Acts 15:22-44: Unity and Division (Tuesday's Reading!)

The Ministry of Validation

The Jerusalem Council agrees to send a letter to the church in Antioch countering the extremism of the Judaizers. It is a letter to the Gentiles only. It speaks glowingly of Paul and Barnabas and their sacrifice for Christ. We are also introduced to the next character that will play a major role in the spread of the gospel, Silas. When I was pastor at Trinity-First United Methodist Church in El Paso, because we were the first Protestant Church in El Paso, we had high respect among the Methodists in Juarez and in the North Mexico Conference (based in Chihuahua). I would go to Juarez for special occasions and our endorsement of their emerging ministries was very important to them. The endorsement of the Gentiles in Antioch by Jerusalem was huge. I have learned that the ministry of validation is important. Children, despite saying otherwise, need the validation of their parents as do spouses of each other. Young adults need the validation of older adults in the church and new initiatives need the validation of those who have been in the church awhile. One criticism of some churches is that they are so prone to do things the way they have always been done that they inadvertently “eat their young” (starving new initiatives and squashing new leadership). As the United Methodist Church raises up new leaders (one of four major priorities of our denomination), we will need to strengthen our guidance and validation.

Two Becomes Four

Having settled things in Jerusalem and Antioch, Paul is ready to go on his second journey. The main agenda will be to return to the churches they have already established. That will not happen. But a major rift now happens in the leadership. Barnabas wants to take Mark on the trip (always the one wanting to develop others in ministry) but Paul is still smarting from Mark deserting them on the first journey. A complicating factor may be that Mark and Barnabas are relatives. Paul ends up going with Silas from then on and Barnabas and Mark go on to Cyprus. The Cyprus venture became quite successful, according to tradition. Barnabas is the patron saint of the church in Cyprus. But the book of Acts never mentions Barnabas or John Mark again.

One of the characteristics of the USAmerican Church is that has grown mainly by division. There are more than 60 kinds of Methodist denominations and 300 kinds of Baptist denominations in the United States alone. Because of Paul’s dispute with Barnabas, the church grows west and south. In the last church I served, the congregation went through a church split. It was deeply painful with heavy casualties. Yet the gospel spread in ways that it would not have otherwise. I would much rather that churches choose to split for expanding the mission rather than out of personal disagreements (because of the casualties). The fact that the gospel grew even as a result of personally motivated splits shows that God can work even in spite of us.

We now move to the letter to the Galatians, the earliest and most volatile of Paul’s letters.