Below, for your consideration and reflection, is the sermon from Bethel's February 8, 2004 Sunday Morning worship service.  If you would like to read sermons from previous services, please click HERE.

The latest sermon will be posted here as soon as it is received – usually by Tuesday or Wednesday following the Sunday that it was presented.

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I am told that people hunting for crabs never have to worry about keeping the lid on the crab cage. For with crabs, anytime one of them begins to climb out of the cage, you can depend upon the others in the cage reaching up and pulling it back down. The crabs are constantly grabbing at each other.

When an eagle is trying to teach its offspring to fly, the old one takes the young one on its back up into the air, and then pushes it off. In the descent, if the young one gets into trouble, the old one is there to swoop down and lift that young one back to another height, so as to be able to give it yet another chance. The old eagles risk themselves for the lives of the young ones.

The animal analogy is instructive for life together in Christian community. We know that when we use the word “crabby” to describe someone’s outlook on life, it is hardly meant as a compliment. It is no surprise that the eagle, who risks itself in love for the other, is a lofty symbol of majesty, beauty, grandeur. The eagle is on our coins and other symbolic places for a profound reason.

The Church as we read about it in the New Testament would probably not have made it had it been full of crabs, people constantly grabbing at one another, no sense of purpose, just aimlessly floundering around and pulling down those of their kin who were trying to get somewhere. I dare say that if the church as we read about it in Acts had been full of crab-like people who could do no good for anyone else except to pull them down, then it would not have survived beyond the second or third century.

What the church has always had in the past or it would not have survived, and what it will always need if it is to survive into the future are eagles. Eagle-like persons who risk themselves for the sake of the next generation, who take the time to teach, who care enough to ensure that those who are the future are encouraged and nurtured in the present.

The eagle knows that the church is always only one generation away from extinction. If all the parents and older eagles don’t do their part to teach the young how to fly, then sooner or later, there will be no more eagles to teach.

Barnabas as we read of him here in Acts, was an eagle. His name literally means, “son of encouragement.” He was sent to Antioch, that largest city of the first century Roman world, a city where many people were being converted to Christianity. He was sent out on a fact-finding mission. But while there, he encouraged the people “to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose” (Acts 11:23).

It is a far-fetched supposition I know, but let’s suppose Barnabas, this son of encouragement, were invited to be a player on the reality TV show, Survivor, the real-life drama that unleashed a veritable wave of reality shows upon a TV watching America several years ago. And a TV show that, depending on your point of view, either took television programming to new heights or to a new level of absurdity.

But I must here issue a disclaimer. I have been known to watch it on occasion; my excuse is that Melanie has a cousin, big Tom Buchanan, currently participating in the Survivor All-Stars series that will be going on, now that 16 survivors of the original 18 are left, it will be going on, I suppose for another 16 weeks, since one gets kicked off the island per week. We recently got word through an email from Melanie’s parents that my whole family has been invited up to Rich Valley, Virginia to Tom’s goat farm to meet the all-star himself. I guess the invitation is legitimate. It came through Big Tom’s uncle, a man named “Shrimp,” who my in-laws saw at Burger King last Thursday night (in case you’re wondering!). Uncle Shrimp thinks Big Tom went a long ways in the contest, but of course, all the contestants are sworn to secrecy. I guess if word got out, it could ruin the spring ratings sweepstakes for CBS.

In case you’ve missed this latest All-star version of Survivor (a rendition that incidentally began last Sunday night in the hallowed time slot following the Super Bowl), various winners and other popular contestants from previous games have been put in three tribes, six per tribe, and dropped off on an island near Panama, and there, they pretty much have to fend for themselves, overcome differences, learn how to survive with one another, and have some inter-tribal contests to see who can get immunity. Then the tribe that loses that particular contest and doesn’t get immunity, has to vote one of their own off the island and hence with no shot at the million dollar prize waiting at the end for the sole survivor left.

It is a pretty insidious game, but ironically, one that many of us enjoy watching immensely. I’d ask for a show of hands for those who watch it, but you may not want to fess up publicly! I suppose we like the vicariously vindictive experience of observing the psychological tug-of-war that takes place as factions form within tribes, and people come up with the most incredulous self-serving rationales to try and ensure that they won’t get voted off the island, and hear those fateful words, “the tribe has spoken.” Sometimes, the strategy is to get rid of the “Weakest Link,” the name of another insidious popular game show; other times, the strategy is to get rid of the strongest member of the group if you fear that he or she might out-survive you. But any way you slice it up, Survivor is all about looking out for number 1, no matter what.

And now, back to Barnabas. How might he fare as a survivor? An absurd question, I know, but one that, perhaps, can help us see more clearly, by contrast, just how special was this new life of that early church gathered in Antioch.

Antioch was a place where there was a lot of encouraging, not back-stabbing, going on. Instead of people getting voted out of Antioch, a great number of people were coming in, there to have the life-changing experience of meeting the Lord; instead of looking out for number 1, they must have been looking out for each other; instead of people being referred to as survivors, people were there, for the first time, called “Christians.”

We don’t have cameras with night vision lenses and an omnipresent eye always watching these new Christians in Antioch, but surely something very special was happening here. Or the church itself simply would not have survived.

The Greek verb translated “to encourage” or “to exhort” means to urge or to cheer up or to call alongside of, to act as a companion. It is the same Greek word from which we get the word Paraclete, the word used in John’s Gospel for the Holy Spirit – counselor, comforter, friend, encourager.

Encouragement – what Barnabas was doing and living in Antioch – was essential to the growth of Christianity in that place. It ensured that the church’s faith and practice would survive and be passed on to the next generation.

If you’re watching the calendar, or if you’ve been into virtually any store lately, you know that the next holiday that will be used as an excuse to prop up the American economy is Valentine’s Day. I suspect this story has a mythic origin, but it is told that Valentine’s Day has its origin in the 3^rd century when a Christian Bishop by the name of Valentine was in prison awaiting execution on February 14. But before his death, he wrote a note to a little blind girl who had previously shown him a kindness. At the botton of the note he signed it, “Your Valentine.”

He was able to be a source of encouragement for someone else even when his life was drawing to a tragic close.

The New Yorker Magazine had a cartoon once which depicted an elderly gentleman standing in pajamas and robe at his apartment door. He had just secured the door with several conspicuous locks. Only as he shut two dead bolt locks did he see, looking down, a small, white envelope stuck beneath the door. On the envelop was a large sticker in the shape of a heart. Someone had broken through his private security system with a valentine. Love found a way. Those who desire to encourage others will also find a way.

At some time or another, we have been associated with someone who, like Barnabas of old, has exercised this gift of encouragement. People who by the freshness of their outlook on life, by the sheer energy of their convictions, by their indomitable spirit, by their humility and self-denial opened up for us a deeper experience of this treasure we call life.

A minister in one of our denominational magazines writes about a woman in his church named Gladine. She got polio as a young mother just before the vaccine became available. She spent nearly a year in an iron lung. Later in life, her muscles began to wear out. Her breathing became difficult. She had to have a tracheotomy in order to be able to swallow. And now, she couldn’t talk unless her finger were over the hole in her neck were this tracheotomy was. She was asked to do the children’s sermon on Palm Sunday and to talk about suffering, since everybody figured she knew a lot about suffering. When she talked with the children, she told them something about her own suffering, but she made it brief. She is not one to dwell on her problems or to feel sorry for herself. Primarily, she wanted the children to know that suffering is common. A lot of people you see out there are suffering inside and we don’t know it, she told them. She hoped they would be hugging critters, conscious of when a hug might feel good for Mom or Dad or someone else. She told how she likes hugs, and if they happened to give her one right then, why, she wouldn’t mind a bit.

The gift of encouragement. It is a spiritual gift that Barnabas shared with the believers in Antioch. It was the same thing that was happening in 1^st century Rome, where the Christians were reminded that all of them had “gifts that could be used, gifts that differed; gifts like prophesying, serving, encouraging, contributing money with liberality, giving aid with zeal, engaging in acts of mercy, and doing so with cheerfulness.

But sometimes the most important manifestation of encouragement is silence – the silence of listening. Perhaps Barnabas was a listener even before he was a more verbal encourager. James writes in his New Testament letter, “Let everyone be quick to hear and slow to speak.” The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, believed that listening was at the center of Christian ministry: “Just as love to God begins with listening to [God’s] Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to each other.” Bonhoeffer says that we should learn to listen with the “ears of God” so that we may then speak the Word of God. He who no longer listens to his brother or sister will soon no longer be listening to God, either (Life Together).

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” By the same token, “you cannot show encouragement too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”

It was said of the first Christians in Acts that they have turned the world upside down. They knew what it would take for the Gospel to spread, not just in a geographic sense but, more importantly, in the sense of real change in the lives of people.

The ones who were encouragers were also called “Christians,” that is, little Christs.

May God grant us the grace to share the gift of encouragement with others, so that we, too, may be deserving of the name Christian.

And if you ever feel the need for some encouragement, feel free to give me a call. Just don’t call on Thursday night between 8 and 9 pm, for I will be encouraging Big Tom in his quest to be the lone survivor!