St. Barnabas (3rd after Trinity)
June 12th 2005
When the Greek gods were dishing out
punishments, they were imaginative.
When Tantalus shared the food
of the gods with mortals, they chained him
neck deep in water but whenever
he was thirsty and tried to drink it
it all vanished on him.
Prometheus who stole fire
and gave it to humankind
was chained to a rock for eternity
and was attacked every day
by a hungry vulture.
Sisyphus the king was condemned
to spend eternity
pushing a very heavy boulder
up a steep mountain which was
very hard work and took hours and hours.
The worst part was that
once he nearly got it to
the top of the hill
it would roll back down
and he’d have to start all over again.
Today you are condemned to a sermon on stewardship.
This may feel to you like one of the
punishments given by the Greek gods.
In fact, were it possible,
some of you might rather change places with one
of those three gentlemen just listed.
Well, I will not try to make
this too awful an experience for you.
If you were to go to “Dictionary.com”
on the internet,
you would find that the word
“steward” comes from an old
Anglo-Saxon word
stigweard,[steeg weird] st ward: stig, st , hall
and weard, keeper.
Basically the word means
keeper of the hall
more precisely keeper of
the king or lord’s hall
and keeper of the king or lord’s treasure.
Stewardship meant being
responsible for the king’s treasure
and taking care of them.
Today we are focusing
on a man named Joseph, nicknamed “Barnabas”,
a man who was one of the apostles.
We first see Barnabas in the early
days of the church – not long after
Jesus had gone back to the Father.
He first comes bringing a gift –
he has sold some property
and has brought the sale money
to the apostles as a gift to the church.
Barnabas is later entrusted
with a missionary work
and he is entrusted with
money to be sent to the poor in Judea.
Barnabas, however, brings something
else to the church and that
something else is a man called Saul.
Saul the Pharisee.
A man feared and probably loathed
by the early church
a man who is responsible
for the death, arrests and
tormenting of many Christians.
This is the same Saul who
we read about in Acts who was
confronted by the spirit of Jesus
as he was on the Road to Damascus.
Jesus strikes Saul blind
and in three days of total darkness
Saul undergoes a painful change of heart
and sees the error of his ways
and becomes a believer in Jesus.
Saul not only becomes a believer
but he becomes Christianity’s greatest evangelist.
But before all this can happen
Saul must face the music of what he has done.
Enter Barnabas.
Barnabas is sent by God
to bring Saul, who is now called Paul
- a change of name and a change of heart -
to meet the other apostles.
It could not have been
a wonderful task for Barnabas.
Here he is, being asked to go
and introduce Saul
the archenemy of the church
to the apostles – he probably
would do anything to avoid that job
even listen to a stewardship sermon.
But that’s what he does –
and because he does this
and all the other things
that the Acts of the Apostles records,
Barnabas has been seen
by many people as a steward.
Let’s remember what a steward is.
A steward is a keeper of
their Lord’s Hall – or a keeper
of their lord’s treasure.
Barnabas is one who has
watched over the church’s money
but he is also looking after
the more important treasure
of the church and that is the people.
You see, Barnabas was wise
enough to know that
the real treasure, the real wealth
of the church was not money
but was its people –
and he realized that each person
in God’s eyes was of immense value.
Jesus valued each person so much
that he bought each of us
with his life upon the cross.
Barnabas was wise enough to know
that if God called Paul
it meant that God had a reason
and that Paul was to be
part of the treasure of the church.
And what a treasure he was
founding churches, correcting,
guiding, helping, nurturing
all the faith communities
and writing Romans and Galatians
the two masterpieces among the epistles.
Barnabas was a good steward.
It was suggested that today
the theme for stewardship Sunday
was to be a Barnabas.
The word Barnabas means
a names that means “Son of Encouragement.”
Perhaps one of the things
we can learn from Barnabas
is that we are also stewards.
We are keepers of the Lord’s treasure.
Now, this of course means
money – it means using our money
wisely and well – we do that now.
But it also means that we
do not forget that as stewards
we are responsible for the other treasure
which is the people of God.
That is the real treasure.
It means that we have to
be a Barnabas in the sense
that we are sons and daughters of encouragement
as we encourage others
like Barnabas by bringing
others into the church.
By inviting others, friends
neighbours and bringing
strangers to Jesus Christ.
Now here’s the trick.
Many people rightly
worry about money a church has.
But the problem is that
we go astray in that
we worry more about
that treasure more than
the real treasure of the church
which is people.
We have to learn to
reach out to others and
bring them into the fellowship
not to fill up pews
not to put us in the black
not to move us to full time ministry:
we are to do it because
these people are God’s treasure
and he wants them to know him.
If we are stewards, good stewards
then we will be focusing on that first.
Then all the rest will follow.
We are keepers of the Lord’s treasure.
How often we forget who really owns
the treasure and what it truly is.
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