the hillside north of here? They’re blooming and full. Is there nothing more beautiful than hills covered in olive groves? I turn a corner and see the chalky white blocks of houses and villages, sheep herded along the road, and I think: What’s to know? We’re in a quiet corner of the empire, far enough away that government doesn’t bother us, but not so far away that we’re not protected. Imagine there’s no Satan and no God. A little ignorance and we’re cozy. Snug.
Ignorance, quiet, pacific, assuring, holds me safe. I see no vision. I work for no historical outcome. I neither obey nor disobey and the faith I have is in my position and that in a few minutes I’ll have a drink and you can walk out with me and Agrippa here and we’ll be right as rain, unchained. We can know what we know, but why more. And we’ll not talk of dead men walking among us or of Satan and God possessing us and we’ll just worship the night and day that surround us. See no madness, no troubling of the waters.
Paul, why are you mad for this Jesus? Haven’t you learned from your experience and what I’ve told you that things could be better for you? You won’t see Caesar and you won’t lose your head. You’ll see the sunrise and the nightfall. You’ll see the olives grow, pressed and flowing, bread dipped and eaten in the shade.
Let’s say I heard you. I’d be mad for sure. Would I suddenly feed the hungry and help the poor? The empire wouldn’t tolerate a population of well-fed poor people. We have to keep our insurrectionists few and ill fed, not add to their numbers. When the hope of a people is no hope, peace reigns. This is the peace we enjoy: We eat and enjoy our selves without being bothered or fearing for our lives. So you see: The very hope of people without food or clothing, who sleep in fear of the rain and the open road, is to not have hope. Would this dead man, Jesus, save me when they rose up in arms demanding a place to live and sleep safely, when suddenly well-fed and clothed they began demanding rights?
I’m sorry I can’t hear you. I’m mad for safety. I see you’ll go on and I’ll stay here. Your great learning drives you madly. You won’t take a break from Jesus. You’ll obey a bright light and voice that met you in the desert. This dead man’s way will be your death. And his life? If I could have faith in such a life. But then I wouldn’t be a procurator. I wouldn’t be sitting with kings and having some lamb and greens afterwards. The dates here are marvelous.You won’t find them where you’re going.