Sometime in the Spring, around 44 A.D., The church members in Antioch in modern Syria decided to commission Saul of Tarsus and Barnabas of Cyprus to be missionaries, sharing the gospel in the surrounding area. They laid hands on both men and ordained them to be “apostles” or “sent ones” from the Antiochian church. Acts 13 describes the event as follows:

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13:1-3).

It would be hard to overestimate the importance of this decision. Born of prayer, worship, study, and fasting, the church and Antioch felt that the Holy Spirit was speaking to them, asking them to send their two most potent leaders elsewhere. It’s hard to imagine a contemporary church making such a decision! Nevertheless, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, the church in Antioch made this brave decision. That decision has changed the course of human history nearly as much as the incarnation of Christ. Because of that decision, the Christian church spread rapidly during the First Century and continued its growth until it became the established religion of the Roman Empire. The entire story took just about 300 years.

From Antioch, Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark began a missionary journey (Acts 13:4 – 52, 14:1 – 25). The group traveled to Seleucia and then sailed to Salamis, the principal city and seaport of the island of Cyprus. Paul would make longer missionary journeys in the future. This particular journey was vital because it was the first. The group traveled in the southeast portion of today’s modern Turkey. At its furthest extent, the journey reached nearly the center of modern Turkey.

The Strategy

There are many reasons to be interested in that first missionary journey. Not the least of which is that it was the beginning of an experiment, and it was successful enough that there were other missionary journeys in the future. Paul and Barnabas, who would not always travel together, developed a methodology of mission that served them well for the rest of their missionary careers. There are several aspects of that particular method that deserve to be noted:

• First, the journey was primarily to small cities in a geographic area with which the entire church was familiar. They didn’t immediately send Paul and Barnes to the end of the Earth. They sent them to a region relatively close by culture, proximity, and other factors that would assist in the mission’s success.
• Second, Paul and Barnabas traveled as a group. John Mark was sent with them. We don’t know, but others might have come along for all or part of the journey. In any case, the principle of mutual support was evident even during the first century.
• Third, Cyprus is mentioned as the final destination of the journey. Barnabas was from Cyprus. Historians believe he was a fairly prominent person in Cyprus. He had connections in Cyprus. Cyprus is important for several reasons and is geographically essential in the region. Finally, because Cyprus is close to Israel, there was a sizeable Jewish population in the first century, and today, there is a large Jewish population. In other words, some people might understand what Paul and Barnabas were trying to say. Even today, it is a center of business, diplomacy, and other activities. It was a wise choice for a final stop on the first journey.

The strategy that guided the Antiochian church and Paul and Barnabas in the early first century continues to be vital to us today. Most of us are called to share the gospel where we are or in areas reasonably close to our homes. Most of us need some kind of help as we share the gospel. We need to be part of a team. Finally, most of us have a circle of influence or friendships that impact our ability to share the gospel. Sometimes, this is called our “circle of influence.”

Learning by Doing

During the First Missionary Journey, it became apparent that Christian missionaries would face opposition from time to time. In Paphos, they were confronted with the Jewish sorcerer, an essential associate of the Roman proconsul, Sergius, Paules. Paul relied on the Holy Spirit to overcome the opposition (13:6-12). The last time that the apostle Paul would face opposition, intellectual and physical, and sharing the gospel around the Mediterranean basin.

In Antioch, we learn an essential element of how Paul shared the gospel. It is recorded that on the sabbath day, Paul went down, and after reading the law and the Prophets, he explained the gospel to them. He did so by recounting the story of the liberation of Israel from Egypt and the foundation of the Dynasty of King David. He ends by identifying Jesus as the true heir of King David, and he eliminates any confusion concerning the role of John the Baptist, of whom the residents may have heard:

Of this man’s offspring, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.  Before he came, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John finished his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me, one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ (13:23-25).

The messianic promise given to the people of Israel by the profits has been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth (v. 23).

In speaking to the people of obsidian Antioch, Paul also developed the habit of sharing the gospel in its simplest and most basic form:

Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses (13:38-39).

Here is the center of the gospel in its most basic form: through Jesus, human sin can be forgiven, and the guilt and shame humans feel because we cannot keep the moral law in its entirety are forgiven.

The Jewish response to this proclamation of the good news of the forgiveness of sins through Jesus foreshadowed problems that would arise in nearly every city First Century missionaries visited. The local Jewish population could not accept the idea that there was a way to fellowship with God that did not involve obeying the law.

So it is that at Pisidian Antioch, Paul uttered these famous words:

Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth” (13:46-47).

In the future, the gospel would not be for the Jewish people alone but for Gentiles and Jews. It’s important to note that Paul is not rejecting the Jewish people. He is simply saying that if Jewish people cannot accept the gospel, it must be preached to the Gentiles as well.

By the time Paul and Barnabas reached Iconium, the basic strategy they would follow for the rest of Paul’s career had been established: the gospel would be preached both to Jews and to Gentiles (parentheses one). Even though there was opposition, Paul and Barnabas continued to preach, and their message was confirmed by the same kinds of signs and wonders that characterize the ministry of Jesus. The result of their ministry was not complete success. Many people continued to reject the gospel.

Paul concluded his first apostolic journey by visiting Lystra and Derby. In Lystra, he encountered one of the most challenging temptations of any Christian leader: the people thought he was a God (14:11-13). Paul immediately rejected the thought that he or Barnabas were anything but ordinary human beings:

We are also only human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.In the past, he let all nations go their way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy (14:15-17).

Notice the emphasis on the kindness and mercy of God to pagans as well as believers.

Conclusion

There are important lessons to be learned from Paul’s First Missionary Journey, not the least: important things are often invisible when they occur. I doubt if many important people, Jewish, Roman, or otherwise, took much notice of a little band proclaiming a gospel at the fringes of the Roman Empire. Most of those who heard of their missionary journey probably discounted it. Nevertheless, it is one of the most critical events in human history. This should give ordinary Christians hope as they go about their daily lives. Just because a good deed is invisible does not mean that it’s not important or does not have eternal significance. Every act of love does have eternal significance.

When thinking about Paul’s first missionary journey, it is essential to remember that you have to start somewhere. I have a tendency not to start a project unless I convince myself that it’s very, very important and bound to be very, very successful. This is a big mistake. Sometimes, you must start small, experience opposition, and perfect your message before accomplishing your desired goals. Every lawyer has a first case. Every preacher has a first sermon. Every writer has a first book. Every entrepreneur has a first business. They are often not the last or the most successful, but they have the distinction of being the first.

Third, every Christian mission needs a strategy—an overall goal, such as preaching to Jews and Gentiles—and tactics, such as going to synagogues first. This principle may seem difficult to translate into ordinary Christian discipleship. However, I think it’s an important principle. A strategy might be, “I would like to reach out in my neighborhood.” The tactic might be, “I will invite my friends for dinner. Maybe we can get into a discussion about Christ.” Hopefully, readers will get the idea. To us, it may seem evident that Paul needed to begin by preaching and synagogues, but I’m not sure it was that obvious to first-century people. A reasonable mini-wise observer might have said, “Don’t do that, Paul. If you do, you’ll cause a big fight and have a lot of trouble.”

This leads to a final observation: No good project can be accomplished without encountering some kind of opposition. People will say, “It’s too expensive.” People will say, “We don’t have the time.” People will say, “We don’t have the contacts.” People will give a lot of reasons why good projects shouldn’t begin. I have a good friend in ministry and mentor who, in a time of conflict about a new project, advised me, “Chris, only count the yes votes.” It was good advice.

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

 

For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10)

One of my past meditations from Bonheoffer had to do with work. In his book, No Rusty Swords, he talks about work: “God has called each one of us to do his work in his time.” [1] In his later years, Bonhoeffer realized the importance of lay ministry and the ministry of the people of God in the world. In commenting on this passage, Charles Ringma comments:

We are not simply to be guardians of the good things that God has done in the past, nor are we only those who pray for what may happen in the future. We need to be intimately involved in the issues of our time. Different members of the Christian church will identify these issues differently. However we arrange our priorities for our world, we must include caring for God’s creation, encouraging good government, sharing the Gospel, and proclaiming justice and righteousness. [2]

This passage contains some profound and essential teachings. First, Christians cannot just worship on Sunday, study our Bibles, and pray about the problems of our world. We must work on making the world a better place as the Kingdom of God enters the world through believers’ lives. Second, we cannot wait for complete agreement among Christians before we act. Different believers will see the world differently. Finally, we must all share our faith and speak out for justice and righteousness, public and private. We must all care for God’s creation. We must all work for better government and lives for those around us.

We must all tend to the garden that God has given us, whether large or small, significant or insignificant.  The Bible begins with the human race in a garden we call “Eden.” Some Christians speak of Eden as if it was a place where there was no need to work. Genesis tells us something about this garden:

 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28).

Genesis 2 puts it this way, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15). It would seem that work was not a curse—it is our resentment that is the curse of sin. Work was a part of God’s intention for the human race.

When I was a lawyer, I hardly ever worked in our yard. I was also at the office or trying to make up for it with the family. As a seminary student, I had no time. Then we moved to Brownsville, Tennessee and our first church. Surrounded by farmers and gardeners on every side (and with plenty of guidance, advice, and good counsel at hand, for which I am thankful), I planted a garden in the backyard of the manse and later on in our home. When we moved to Memphis, my training in Brownsville allowed me to do most of the landscaping. Based on all this, I can tell my readers one unavoidable truth: Gardening, even in paradise, is hard work, especially on a hot, muggy summer day in the American Southwest.

We human beings were made for work. We were made for the work of making the world a better place. We were made to till the garden of God’s good creation. We were made to expend the energy, strength, and brains that God has given us in the precise way we can best do that. We were made and remade in Christ “for the good works God prepared for us beforehand to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day happens to be one of my favorite holidays. This is the weekend we celebrate the working people of America. Labor Day reminds us of all the endless generations of farmers who built a nation of plenty out of the wilderness. Labor Day reminds us of those who opened the West, built the transcontinental railways, created the most significant manufacturing nation in the world, and made our nation the “Arsenal of Democracy” at a time of great danger to freedom. Labor Day reminds us of those who, even today, work and sweat so that we might live in peace and plenty.

Those of us who have jobs we call “White Collar” need to approach Labor Day with humility. Interestingly, Jesus does not seem to have wanted to enter history either as a religious professional or as a “teacher of the law,” the two careers I have embraced. He speaks ill of them both from time to time. He was content to be born and trained as a carpenter. Jesus was a laborer, and his life, death, and resurrection sanctified all laborers and all honest labor. It is quite likely that God never intended any of us, of whatever abilities, to escape manual labor completely.

The New Monastics

For several weeks, I’ve been meditating on what Benedictine monasticism offers modern people. I’ve mentioned Leslie Newbiggin’s summary of the monastic life as a daily and weekly cycle of study, prayer, and manual work. [3] I hope to be able to write more about the importance of work. We live in a time when pendants proclaim that one day, artificial intelligence, robots, and a host of labor. Saving devices will render most people unemployed. I think that’s a terrible thing to contemplate. I like to say that the economy doesn’t exist to make a few people very rich and many idle. The economy exists to make wholesome work available to the maximum number of people.

Even if we could eliminate work as an unnecessary part of human life, it would not be a blessing. It would be a tragedy and a curse. One need not look any further than the very wealthy or privileged children to understand that work is essential for developing character, physical and emotional health, and a sense of well-being and self-worth.

The monastic division of the day into prayer, study, and work was not simply an accommodation to the necessity of providing for the community’s needs. Of course, it did provide for the needs of the community. Work provides for a person’s and their family’s needs by participating in the greater economy of the community as a whole. Work is a part of that web of relationships by which we, human beings, use our natural talents and abilities and participate in the society of which we are a part. Work is not a curse—it is a blessing.

In her excellent book, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today, Joan Chittester gives a sustained teaching about the rule, including the rule as it pertains to work. [4] She points out two misconceptions that every human being, including contemplatives, must live with. The first is exemplified by workaholics, who sacrifice everything: family, friendships, and even a relationship with God for work, money, status, and success. The second is exemplified by those who see work as a hindrance to enjoying the “higher things in life,” such as time to think, study, recreation, or whatever a person considers more important than work. In religious people, this can be regarded as “pseudo-contemplation.” Some people make work their God. When we do this, most of us don’t explain it to ourselves that way, but it’s true. We’ve decided that work is the most essential thing in our lives.

On the other hand, some people believe work hinders some greater good, even a spiritual good. These people are pseudo-contemplative or pseudo-religious. They seek pleasure and recreation to avoid work. In my life, I have known highly religious people who shortchanged their employers on the theory that it was more important to do “God’s work.” This is a great mistake. Our work, the work we do daily to make a living, is God’s work. As Chittester puts it,

Laziness and irresponsibility are forms of injustice and thievery. They take from the people of the earth. We were not put on the earth to be cared for. We were put on earth to care for it. [5]

Between the two extremes of workaholism and false spirituality, many of us devalue or overestimate work. Part of the Christian life is achieving a balance between over and undervaluing work.

In concluding her chapter, Chittester summarizes a Benedictine view of work as follows:

• Work is my gift to the world.
• Work is the way I am saved from total self-centeredness.
• Work gives me a place in God’s economy of salvation.
• Work in the Benedictine vision is to build community.
• Work leads to self-fulfillment as we use our gifts and abilities.
• Work has its own asceticism (discipline).
• Work finally is a way in which we live in poverty and solidarity with the poor. [6]

This last may seem a bit difficult to understand. If we think that part of what we earn is to be given away for the service of God and other people, then, in a sense, we achieve a kind of poverty, a kind of solidarity with the poor.

Conclusion

Perhaps it is true that the human race is reaching a point where many people will be able to live lives of constant leisure while others provide for them. Possibly, those others will be artificial intelligence or robots. Somehow, I doubt that’s going to be the case. Even if it were to be possible, however, it’s a bad idea. We were meant to worship God. We were meant to be in a relationship with God. We were meant for prayer, spiritual reading, and study. We were also meant to put what we know and feel into practice daily as we work and till the garden into which we have been placed.

Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, No Rusty Swords (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1977). This book is a collection of Bonhoeffer’s writings on various subjects.

[2] Charles Ringma, Seize the Day with Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Colorado Springs, CO: Pinion Press, 2000), reading for August 25.

[3] Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1995), 13.

[4] Joan Chittester, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1990), Chapter 7.

[5] Id, at 87.

[6] Id, at 92-93.