Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle
“It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.”
Christians have done it again and again. Whether we are talking about hermits who retreated to the desert and later set up monastic communities devoted to praying the Psalms every day or we are talking about 16th-century reformers who rebelled against the practice of profiteering from the sale of indulgences or we are talking about the Jesus Movement in the 1960s that sought to reignite within white Evangelicalism a true devotion to Jesus, Christians return again and again to scripture to figure out how to live out an authentic faith in the present. Or, to put it another way, Christians are challenged to ask in each present within which they find themselves—what does it mean to be called . . . Christian. That is, what does it mean to be called. And what does it mean to be Christian.
Beginning with the second question first, a whole lot of Christians today have been persuaded that to be Christian is to be someone who takes certain words of the Bible to be literally true. For a few examples: words from Genesis about the Creation that seem to say that not just the Earth but the whole universe was created in six twenty-four-hour days less than 10,000 years ago or words that seem to say that a horrifyingly angry God slaughtered all but eight human beings and certain select pairs of animals in a global flood or words that seem to say that the only romantic love that God can countenance is between a man and a woman.
In the text from Acts before us today we encounter an altogether different kind of literalism. It’s the literalism of Saint Barnabas, apostle of the 1st century who the scriptures say was called directly by the Holy Spirit to make known to all (Jews and Gentiles alike) the teachings of Jesus, which he did. He was a very successful missionary due in no small measure to the fact that he took absolutely to heart what Jesus taught. Heeding Jesus’ call to take care first and most for the least of these—for the poor, the despised, the unclean—Barnabas sold his possessions and gave them to the church. Heeding Jesus’ call to be last, he vouched for Paul, thereby enabling Paul’s rise and his own retreat into the shadows. Heeding Jesus’ teaching that those who follow him will be blessed in persecution, Barnabas’ life was brought to an end through martyrdom.
We call ourselves Christians. These days that can mean many different and even contradictory things depending on which words of the Bible you choose to take literally. Which words will you favor? For me, I’m going with Jesus’.
- Sue Trollinger