Text: Acts 11: 19-30
In our lesson for today, Luke notes that this new community in Antioch represents the very first time that people were called, “Christians.”
Before this, we’ve had a lot of different descriptions of these folks.
Jews. Disciples. Followers of the Way. Those who were part of “This Life.”
It was hard to describe this community.
And largely that is because this movement started among and as an extension of the Jewish faith.
Jesus himself was considered a Jewish rabbi, who recruited disciples to follow his teaching… like many other Jewish rabbis of the time.
And yet, there was more to Jesus than this.
He wasn’t simply pointing to God’s Kingdom.
He didn’t just have a particular teaching about what it meant to be Jewish.
He was ushering in a whole new kind of relationship between God and the world that brought the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.
While Jesus walked among those first disciples and the crowds, he described the kind of life we were now called to embody.
Think about the Sermon on the Mount…
In ‘The Message’ translation, as the sermon continues after the Beatitudes, Eugene Peterson writes:
“Let me tell you why you are here…”
The whole sermon is full of instructions for the people of God.
It reminds us of the attitudes we are supposed to carry with us into the world and how we can serve God and God’s Kingdom.
We are supposed to fulfill God’s laws – God’s plans and guide for how we love and live with one another.
And as we do, we become salt and light.
Our very lives, our witness, helps others to experience God.
Think a bit about what it means to be salt and light.
We aren’t called to be salty in a way that is angry and bitter and ill-tempered.
Salt takes what is already there and brings out the flavors. It helps us taste what is hidden.
When you sprinkle salt on watermelon or tomatoes, the flavors are more bright and sweet.
When you add salt to soup, it becomes rich and deep.
Salt is used for curing and preserving and healing.
That is our job!
We bring out the “God-flavors of this earth” (MSG) by pointing to the good news and movement of God and lifting up stories of life and hope.
In the same way, the light of God within us helps others to see God.
Our faith is not meant to be secret or private… but to shine far and wide so that others might have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ as well.
So the testimony and witness of the Book of Acts tells us about how those first Jewish disciples lived in the way Jesus called them to live.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God within them, they were salt and light… not just for themselves, or for their neighbors, but for the entire world.
We see it in that first community in Jerusalem that gathered to break breads and pray and learn at the feet of the apostles.
We see it in how they cared for the vulnerable within the community.
We see it in how people were healed, and faith deepened, and understanding of the Kingdom of God expanded and grew.
Even when persecution and threats could have driven them underground, hiding away the light of God in their hearts, they shone.
And suddenly, this small group of Jewish disciples who believed that Jesus was the Messiah became an international movement of Jews and Gentiles.
Which brings us to Antioch.
If we remember, the experience of Pentecost was itself had a global impact because Jewish faithful from across the world had returned to the city for the festival.
But, after the death of Stephen, some of those disciples fled and returned home… some all the way to the northern end of the Mediterranean Sea.
They began to be salt and light back home, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with their fellow Jews.
And because Antioch was a huge, cosmopolitan city – a crossroads of the world at this time – some of those folks from Phoenicia and Cyprus and even people as far away as the north African city of Cyrene found themselves together.
As the Holy Spirit led them, they pointed to what God was doing in the world and just like Peter had experienced in Caesarea, Gentiles began to join the movement as well.
That’s the thing about salt and light.
It can’t be hidden away.
It can’t be contained to just one thing.
If you salt your potatoes on the plate, some is bound to land on the chicken and broccoli, too.
If you set a light in one corner of a room, eventually the whole space will be illuminated.
Jesus was telling those first disciples that if they followed his way, the whole world would notice.
So why are we surprised when they do?
The leaders of the church in Jerusalem heard about these happenings and decided to send Barnabas up to check on things.
You know, I have to be honest, before this summer and taking the time to really look closely at the book of Acts, I really didn’t know who Barnabas was… but he is such an instrumental part of this early Jesus movement!
Barnabas is the guy in chapter 4 who sells his land and gives the proceeds to the poor.
Barnabas is also the guy who vouches for Saul when he comes back to Jerusalem after his transformation.
And he’s the guy who gets sent to this community in Antioch.
This is an incredibly strategic decision on the part of the apostles.
Scripture tells us that Barnabas was actually from Cyprus, this island in the northern Mediterranean Sea.
Although he was Jewish, a Levite in fact, he had a cross-cultural identity, growing up outside of Israel in a region that had been ruled by various empires and was a major player in regional trade.
So Barnabas would have largely understood the customs and traditions of this Roman trade city.
And when he arrives, what he finds is a mixed Jewish and Gentile community that is full of salt and light and the power of God.
Barnabas himself is a non-Hebrew Jew.
He has heard about Peter’s experience with the Roman soldier, Cornelius.
So when he arrives and sees the Holy Spirit moving among this diverse group of folks, he is filled with joy and starts to figure out how he can encourage them to grow even more fully into their relationship with God.
His gets himself situated and preaches a few sermons, but then realizes that this needs to be a team effort and he goes to Tarsus to search for Saul.
Yep, that Saul.
The one that Barnabas had vouched for in Jerusalem.
The one who had stirred up some conflict among the other Greek-speaking Jews and got sent back home.
Home for Saul was on the northern Mediterranean.
You see, he, too, had this kind of dual-identity.
Firmly Jewish, and yet also a Roman citizen, fluent in the Greek culture and world.
Together, these two became a dynamic team that helped to shape the church into more than just a Jewish sect.
The Spirit of God truly had moved beyond Jerusalem… beyond Samaria… and from Antioch would move to the ends of the earth.
As such, this group of folks needed a new name.
They were more than a Jewish community.
The Holy Spirit fell upon all who would believe in Jesus Christ so that they might be salt and light for the world.
As Paul would later write to the church in Galatia, “You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28)
And if we are all one in Christ, made God’s children through faith in Christ, what better name for this group than Christian.
These Christians in Antioch understood why they were there.
To know God and to know Jesus.
To be salt and light for the world.
And to reach out in love to their neighbors.
In fact, when they heard about a potential disaster, a famine, headed towards the people of Judea, they took up a collection and sent it to Jerusalem to help.
We are here today, because of that diverse and vibrant community in Antioch.
Because of the way they didn’t let labels get in the way of who was welcome.
Because they let their light shine beyond their city to bring healing and hope to the world.
From Jerusalem… to Samaria… to Antioch… to right here in Des Moines, we are called to do the same.
To let our light shine so that others might know God.
To bring out and support the work God is already doing healing and bringing hope to the people of this community.
To love our neighbors.
Whether that is providing milk and juice for the families at Hawthorne Hill…
Or signing up to tutor at schools this fall…
Or volunteering with Vacation Bible School…
Or the ways, big and small, you make a difference in the lives of others through your daily work…
Be light.
Be salt.
Be evidence of God’s grace to a world that is desperate for hope.
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