PARADOXICAL PUGILISM”

ACTS 6:1-6

 

6:1  Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

2  And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

3  Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task,

4  while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word."

5  What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

6  They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

 

Hatfield and McCoy. What comes to mind when you hear those two names?  You picture two families fighting it out in the mountains of West Virginia, right?  Legend has it that the feud between those two families started back in the 1870’s.  It started with a dispute over a couple of pigs.  In the years that followed the dispute escalated to the point where 12 people actually lost their lives.

 

Unfortunately, life is full of ugly conflicts and confrontations.  If you’re like most people you’ve probably been in a few minor feuds yourself over the years.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can remember a time when you really wanted to let someone have it.  Maybe you’re feuding with someone right now.  Sometimes we get into these feuds because we don’t like the way we’re being treated.  Sometimes we get into these feuds because we don’t see things the same way.  Sometimes it’s because we want the same thing that someone else wants.

 

That’s what happened one day when two men tried to get into the same taxi cab.  That led to a heated argument.  While the two of them argued the wife of one of the men urged her husband not to give in.  After a few minutes though that’s exactly what he did.  He opened the door of the taxi cab for the other man, then calmly walked over to his wife.  “Why did you do that?” the wife exclaimed.  “Well,” the husband said, “he was in a hurry and needed the cab more than us.”  “That’s ridiculous,” the wife fumed.  “We’re in a hurry too you know.”  “I know,” the husband said, “but you don’t understand.  He was late for his karate class…and he’s the teacher.”

 

Conflict these days seems to be unavoidable.  Maybe it’s just my imagination but there seems to be a lot more negativity and name calling going on these days.  People today seem to be very good when it comes to finger pointing and fault finding.  Sad to say, but conflict also seems to be knocking on the doors of more and more churches.

 

That shouldn’t come as a big surprise though.  You see, it’s always been that way.  Just look at the conflict that made life difficult for the apostles.  It all started when some Greek speaking Christians complained that their widows were getting short changed when it came to the daily distribution of food.  As far as they were concerned it proved that Christians who came from a Jewish background were treating them like second class citizens.

Now the apostles came up with a really radical solution to the problem.  The thing that made it so radical is that they didn’t do what most people do when they find themselves in the middle of a feud.

 

When it comes to conflict we usually do one of two things.  We either avoid the conflict at all costs.  Or we pull out all the stops and make it a fight to the bitter end.  Neither of those options does anyone any good though.  That’s because the first course of action lets things fester.  The second course of action usually makes things worse.

 

There is a third option of course. That’s the option where you sit down and do your best to reach some kind of compromise. The problem is that we usually don’t like to compromise.  There’s always the fear that the other person is going to get the best of you.  It’s the fear that you’ll end up in the same situation that a Russian hunter found himself in one day when he came face to face with a bear in the woods.  Just before he pulled the trigger though the bear spoke to him in a soft and reassuring voice.  “Wouldn’t it be better if we talked this over?” the bear said.  “What is it that you want?”  The hunter was stunned of course and quickly lowered his rifle.  “I want a fur coat,” the hunter said.  “Very good,” the bear replied.  “All I want is a full stomach.  So, why don’t we sit down and negotiate.” Well, that’s what they did.  They sat down and talked it over until they arrived at a compromise.  Then, after everything was said and done the bear walked away by himself.  He had his full stomach and the hunter had his fur coat.

 

The problem with compromise is that it doesn’t always work.

 

Fortunately, there is another way of dealing with conflict.  When you think about it, it’s a really more faithful way of dealing with conflict,  You can see a good example of it by looking at how the apostles handled their little ecclesiastical crisis. The apostles handled it by choosing seven men to serve as deacons. Now their job as deacons was to make sure that people in need were taken care of in a way that was faithful and fair.  That sounds simple enough.  What the apostles did though was really radical.  You don’t realize how radical it was until you look at the names of the men who were chosen to serve as deacons.  Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas. The amazing thing is that those are all Greek names.  That shows you that the apostles didn’t try to walk down the middle of the road when it came to this dispute. They could have chosen 4 Greek speaking Christians and 3 Jewish speaking Christians to serve as deacons. Or they could have chosen 4 Jewish speaking Christians and 3 Greeks speaking Christians to serve as deacons.  They didn’t do that though.  They only chose men who were Greek. 

 

The apostles didn’t meet their accusers half-way.  They went all the way.  They didn’t give them a little of what they wanted.  They gave them everything they wanted. They didn’t argue with them.  They didn’t accuse them of being petty trouble makers.  They didn’t tell them that they were wrong.  They let them win because it was the right thing to do.