June 17: On Being a Barnabas

1 Kings 18:1-46

Acts 11:1-30

Psalm 135:1-21

Proverbs 17:12-13

Christianity needs more Barnabases.  

It's difficult being a Christian these days - in many places, some worse than others.  In the US, the siren call of sinful self-indulgence and idolatrous pursuit is consistent and unrelenting.  The opposition to remaining true to Christian teaching and value is growing.  Stories abound of people who've lost their jobs and their livelihood as they've tried to remain true to their faith.  They are still better off, though - there are so many stories of Christians literally losing their heads for their faith in places of strife, like Syria.  What we are reminded from today's readings is that this persecution is not new.  

It isn't too far from Syria that, centuries ago, God used Elijah to manifest His dominion over all things.  Consider where Elijah was coming from - having obeyed God and prophesied about the drought and the famine, he was suffering its consequences.  First the ravens and the brook ceased to provide what he needed, then he had to turn to a widow who was waiting to die.  This man most certainly wasn't living a life of abundance.

I wonder if he was tempted to abandon God?  If he ever thought, "Lord, I did what You asked, and now I am suffering as well" and was tempted to self indulgence and idolatrous pursuit?  If the temptation grew when, having grown dependent on the Lord through this woman for his bread and water, God permitted her son to die.  Whether or not he experienced such temptation, it appears he weathered the storm, so much so that when God instructed him to take steps to announce himself to Ahab, he does not seem to hesitate - even though Ahab clearly means to do him harm.  He obeys God, and God grants him the privilege of demonstrating His dominion through Elijah.  God rewards his faith, and his faithfulness.

If you are like me, you find yourself discouraged - by your circumstances and challenges, by your failures and inadequacies, by your inability to resist temptation to sin, by how easy and how good things seem for people who live the first rule of Aleister Crowley's new religion back in 1904: "do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" or, in the more contemporary words of Nike, "Just do it."  When faced with this, perhaps we can be a Barnabas to each other; the NT reading tells us that when, amidst the persecution, he arrived at Antioch and "saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts".

The world makes it difficult for us to be Christians.  Our weaknesses, our shortcomings make it difficult to persist as Christians.  Let's take a page from the NT reading, and "be a Barnabas" for others.