I’ve never eaten at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. I’ve heard all about the good homestyle food, all about the rockers on the front porch but I’ve never stepped inside. In fact I would often fume when my family members driving on their way to some destination or another stopped in and ate at Cracker Barrel.

Why? Because In 1991, Cracker Barrel instituted a policy requiring employees to display "normal heterosexual values which have been the foundation of families in our society.” (wikipedia.org) For years Cracker Barrel management was notorious for persecuting gays and lesbians, firing them without cause, and harassing them at work "

And so I boycotted Cracker Barrel just like I boycotted Denny’s restaurants in the 80’s and 90’s for their blatant racism against employees and customers.

But then in 2002, Cracker Barrel made sea change.  Shareholders voted to overturn the policy and the Board of Directors added sexual orientation to the non-discrimination policy.  The restaurant management made a change, a big one.  Yet I still will not go to Cracker Barrel. Why not? If the company went through all this effort shouldn’t I reward them? They certainly got enough flack from those who thought change was wrong. Shouldn’t I give them my business, even promote them, for this?

Perhaps I am still mad about what went on before, the articles I read about harassment and those who were fired while they worked there. Perhaps I have not forgiven the restaurant chain.  Perhaps a teeny bit afraid: have they really changed? Is my family really welcome there? When I look at the scores they get from the Human Rights Campaign corporate index they receive the lowest points possible. (hrc.org) Maybe that’s it. Or maybe I just don’t want to take a chance on a bad experience and so write off the restaurant for good.

Given that, it’s a good thing that God called Ananias to be the one to go and minister to Saul in today’s Acts text. Because if God had called me, I’d have still left Saul, blind and terrified, stuck in a room all by himself. No way, God. Saul can rot for all I care.

Much is made over Saul’s conversion story. It is dramatic. Here is Saul, the feared zealot who has personally ordered the death of Christians and watched them die. Saul who breathes threats and murder. Yikes.

And then there is a flashing light, a voice from heaven, Saul falls onto the road, struck blind. Then Saul becomes the greatest proponent of Christianity and starts churches everywhere becoming an itinerant preacher, teacher and mediator in Christi’s name.

Wow, it’s a big story.

But in many ways I think it is Ananias who is the real hero of the story. Ananias has the other conversion. God sends Ananias to get Saul; despite great fear, he goes to get his worst enemy. Then Ananias does not take advantage of Saul in this humbled, hurting state, but lays hands on him, prays for him, calls him “brother” and heals him. Now Saul can see. Which is surely bad news for Ananias because now Saul knows who he is, has seen him. Will Ananias be safe? And then Ananias takes Saul to the disciples who are also understandably terrified.

What does God ask of us when we are asked to believe another’s conversion, not only believe, but participate in the restitution of a person to a community they have damaged? What does God ask of us to walk into the very lion’s den?

The threat was very real. Earlier in the book of Acts we read about stoning of Stephen. Saul stood by and held the clothes. That seems mildly ridiculous to us—he held the clothes. But actually it was a sign of status. Saul did not himself have to get his hands dirty. He gave the orders. Others took off their outer garments—stoning someone to death is messy, gory business after all—and Saul stood and watched, supervised, and kept an eye on the clothes. Stoning was a huge public event, and a big crowd would have gathered to watch so you didn’t want the clothes to get stolen. And Saul standing there would have been the figure of authority, presence, even the voice of God/agent of God. So powerful he didn’t even have to lift a stone.

This is who Ananias, a nobody, has to go see. Not only see—because Ananias didn’t just rush in, blurt out the message and leave-- no, go and minister to, lay hands on and heal.

One thing that is clear about Ananias is that he has a strong faith, a humble and genuine faith. When Jesus calls to Saul, Saul has no idea who is talking. When Jesus calls to Ananias, Ananias says, “yes, Lord?” Ananias knows the voice of Christ. It’s a voice Saul has not been open to hearing before. It’s a voice that Ananias has heard before. “Yes, Lord, what is it?”

Ananias’ faith also is strong enough that he questions what is being asked of him. Jesus, you really mean to go to Saul, the one who has been killing us. You want me to go to him? Is it safe? Are you crazy? You want me for this job? And with assurances he goes, not without fear and trembling I’m sure.

Ananias finds Saul is praying in a room by himself, not eating, all alone. His world has been shattered. It takes Ananias to heal his lack of sight. But Ananias heals him in a more important way, by offering himself, a companion, to Saul at his most vulnerable and needy. Ananias says “come with me” and walks with him and introduces him to the disciples at Damascus, which then becomes the community of faith in which Saul first grows and learns and becomes a disciple himself.

(note about name change: I have often thought that the conversion of Saul led to his name change to Paul, a concrete reminder of the change of who he was to who he became. In researching I learned this is not the case but that “at the time, Jews often had two names: a Semitic one (“Saul”, v. 1) and a Roman or Greek one (Paul).” (Chris Haslam, montrealanglican.org)

Saul has been redirected, struck with the message of Jesus, and now plunges into a new life.

And what of Ananias?

We only hear of Ananias one other time in our New Testament, when later in Acts Saul, called Paul is speaking and relates again the story of his conversion and his visitation by Ananias. Paul calls Ananias “a devout man according to the law and well spoken of by all the Jews living there in Damascus… who then tells Paul to ‘witness to what you have seen and heard. Why do you delay? Get up, be baptized and have your sins washed away, calling on Jesus’ name.’”  Paul gives Ananias a bit more oomph and power than we see in our story of this fairly humble, regular man trying to regain enough composure to carry out his task.

If Saul’s conversion strikes us for it explosive, dynamic narrative, Ananias’s conversion is powerful in a different way. It shows an ordinary man, faithful, doing an extraordinary thing, and bringing about healing to an individual who then in turn brought so much of the early Christian churches and movement to life. Just think without Saul/Paul, there would be no churches in Ephesus, Phillipi, and Galatea, and the ones in Rome and Corinth would have probably dissolved due to arguments and strife.

But….. without Ananias, there would have been no Paul.

This week I learned the story of Johnny Lee Clary. Clary had a difficult life growing up. His father committed suicide in front of him. The family shattered and his mother kicked him out leaving Clary homeless at age 14. Seeking community and something to belong to, Clary was drawn to the message and family of the Ku Klux Klan. Nurtured by clansman who brought Clary into the KKK, he rose through the ranks, first over region, then the state of Oklahoma, then, after serving as bodyguard to David Duke, eventually, became the Grand Wizard, head of the entire KKK.

Clary tells a story about being invited to a radio debate in 1979 with the Rev. Wade Watts, a leader of the NAACP who had worked with Dr. King. Clary was taken off guard when instead of his exaggerated stereotype of an African American militant, a man with a big afro, dashiki, boom box, telling him that hated all honkies and crackers and was going to kill him, in walked Rev. Wade Watts, an older gentleman in a suit and tie, carrying a Bible. Watts said, “Hello Mr. Clary, I’m Rev. Wade Watts and I just want to tell you that I love you and Jesus loves you.”  Watts stretched out his hand and in his daze Clary shakes it, then realizing he just broke a Clan rule—the physical touch of a black man is pollution--jerked his hand back and looked at it. Watts said, “don’t worry Johnny, it doesn’t come off.”

Clary started calling Wade names, on and on. But Wade said, “God bless you Johnny. You can’t do enough to me to make me hate you I’m going to love you. And I’m going to pray for you whether you like it or not.”

Clary made it his mission to drive Watts out of town. He gathered clansmen and Watts called names outside his house. They threw trash on lawn. They got no response.

On night they came to Watts’ house in Klan outfits and yelled, “get on out here we’ve got something for you.” Watts came outside and said, “Boys, Halloween is four more months away, I don’t have any treats for you. Come back in October.”  They then burned a cross across the street from house. Watts came out and said “do you need hot dogs and marshmallows for your barbeque?”

Finally, Clary decided to burn down Watts’ church. After the fire was out, Clary called up Wats and disguised his voice. “Hey, boy, you better be afraid, we’re coming to get you, boy. You don’t know who we are but we know who you are.”

Watts said, “Hello Johnny. A man like you takes the time to call me.  I’m so honored. Let me do something here…. Dear Lord, please forgive Johnny for being so stupid. He doesn’t mean to be so ornery. He’s a good boy trying to get out somewhere….” Clary hung up, flummoxed.

One day when the Klan was watching him, Watts went into restaurant and sat down to a chicken dinner. Clary and thirty of his clansmen surrounded him. Clary said, “Hey boy, this restaurant is for white people only. We don’t want you here. I promise you that we are going to do the same thing to do that you do to that chicken. So you think real hard before you touch that chicken.”

Watts looked at Johnny and he looked at the Klan and he picked up the chicken and kissed it.  The whole restaurant started laughing, even the Klan was laughing. Clary took them outside and yelled at them and then someone drove by and honked and it was Rev. Watts who waved and said, “bye Johnny.”

Clary and his group never bothered Watts again, and, as Clary tells it, that was how one old black man defeated the entire KKK, because he used this brain instead of brawn, and he used his heart, a very brave man.

But the story doesn’t stop there. Clary continued in his Klan work. He tried uniting all the white power groups together and created a firestorm of in fighting and mistrust. Finally, he himself stepped down from leadership and was ostracized. He decided to take the same route his father did and commit suicide. Before he did, he picked up a Bible looking for forgiveness for his intended act. And he kept reading and kept reading and after that long night had a conversion experience and became a Christian.

He moved on in life and the next few years were good. He was accepted into a church. He was given another chance. He decided he would change his name and really leave his past behind him. By chance that day he was watching the news and saw that a huge white power Klan rally was going on in the city. He watched and saw all the young people and was grieved. He said to God, “Lord, you need to send someone to care for those young ones and turn them in the right direction. Lord, you need to send someone. Lord, you need to send someone to minister to them. Lord…..”

And then Clary realized who God needed to send.

Back into the lion’s den, now deemed a traitor and more hated than any person of color, Clary reached out to the youth of the Klan. Clary now does anti-racism training, speaking engagements and multicultural presentations full time. He sees it as his life’s work, his ministry.  (YouTube, JohnnyLeeClary, Choices;  YouTube JohnnyLeeClary, EntertainmentonABC, Enough Rope)

As dramatic as his Clary’s conversion to leave the Klan, it was his second conversion if you will, the willingness to accept the call to walk back into a situation of hate and loss, that has made the difference. Clary, as a stand in for the apostle Paul, was ministered to by Rev. Watts serving as Ananias. And then Clary became Ananias himself in his work to heal racial hatred.

We will not all see flashes of light and the voice of God calling us to follow. But I think we all will face situations where we are asked to walk with fear and trembling into places of trouble and challenge. We will all face difficult choices where the faithful path is one that takes all the courage we have and all our reliance on Christ. Will we dare to be as brave as Ananias?

Amen.