Good Morning! May God’s blessings abound in your life so that YOU notice them!
Today’s epistle lesson made me wonder if Paul was really a Presbyterian. He was a Pharisee, that we know for sure. Maybe it’s just that too many Presbyterians remind me of Pharisees. Or perhaps it’s just that Paul – like all of us – was human. Redeemed and chosen, but still human.
Something happened between Paul and one of the disciples named John Mark. Paul wanted to go on a journey to revisit some of the churches he had founded or nurtured, and he wanted his old friend Barnabas to go with him. Barnabas wanted to go but he wanted to bring John Mark along with them. Apparently they had quite a heated argument about John Mark: “The disagreement became so sharp that they [i.e., Paul and his old friend Barnabas] parted company.”
When it came to preaching the Gospel, one could argue that Paul was the ultimate accomodationist. He would bend over backwards to put the Gospel in terms that the hearers could relate to, later invoking pagan gods when in Athens (“For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. [Acts 17:23]” He was ready to make all sorts of linguistic compromises if it helped to spread the Gospel message.
On the other hand, he seemed to view John Mark as someone who had somehow betrayed him. There’s no indication that John Mark did anything that would disqualify him as a Christian. In fact Barnabas left Paul and made a separate journey to the Christians in Cyprus, and Barnabas chose to take John Mark with him. Whatever troubled Paul about John Mark was “personal,” and Paul wasn’t able to put it behind him. Paul wasn’t able or ready to forgive John Mark, and for all we know John Mark might not have felt that there was anything that needed to be forgiven.
How many congregations have seen people or families or social groups of one sort or another break up because of “something personal?” Sometimes it seems that Satan takes the most inconsequential things and turns them into fierce battles. Those “it’s personal” events in a congregation can not only distract us from the mission that we share, they can even tear apart a congregation – doubtless that brings a smile to the face of the Temptor.
Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. [Matt. 5:9]” Sometimes we disparage those who try to make peace among us. We accuse them of all sorts of things from disloyalty to moral cowardice. There is no “personal” slight important enough to divide us and distract us from carrying out Christ’s mission.
Let us pray: Merciful God, we give you thanks for the grace of reconciliation accomplished through Jesus. We give you thanks for always taking us back. Teach us to live as forgiving people holding within our sight always the forgiveness that you have granted to us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Today’s readings are Job 40:1-24; Acts 15:36-16:5; John 11:55-12:8; Psalm 56, 57, 58, 64 & 65.
Blessings.
Pastor Jim
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