Title: Moving Through Conflict

Date: 2007-10-14

Reference: Acts. 15: 36-41

The Book of Acts records the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas as being a great success. They traveled from Cyprus up into Asia Minor and then back to Antioch sharing the Gospel. They begin to make bold plans for the future. Then something happens that shows us the very human nature of the church. Paul said to Barnabas: “Let’s go back and visit the Lord’s followers in the cities where we preached his message. Then we will know how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take along John Mark, Paul did not. Paul and Barnabas argued and each of them went his own way.

John Mark was with Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. He was a young man during the time of Jesus’ life. He is also the cousin of Barnabas. Much later John Mark joins Peter, goes to Rome and becomes Peter’s assistant. This is the man who writes the Gospel of Mark. Mark eventually becomes a great friend to Paul and ministers to Paul in Prison. In his second letter to Timothy Paul pays great tribute to this man John Mark.

But at this point, Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them and Paul thought it best not to take with them one who had left them high and dry and had not finished the job. Half way through the first missionary journey when the pressures were building, and they were being persecuted and chased from city to city.for some reason Mark decided to leave. He went back to Antioch. This did not sit well with Paul and he didn’t want to take Mark with them on another trip. “After all” said Paul, “he quit on us the first time.”

The Bible says “there arose a sharp contention, a disagreement, so they separated from each other.” Barnabas took Mark and sailed away to Cyprus. Paul chose Silas who became his companion for the rest of the book of Acts.

In the midst of their success, these two leaders and the whole church experienced conflict. Paul doesn’t want Mark because Mark had let him down. Barnabas seems more graceful, more willing to forgive. What about nepotism? Is Barnabas being generous or just looking out for a young cousin? Here is recorded a sharp controversy, a division in the church.

Such conflicts have led many to declare “I love the faith, but I don’t like the institution.” In a conversation with a clergy colleague he said “I am becoming so disillusioned with the church” meaning of course the people who compose the church.

Recently I was meeting with a bereaved family who had absolutely no ties with any church. They felt it necessary to explain saying.”We just don’t like all that goes on in the church.” They were quick to note they didn’t have anything against God, they just didn’t care for the church. The church was not as perfect as they thought it should be. That is true. The Church is not perfect. And that is also a good thing. If the church was perfect, most of us would not qualify for membership. Many people who have turned away from the church have experienced conflict in the church at some time.

We all feel the church is the last place where conflict should exist. We should not be surprised at the presence of conflict. The church is composed of human beings. Even though we are called to be the Body of Christ in the world around us.we still operate as a human institution. Our staffing committee has been working with an evaluation the Annual Conference asked us to use. A the end of the day we discovered.First United Methodist Church is not a perfect church. We have room for improvement. That shouldn’t surprise anyone of us. The results would be the same in any congregation.

There will never be a perfect church because the world and the people in the world are not perfect. We are flawed. If we were perfect we wouldn’t need the massage and ministry of the church in the first place. Whenever two or three gather together there will be Christ and there will be conflict. There are similar dynamics in every human institution.in the lodge, the service club, the neighborhood, in the family. Whenever and wherever strong willed people gather there will be conflict. What sets the church apart is not the absence of conflict, rather how we deal with conflict.

Sometimes we look back to the first century church in a very nostalgic way. But as we have seen in today’s lesson even they had conflict. We learn from their experience. I think it’s very healthy that Luke mentions this conflict between Paul and Barnabas in the first place. He puts the conflict right out in the open which is a gift to us. Luke is writing a historical document in which he portrays even the warts in the early church.

The Church at Antioch, in dealing with this conflict between Paul and Barnabas, gives every church an example of how to disagree agreeably. They kept the controversy focused on just what it was.an honest difference between two co-workers. An honest disagreement as to whether John Mark should join them on the second journey or not. The church didn’t enlarge the conflict.

It’s not always a bad thing for a church or a family to have an argument. The argument doesn’t always do the harm.

The harm is done when the argument gets out of focus. When a simple disagreement becomes more significant than it really is. When that happens in a family, an office or in a church harm takes place.

Though the controversy between these two men was sharp the church handled it well. They faced it for what it was. They did not make more of it than it deserved. They decided to move on. They decided to continue the ministry. The church should always try and keep the main thing the main thing. Our main task is to share Christ.

The early church commissioned both of these talented men to go out in mission. Barnabas was to go to Cyprus and Paul to Lystra. The advice was.”Maybe you won’t meet for a while. By the time you meet again you’ll be friend again. That is exactly what happened. The church at Antioch handled it correctly. We can learn from them. We need to learn to keep minor things minor and let major things stay major and to know the difference between the two.

The Holy Spirit was willing to work through this whole episode. Barnabas and his cousin John Mark go off to Cyprus. Paul and his friend Silas, later joined by Timothy and Luke go off to Europe. God honors both of them and God doesn’t seem to be as upset over the fight at Antioch as we are. The holy spirit continues to use their ministries.

Grace reminds us we have all sinned. No one of us is Righteous, the Bible reminds us, not a single one of us. We all make mistakes. We all fail. We all sin. God is willing, ready, and able to forgive us and to work through us. The church is like a hospital and sick people are supposed to be getting well here. You cannot blame the church for having sick people in it.

If it doesn’t have sick people in it, it’s not the church. Of course, we are all supposed to be getting well. We all need the message of forgiveness. Even Paul and Barnabas needed it.

We sometimes are Christians in spite of the church. We must never allow our disillusionment with the church to affect our relationship with God. Loren Mead the founder of the Alban Institute once said: “There is no fight like a church fight. A church fight makes a political campaign seem like a beanbag. We know life is full of conflict. There are people who make their living helping resolve conflict. Some people draw tremendous amounts of energy from conflict. Conflict is a part of life unfortunately. Global, national, regional, family conflicts. We sometimes find ourselves conflicted. Ideally the church should be the very last place where conflict should reside.

We must allow the Holy Spirit to walk us through conflict at every level. We must trust the spirit to guide us and to help us learn from conflict. As we agree to disagree over certain things we keep the main thing the main thing. Sharing Christ with the world around us. In the church we should never, ever expect perfection from others. A perfection we ourselves cannot attain. In the church we always have so much more in common than that which would divide us.

Conflict is a part of life. In life, it’s not a matter of if and when there will be conflict. Rather the issue for us is how we will deal with conflict when it arises. Out of conflict comes new beginnings. By the grace of God and the leading of the spirit we will always make it through conflict.

Whether we are facing conflict in our hearts, at home, in the work place, in the neighborhood or even in the church.we trust God to walk us through it and to help us learn from it. We never want to seem self righteous as we disagree with someone else. Who knows, they may be right? From conflict we experience new beginnings.