Let us pray: O God, may the words I speak and the thoughts and actions that they inspire be ones which tell us of your presence with us and the surprising ways in which you call us to be in the world. Amen.

There is perhaps no more iconic story in the Christian scripture than the one that Lorne read for us today. The Damascus Road story is one which inspires many people in the Christian community to tell their own stories of just when and where they became Christian. In some ways and for some people, this is the prototype for their “born again” membership into the body of Christ. Because it is so well known and oft studied it can be difficult to garner new insight from the story. Saul persecuted the Christians. Saul has a scary, blinding encounter on the road to Damascus where he was headed to expand his campaign against the Christians. Saul is blinded for three days while he considers what happened, and then when he “sees the light” he changes his way and changes his name to Paul.

I was feeling that dearth of new perspectives as I considered the passage again this week. “What new insights are there from the story for this time and place”, I was asking.

And then a couple of things happened to stimulate some new thinking about this iconic story.

Last fall, a small group of ministers began meeting on Tuesdays to do some group reflection on the lections for each week. That's one of the positive aspects of following a common lectionary. The same readings are used in different places and different denominations, adding an element of unity across the Christian spectrum. When I came back to work in December we tried unsuccessfully until this week to revive this group bible study – having taken a break because of travel and other reasons preventing us from meeting.

So, despite having tried to get together, as I said, on many occasions since December, we finally achieved that goal this week.

It was an interesting and stimulating discussion as Kirk from across the lobby, and Joey Royal – the fairly recently appointed priest at Holy Trinity Anglican church, and I sat and discussed the readings we heard this morning.

It only takes some mildly divergent views on the Easter story to generate a good discussion and such was the case this week. Now that may sound like it was also a heated discussion, but far from that it was very respectful and I think a discussion that showed openness to different ways of seeing.

Now, I could have taken any of a number of ideas that were discussed in our lectionary conversation, and as Kirk said in the conversation the gospel story was good for a whole month of sermons.

By Friday, with the conversation still reasonably fresh in my mind, I was trying to decide just what message God was inviting me to reflect upon. Inspired by the different perspectives we had discussed, instead of finding the story of the conversion of Paul to be devoid of new ideas, it was actually too full of new things to consider. Isn't that the way scripture always is. Just when you think you have mined the depth and bread of any particular story or passage – something new pops up to consider and take you in new directions.

And then I looked at the resource I use in various degrees in my preparation for worship each week. Staring back at me from the page that offers background reflection on the passages for each week was an invitation to think about Ananias.

Despite reading the passage several times and yes, finding new things to think about, especially inspired by the discussion we had on Tuesday, I had almost completely overlooked Ananias, just as I had done on any number of other times that I've read the story of Saul becoming Paul over the years of my life.

But the gospel is always about unexpected news. It's always about considering the new insight, the unexpected perspective, the back story, a reading between the lines.

And despite all that we talked about on Tuesday, and all the times I read that passage this week I had not given the place of Ananias in the story much more than a passing consideration.

But for me in this time and this place – it is the story of Ananias that calls for more consideration. Think about it. I think we are naturally drawn to focus on Saul/Paul and the voice he was hearing when he was stopped short on that treacherous journey to Damascus, but the real courage in the story is exemplified by Ananias.

Ananias hears the voice of the Master as well. And just imagine what that must have been like for him. Saul was well known as a persecutor of the Christian community. Perhaps the community was waiting with trepidation to see what would happen next. Maybe they knew about this trip to Damascus and Saul's intention to spread the fear further and wider. We might well imagine that many members of the nascent Christian church would be more likely to go into hiding than to confront this enemy Saul. But Ananias is called out of his fear and hesitancy to go and seek out this man Saul.

And so in this time and place – the gospel for me is not about Saul turning to become one of the most important apologists for the Christian faith, it is not about a sudden change of mind and heart. These have gospel messages in them, for sure, but it is, and as I said already, it always is, the gospel is not only good news – it is unexpected news – it is finding the presence of God in the most unlikely of places, in the most unlikely of people. It is always about taking a different perspective.

The challenge for us of course is to take this message into our everyday lives. Who is overlooked in our own context? What situations are inviting us to think again? Who are the Ananiases that we meet? Can we name people showing extraordinary courage, people facing unusual challenges, people answering the call of God despite what they feel might be the consequences?

If you follow the story of Jesus - pre and post Easter – it is most often a story of the one that was overlooked. A baby born to an overlooked woman in an overlooked place under circumstances remarkable only for how plain and unlikely they were. An itinerant preacher who kept saying that the last shall be first and who kept telling stories that showed that God's way was always different from the common way and when asked questions that were meant to catch him up, he responded with with wise and unexpected answers that always put forward a new and often unconsidered perspective.

Such is the one we follow. We are Easter people following an unexpectedly risen Christ – and that risen Christ appears to us in ways that can never be predicted except to say that it will be unpredictable and that can never be completely explained except to say that it will lead us to an understanding that the good news is always unexpected news.

Thanks be to Ananias who surmounted his fear and had the courage to confront the one who posed a great threat – and discovered that unexpected things can happen. Thanks be to God for the surprise and wonder of unexpected news. May we always be open to the path that news will lead us to follow. Amen.