October 26:
Potsdam
Call: Acts 11: 27-30; 12: 24-25
Read: Acts 13: 26-41, 44-49, 51-52
Text: Acts 13: 2-5, 44-47; 14: 8-15a
Closing: Acts 14: 6-18
Travels With Paul
[Prayer]
With whom would you rather travel?
Val - from Time Warner Cable's "Travels With Val"
Charlie - from John Steinbeck's "Travels With Charlie"
Gulliver - from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"
Or Paul - from Luke's historical travelogue in "Acts?"
Well, I don't know Val
I am not certain whether her idea of places to visit would coincide with mine.
More importantly, if I am going to travel with any female,
I'd prefer it to be Marge.
So, Val is out.
Charlie, of course, was John Steinbeck's dog
And while traveling with him means I would probably get less advice about my driving than I normally do -
It might also mean that I would
acquire at least a few tickets for speed limit signs
That I do not see as quickly as my usual navigator
Besides, I don't even own a pooper scooper
And that would be essential if Charlie was my companion.
So Charlie is out as well.
As for Gulliver
I fear that traveling with him would be a lot like
Traveling with Timothy Leary in the 60s
That's just not my cup of tea
Or whatever it was that Leary gave Swift
To put in Gulliver's tea
No way that I want to travel with Gulliver.
And so, of the four presented choices of traveling companions,
All I have left is Paul.
Picking Paul as our traveling companion
Might, however, be the most dangerous choice of all
[Which, of course, is really saying something,
when one of the others is a psychedelic journey with Gulliver.]
But traveling with Paul would not only be the most dangerous
It would also be the most rewarding.
And so today we elect to travel with Paul
As we begin the last third of our journey through Acts,
With Paul's first missionary trip.
During the first eight weeks of our journey
Our stories took place
In Jerusalem
and In all Judea and Samaria
With today's service, however, we venture out into the beginning
of the third geographical area
of our commission to be witnesses and to make disciples.
A commission we received
on the very first day of our journey
For, with today's service, we venture out into the rest of the world or as Jesus put it, "to the ends of the earth."
As we do so, I should note that
I am now calling our fellow traveler "Paul" rather than "Saul"
For it is in chapter 13 that Luke first tells us
that this persecutor-turned-evangelist,
has acquired this new, more gentile like name.
This is the shortest of Paul's three missionary journeys,
But still the round trip was about 1000 miles
Roughly like a trip from Potsdam to the western suburbs of Cleveland, OH - and then back home.
This trip was not Paul's idea and he did not take it alone
It was the church at Antioch
- Inspired by the Holy Spirit -
Who sent Paul - along with Barnabas - on this journey
A man named John Mark (a relative of Barnabas)
Accompanied them.
They took a boat to the island of Cyprus
Landing at the eastern port of Salamis [Sal'-e-mis]
Where they shared the word in a Jewish synagogue
Then they traveled westerly across the entire island to Paphos
Where they dealt with a false prophet
And met with the receptive governor.
Leaving Cyprus by another boat, they then headed north to Perga in Pamphylia
There John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem
[In Paul's eyes, John Mark didn't just leave- he deserted them]
After a short time in Perga, they went even farther north
This time to Pisidian Antioch
There Paul accepted their invitation to speak in the synagogue
He talked about God keeping God's promise to Abraham
He talked about the judges and Samuel
And of how the people had demanded a human king
And how God met that demand
first with Saul and then with David.
All this was well known Jewish history and well received by all.
But Paul was setting the stage to proclaim
That Jesus, a descendent of David and heir to the promise,
Was the savior sent by God
And that John the Baptist had come before him
To announce his presence.
The people in the synagogue listened intently to Paul
As he proceeded to tell them about Jesus [13: 26-41]
As Paul and Barnabas left the synagogue
The people urged them to speak again on the next Sabbath.
The next week,
The events in the synagogue were dramatic
[13: 44-49]
This marked a turning point in the ministry of Paul and Barnabas
They had now declared that the focus of their efforts
Previously on the Jews, but rejected by them
Would, in the future, be on the Gentiles
Their stay in the city did not last much longer
For an interesting combination of
Jews
Women among the gentile god worshipers
And The city leaders
Incited the crowd
And threw Paul and Barnabas out of the district.
As we imagine being thrown out of town,
I ask you: Do we still want to travel with Paul?
Or are Val, Charlie, and Gulliver
beginning to sound like wiser choices?
For me, Paul's faith and trust in Christ provide the answer
And that faith and trust shout out in the quietest of ways
In their response to being thrown out of that city
[13: 51 - 52]
They shook the dust from their feet and they went on.
They shook the dust from their feet and they went on.
They shook the dust from their feet and they went on.
And they did so, over flowing with happiness.
Who could observe that response
And not want to travel with them?
Their experience in Iconium was similar:
A number of Jews and Greeks believed
But then some Gentiles and Jews hatched a plot
To mistreat and to stone Paul and Barnabas
And our two traveling companions fled to Lystra and Derbe
Where they continued to proclaim the good news.
Unperturbed by the anger directed at them.
In Lystra they encountered an interesting new problem
A problem that I suspect that they had not anticipated
And one that presented a whole new challenge to their faith [14: 6-18]
After they healed the crippled man
The people thought that they were gods.
Paul and Barnabas, rather than being flattered
Recognized immediately
that this was diametrically opposed
to the message they were trying to convey.
But I have watched
a number of politicians - both Republicans and Democrats
and a number of clergymen - both Protestant and Catholic
who allowed their egos and self centeredness to trump their service
who allowed themselves to think that being acclaimed
made them more important
than what they were called to do
and thus destroyed any chance of successfully accomplishing what they had set out to do.
Paul and Barnabas did not fall into that trap!
They protested vociferously and made it clear
That Christ was the one who had healed the man;
That they were only humans
Who were servants
called to share the good news of Christ
And so even when persons from Antioch and Iconium arrived
And caused the crowd to stone Paul
To drag him out of the city
And to leave him there supposing he was dead
I want to travel with him.
I want to be in the group of disciples
Who surrounded him
And helped him get up and walked with him to Derbe.
And I want to be with them
As they returned home
Retracing their steps
Even going through and establishing churches
In the very places where they had been so abused
I would love it
if each one of us could make a banner for our homes
and another one for this church
proclaiming the words that Paul spoke
in Pisidian Antioch on this return trip home
For,
This man who had been thrown out of two cities
Even being left for dead on one of those occasions
And who fled a third city because of a plot against him,
Said:
"If we are to enter God's kingdom,
we must pass through many troubles."
Maybe this would remind the Christians of today
That being a follower of Jesus Christ
Is serious business.
Maybe our banners would remind us
That the church is not just a social or civic club
Maybe they would get it across to us
That rather than grumble or complain about our troubles
We should get up, dust ourselves off and go on to serve Him.
Maybe when others have troubles these banners will inspire us
To gather around them and offer outstretched hands
Like those who did that for Paul
When he had been left for dead.
It is more dangerous to travel with Paul
But seeing what it means to follow Christ and fulfill his commission
As verbalized and lived by him
is rewarding beyond belief as well.
So, I will choose him
Over Val
I will choose him
Over Charlie
And I will choose him
Over Gulliver.
I invite you to travel with us as well.