After a retelling of Peter's vision, which serves to underscore both its importance and controversial role in the early Church, we are introduced to the work of Barnabas. If I ever decided that I had a patron saint, I think it would be Barnabas. He has been a constant in my life since I was first ordained in the Episcopal Church.
I was ordained a deacon on the Feast of St. Barnabas, and I was ordained a priest a year later at the same time. I served as a curate at St. Barnabas in Wilmington Delaware. My first church as rector, which followed immediately afterwards, was called St. Barnabas also, though it was in Brackenridge Pennsylvania. When a name keeps appearing in your life, you tend to take notice. I figured that if God wanted to get my attention by having St. Barnabas appear again and again in my life, I should find out what it might mean.
"Barnabas" literally means "son of encouragement". I've mostly thought of it meaning something like "cheerleader" in our modern idiom, perhaps even pointing to something close to the leader of the pep squad. Barnabas must have been one of the earliest members of the Church because we read today how he was the one who went down to Tarsus to find Saul, and who led him to Antioch where they shared in a yearlong ministry. Both Saul and Barnabas are described at this point as "elders" of the early church. That word, "elder", is the word "presbyter" in Greek. In the Episcopal Church, when a person is ordained priest the word actually used is "presbyter". (Priest is an English adaption of the word, an unfortunate adaption actually because priest denotes something different than elder does.) The fact that our priests are actually "elders" in the churches is partly behind why some ask to be called "Mother" or "Father". It's not actually where the custom originated, but it's how many understand its meaning today.
Clearly Barnabas and Saul were, at this point, leaders in the early Church. When I imagine what they did during that year in Antioch, I think that it must have been more than just teaching. Later on in Acts we'll read that Barnabas shares in the exhortation of the early Church - a word that is an alternate translation of the greek word (episcopas) that we more generally translate as "bishop" and from which our denomination takes its name. I'm rather taken with the idea that Barnabas, the son of encouragement, spent a year teaching and exhorting the people in Antioch. He literally lifted their spirits and called out of them things that they didn't imagine they could achieve. They took on the name of "Christian" in that place - little christs - which must have been a recognition by the larger community that this community was, in particular, seen to be following in the steps of our Savior.
Because of the way Barnabas appeared again and again in my early ministry I decided that I should work intentionally on encouraging the people in my care, and the people in my everyday life. And I started paying close attention whenever someone came along who encouraged me as well. Sometimes those people were my bishops, sometimes they were my fellow elders, but mostly they were the people with whom I was privileged to serve. It's always been amazing to me to see what an effect a few words of encouragement have on my willingness to lean into whatever task is set before me.
Have you noticed that too in your own life? Have you met a Barnabas? Are you a Barnabas? And who might God be calling you to go to join with to encourage and exhort?
Kind words can make an incredible difference in a person's life. Ask me sometime how I know this…
Bishop -thank you for taking the time to post this blog series. The ministry of encouragement is important.
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