Saint Barnabas

Sermon Preached on June 12, 2006 - the Feast of Saint Barnabas the Apostle (tranfered)
June 11, Barnabas the Apostle: Isaiah 42: 5-12, Psalm 112, Acts 11: 19-30; 13: 1-3, Matthew 10: 7-16

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Barnabas. Barnabas first appeared on the scene in the Acts of the Apostles, where he is singled out for his generocity: at his conversion to Christianity he sold a large peice of property he owned and gave the money to the church. Later, he went to Antioch and working with many different Apostles, including Paul, Mark, Simeon, and many others he converted many to Christianity. Barnabas was particularly generous with his money and his time and these gifts, combined with the gifts of the Spirit seen in the other Apostles helped to spread the Gospel to new parts of the world.

In some ways, the spread of the Gospel in the early church is like my new razor, the Gillete Fusion - it has five blades on the main razor and one blade on the back. Its awesome! The five razors each work together for a smooth and painless shave. The one razor on the back is small enough to reach places that the five can't go. Although one razor does an alright job and sometimes is necessary to go places a whole group cannot, in general, many razors working together do a fantastic job and do things that one razor could never do alone. Spreading the Gospel likewise takes the gifts of many different people. Sometimes the Spirit fills a specific individual with gifts that allow her to go places and preach in ways that others cannot. But even so, the church still needs all of her members to work in concert with each other, each bringing his or her distinct gifts to the mission of the Church.

On Saint Barnabas' day may the Spirit fill us all to go out into the world generously giving the gifts we have been blessed with to others. Let the Spirit also strengthen the bonds of our common Christianity so that we can work together and spread the Gospel in more ways to more people.