Plattenbau Paul -- FPC sermon excerpt

Prefabricated concrete slabs.

I’ll bet you’ve never heard a message about prefabricated concrete slabs. But you know — there’s a first for everything.

These were the preferred building materials in East Germany, beginning in the 1960s. This communist country faced a severe housing shortage, so concrete slabs were used to build shoebox-shaped residential apartments in a quick and economical way. The advantage of these slabs was that they could be used as the building blocks of a variety of structures, from high-rise towers to rows of low-rise apartments.

The buildings were called “plattenbau.”

Literally, slab-building.

After East Germany and West Germany reunited, the demand for these ugly apartment buildings began to drop, and there are now about a million unoccupied units. While many plattenbau apartments are being renovated to meet a demand for more attractive housing, others are being torn down, and still others are falling apart.

All of a sudden, two young architects enter the scene — the Biele brothers.

According to Fast Company magazine (September 2006), these two are looking at the plattenbau apartments and seeing more than just the dwindling remains of communist culture. They are seeing raw materials.

These brothers are taking the concrete blocks from demolished apartments and recycling them into single-family homes. They get the slabs for nothing, and then their workers bolt the plates together, cut out windows, and put a finish on the exterior. These recycled slabs allow for construction savings of up to 40 percent.

Talk of the “communist bloc” is now ancient history. The buzz today is all about “concrete blocks.”

I am taking the time to tell you about these blocks because they relate to Acts 9. The story of Saul’s conversion takes on a new look when it is seen through the lens of this recycling effort. Saul is as solid and strong as a plattenbau apartment when he takes a stand against the Christians of Damascus — he is “a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6).

Saul stands tall against members of “the Way” — Jews who have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. He hits the road for Damascus, “breathing threats and murder” against these brand new Christians, and pledges to capture them, tie them up, and cart them back to Jerusalem for trial (Acts 9:1-2).

But a surprising thing happens on the road to Damascus. A light from heaven flashes around Saul, and he falls to the ground, like a high-rise plattenbau apartment building being demolished.

A voice says to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asks, “Who are you, Lord?” … and the reply comes, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (vv. 4-5).

At this point, you might expect Saul to be pulverized. After all, he is a persecutor of the church, one who has endorsed the killing of Stephen and engaged in “ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, [committing] them to prison” (8:1-3).

You wouldn’t blame Jesus for sending Saul to the scrap heap.

But instead, he recycles him.