The Feast of Barnabas

Today is the Feast of St. Barnabas.  He has an important place in our history because it was he who introduced Paul into the apostolic company while they were still afraid of him.

Barnabas’ birth name is Joseph.  He was a native of Cyprus and a Levite.  He was a champion of the Gentile Mission of the early church, alongside Paul.  In Acts 4 he sells a field and contributes the money to the Jerusalem church.  He also gained a reputation as a preacher.  The apostles named him Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement.”

Acts 9 relates his introducing Paul to the believers at Antioch and stands up for the genuineness of Paul’s conversion.  Alongside Paul, he argued against the requirement that Gentile converts first become ceremonial Jews before the Council at Jerusalem.  Barnabas took John Mark with him back to Cyprus as a missional partner after Paul rejected John Mark for not showing the desired perseverance Paul expected of missionaries (Acts 15).  Luke reports in Acts 11:24 that Barnabas “was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.”  Tradition credits him with the founding of the Christian Church at Cyprus.  He is said to have been stoned to death in Salamis in 61 AD.  However, this is not among the oldest of traditions associated with Barnabas.

An account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus

The First Lesson suggested by the Revised Common Lectionary for the Third Sunday of Easter is Acts 9:1-20.  It is the first account in Acts (there are three altogether) of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.  Paul’s story is an intriguing one.  Set aside his writings for a moment (he composed more New Testament material than any writer except Luke), and we still find a man who led an interesting life.  (The church’s Feast Day commemorating this event occurs on January 25.  This reading observes a portion of the church’s liturgical cycle rather than the Common of the Saints.)

Paul was born a Roman citizen.  He was well-educated in the tradition of Pharisaic Judaism.  He apparently had some standing in the Judaic hierarchy as the priests granted his petition to be credentialed to apprehend and bind any practicing Christians he found in the synagogues of Damascus.  While on that journey, the events of this scripture lesson occurred.  Paul went on to be the major figure in Gentile Christianity through the formative years of the church.  His missionary journeys and literary career spread the gospel message from Ephesus to Rome and in many points in between.  Tradition holds that he was under arrest in Rome when the government sentenced him to death by beheading around 64 C.E.

The observation I would make here is that Paul did not undergo his conversion one day and leap to the forefront of Christian mission the next.  The scriptural accounts (Acts 9, 10 and Galatians 1 in particular) record Paul as taking some time for reflection and formulating his own understanding about faith before he entered the public arena with any gusto.  Three years after his conversion – a time that includes a desert sojourn in “Arabia,” perhaps visiting Mt. Sinai itself – Paul visits some of the apostles in Jerusalem.  He then goes about his missionary work and does not return to Jerusalem for fourteen years. 

What I mean to say is that Paul (a.) understood the need for preparation and clarity before he began his work; and (b.) he was wholly reliant on instruction by the Spirit of God in achieving this clarity.  There were _no_ New Testament scriptural texts available to him.  He wrote all of the earliest himself.  There were other voices to instruct him, but they were involved with the Jewish-Christian movement of Jerusalem and Judea.  It took a lot of work on Paul’s part to establish a beachhead in the Gentile mission field.  Peter’s vision of the unclean animals eventually led to some credibility of Gentile acceptance, but he was never involved in Gentile evangelistic work to the extent we find in the work of Paul.

Paul more than once found himself in tough situations.  The abuses – physical and spiritual – that he endured would have turned back many a strong person.  I think that it was his foundation, his deepening of faith between the time of his conversion and his active ministry, that enabled him to persevere.

In the modern church, we are quick to give new converts or new church members responsibility for which they are not prepared.  When they encounter obstacles – and they will – they are ill-equipped for their ordeal.  So, they get discouraged, they fall away from church endeavors, and sometimes they are lost to the faith altogether.

In the twenty-first century I am careful about recommending Paul as a personal example in some areas.  But, his model of preparation for gospel work is as valid today as it was for Paul almost twenty-one hundred years ago.

Some thoughts on an early Christian witness

During The Great Fifty Days of Easter, it has been the custom of the church to repolace the Old Testament Reading in its various lectionaries with a reading from The Acts of the Apostles.  The Revised Common Lectionary's reading for the Second Sunday of Easter comes from chapter 5, verses 27-32.  That passage reads:

When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, saying, ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.’ But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than any human authority. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, so that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.’  (NRSV)

This is a rich mine from which we can extract a multitude of truths and lessons.  But one thing that caught my attention for the living of these days is Peter’s response to the high priest.  He (and “the apostles”) replies, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”  That is easy to latch upon.  People can (and have) used this quote from Peter to justify just about any behavior or idea.  It is the perfect all-purpose rejoinder to religious authority.

On the other hand, sometimes religious authority becomes so restricting (or constricting) that a person of faith has no choice but to reject that authority.  One can argue that Jesus spent much of his teaching in trying to sort out authority for authority’s sake from genuine godliness.

We also remember that Peter himself would later on take the role of authority in the church, and I suspect that there were occasions when Peter said something like, “Look, Jesus Himself gave me the keys to the Kingdom of God.  He told me that whatever I bound on earth would be bound in heaven, and that whatever I loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven.  I think I have a right to some say-so in this matter!”

It is easy to challenge authority when we don’t have any.  It is difficult to let go of authority when we have achieved or grabbed a little.

The Book of Acts is making a specific point, and I understand that.  But such things are to be handled delicately.  Or we end up on a slippery slope awfully quickly.