Sermon for June 5th, 2016

Acts 15:36-41

36After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Come, let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work. 39The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company; Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. 40But Paul chose Silas and set out, the believers commending him to the grace of the Lord. 41He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

First Church: They Parted Company

Today's sermon is about breaking up, something which I've heard is hard to do. It's so hard to do that even when a relationship comes to that point where breaking up is absolutely necessary, we still don't want to do it. We end relationships with letters, text messages, or no messages at all in attempt to avoid the pain of confrontation. We come up with tired and shallow cliches to try to smooth over that pain--It's not you, it's me. This is for the best, really. We can still be friends.

I know this is probably nearly impossible for any of you to imagine, but I myself have been on the receiving end of some of these lines, perhaps more than a few times in my life. In fact, I think that, before Amy finally agreed to marry me (which was only 9.5 years after the first time I proposed to her) I was beginning to become somewhat of an expert judge of bad breakup lines. And so with that expertise, I thought I'd share a few really bad, really classic ones with you today:

• It's not you, sweetheart, it's me...and my absolutely horrible taste in men.
• Darling, I think you are just perfect...for anyone else but me.
• You know, I was utterly lost before you found me. And I've decided I kind of liked it better that way.
• I think maybe we should start annoying other people.
• There are too many religious differences between us...you believe you're God, and I don't.
• I'm sure you'll make someone else very happy...for about three weeks before they get to know you.
• Do you remember the first time we met? Of course you do. You would tell me about it every chance you had. Over and over and over. You would tell me how I took your breath away, how my smile captivated you, how beautiful I looked in that yellow shirt. But here's the thing: I don't own a yellow shirt. I never have. And that is why we're breaking up.

Just last week, we heard about the coming together of Barnabas and Paul--the great power duo of the New Testament. Some of you might be a little confused to seem them splitting up just one week later. In reality, the space between last week's scripture passage and todays spans five chapters and about fifteen years. I wish we had time to cover all of the miraculous things Paul and Barnabas did together, all the places they traveled together, and all the churches they planted throughout the Roman Empire.

But if we went at that pace, I'd still be preaching from Acts through summer, fall, and into the next year. Instead, my hope is to stir up your interest with some key stories from Acts, enticing you to read it in greater depth on your own. And so when it comes to the story of Paul and Barnabas, we get the bookends: Last week, the story of how their partnership, their ministry came together; and this week the story of how it came to an end.

Make no mistake, this is an important story, and I think there's a lot for us to learn from it. In our life as a church, and in our lives as individuals, from time to time we have conflicts and disagreements. People come into our lives for a season, and then they leave, sometimes on good terms, and sometimes not so much. As I said earlier, breaking up is hard to do. But sometimes (not always!) it's the right thing to do, for the sake of our integrity, our faithfulness to God's calling, and our witness to the world.

First, let's unpack this story a little bit, the story of Paul and Barnabas as they part ways. It's a short story, just six brief verses compared to the hundreds they occupied together before this point. At the outset, Paul and Barnabas are united in their overall purpose: "Let us return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing." No disagreement at the 500 foot level. But as often happens, it's when we get to the particulars, the details, that the division appears.

Verses 37 and 38: "Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul decided not to take with them one who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not accompanied them in the work."

Who is John called Mark, and why does he have the misfortune of being the guy who split up the dream team, the Yoko Ono of the ancient world? Well, to be honest, we don't really know. These two names occur in other places in Acts and the New Testament, but we're not really even certain it's all the same person. John is the most common name in 1st century Hebrew culture, and Mark is the most common Roman name. It's kind of like walking into a bar somewhere in Arkansas and asking if anyone knows Billy Bob.

But just from this passage, we know Paul's objection: John Mark set out with them on one of their trips, but for whatever reason left them at a critical point. Paul doesn't trust John Mark, but Barnabas is willing to give him another chance.

That's not surprising, when you remember that Barnabas is the one person among all the apostles who was willing to take a chance on Paul himself, the persecutor of Christians turned convert.