“The Fall of Saul”: a sermon for the SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST (22 JUNE 2025)

A “ruined” life. A “kindred spirit” for me in my struggle to better understand and articulate “the gospel” is Rich Mullins (1955-97) , who was not a theologian , but rather a singer/songwriter who wrote, among dozens of others, the song “Awesome God”. Rich suffered a tremendous amount of spiritual and emotional anguish during his not quite 42-years-long life. And yet, +20 years after his death, Rich is still having a tremendous impact on people though his writings and especially through his music. The purposes of God continue to go forward in spite of – no, scratch that – because of all of Rich’s pain. Brennan Manning (1934-2013), an evangelist and a close friend of Rich’s, said this about him: “ Jesus of Nazareth ruined Rich Mullins’s life . And out of the ruins he recreated a ragamuffin of startling originality; no human being who has crossed my path even remotely resembles him”. [1] Th...