St. Barnabas
On Jan. 31, 2005, I “retired.” I had been on the staff of St. Martin’s for five years. On that day, there was a wonderful reception and a lovely gift from members of St. Martin’s. Retirement did not last long! On the very next Sunday, Feb. 7, I began as the Interim Rector of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg.
I knew some things about Barnabas, but thought I should know him better before beginning that assignment. This is what I discovered then and wish to share with you now. His Feast Day is not until tomorrow (June 11), but I took the liberty to write about him today.
Barnabas was a prodigious apostle. It was Barnabas who was sent to a man named Saul who had been struck down by blindness on the Damascus road. It was Barnabas who nurtured the faith of Paul. He introduced Paul to the community of young believers in Damascus. And it was Barnabas who, in his senior capacity as apostle to Antioch, called Paul to be his assistant. From then on, they worked together, cultivating what would become the church, a federation of believers made of Jewish sectarians and non-Jewish converts. Observers of their work in Antioch attached the name “Christian” to their community. Yet, of all the things we know about Barnabas, his highest achievement was this: “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” (Acts 11-24)
There is no record of his many accomplishments or his good deeds; Barnabas is remarkable for what he enabled and encouraged in others. His goodness was the result of being a person full of the Holy Spirit, a person filled with faith and animated by relationship with God. Like Jesus, whom he followed, there was nothing more important to Barnabas than God and God’s family.
On the day of Pentecost, May 23, the Rev. Dr. Russell J. Levenson, Jr. (himself a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith) encouraged us, each of us, to be filled with God’s Spirit—to go forth into this world as light bearers bringing hope and restoration to a world in desperate need. In essence, he asked us to be another Barnabas.
“Come Holy Spirit, our souls inspire.” – the title of a hymn often sung at Pentecost and attributed to Rhabanus Maurus, circa 800
Amen. Amen. Amen.
