Sermon
of April 17, 2005
Presented by Rev. Chuck Ericson
Scripture lesson: Acts
2:42-47 & Acts 4:32-37
“Singled Out”
Making a special effort to acknowledge individual accomplishments or individual tasks is something that’s pretty common for us. Our faith story is full of people being singled out – like Moses, for going to get the Ten Commandments…or Noah, for building the Ark…or Ruth, who among all the people who left foreign lands and came to be among the people of Israel, Ruth is singled out as one of the most prominent. We single out people here in our church, too. You read through the bulletin—people are singled out: if they give flowers, their name is put in the bulletin. Often if it’s in memory of somebody, then it’s also helping us to remember a single person or a couple of people. When people sing and offer beautiful music like we’ve heard so many times, their names are put in the bulletin; or sometimes when there’s a moment for Stephen Ministries or a moment for Missions, we put names, we single people out for special reasons. Sometimes it’s so we can thank them afterwards and sometimes it’s just so we know who they are. Sometimes we wonder, “Who was that that spoke?” or, “Who was that that gave the flowers today?” or “Who was that who sang so beautifully?”
In our two scripture readings we have two out of three passages in Acts that are commonly called “Summary Statements”. I’ve used that term before, and a Summary Statement is just a portion of Acts that tells about, summarizes, the early life of the Christian community and so much of it in the first, or all of it in the first passage and most of it in the second passage that we heard is about the whole community together: how people gathered, and they shared prayers, they broke bread together, they prayed, they gathered for fellowship and they also took their property and sold it and gave the proceeds to the Apostles for distribution to all so that everybody’s needs were evenly met. But in those statements that tell about the whole community, at the very end of the second one, Joseph, called Barnabas, Son of Encouragement by the Apostles, was singled out as someone special, so I want to take a look at that today, what it means to be singled out, and the positives and the negatives about it.
I’m going to start with the negatives.
You see, sometimes being singled out is not a good thing. If you hear the name from sports, Dennis Rodman, you think of sort of an oddball, crazy person. I think most people do. Diehard basketball fans will say that he’s probably one of the greatest rebounders that ever played the game. He had incredible talent—still does have incredible talent—but the kind of weird things he did in his personal life caused him to be remembered more by most people, I think, for being kind of an oddball. So we can be singled out and remembered by people for very negative things even when we have very positive attributes. Another obvious example today is Michael Jackson who has such incredible, incredible musical talent and creativity but unfortunately may not be remembered that way, unfortunately for him and for many other people, too.
We always have the possibility for being remembered for negative reasons ourselves, too, so it’s important to watch how we act, and my own personal example goes back to third grade and Miss Porter who I think I might have mentioned before but she just fits in perfectly right here. See, in third grade I had this teacher named Miss Porter. Miss Porter was an imposing woman, and a very stern teacher, a very good teacher, but in third grade I hadn’t mastered the skill yet of keeping my mouth shut. Some would say I still have not mastered that skill. So I’d be sitting in Miss Porter’s class and Miss Porter would call us by our formal names: it would not be Chuck or John or Steve, it would be Steven or Jonathan or in my case, “CHARLES”. So I’d be sitting at my desk, and I’d be whispering to somebody over here and Miss Porter would say, “CHARLES, be quiet”. “Yes Miss Porter”. A little time would go by and I’d be talking to somebody over here again, and, “CHARLES”. “Yes Miss Porter?” “This is the last chance I’m going to warn you.” “OK Miss Porter”. And a little more time would go by but finally, I’d whisper to somebody next to me again. “CHARLES”. “Yes Miss Porter?” “OUT IN THE HALL, AND BRING YOUR DESK WITH YOU”. Do you remember those? Some of you don’t remember those—but it’s not that nice, easy desk, with a thin top and a little wire basket underneath for your books—it had legs that big around, I swear, and a big huge top like that and a bottom under it and you had all your books and you had to carry that whole thing. So I got singled out. For my misbehavior for a negative reason and had to bring my desk, and I had to go back and get my chair too and sit out in the hall and Mr. Randazzo, who was my principal, would walk by every once in a while and say, “Oh, Chuck.” (he called me Chuck) “Been talking again, huh? In Miss Porter’s class?” “Yes”. “Shouldn’t do that”. “I know”. So it’s a negative reason. However, you can tell that I don’t work out a whole lot but whatever muscles I have, whatever physical ability I have, I owe to Miss Porter and the opportunity to carry that desk in and out of the hall many times during the course of that year. It also explains a lot to some of you who have been in committee and board meetings with me who see that same behavior still continuing after all these years.
So we can be singled out for negative reasons. In fact even one chapter later in Acts there is a story of two people, Ananias and Sapphira, who also got the word that you’re supposed to sell your property and your goods and bring the proceeds to the Apostles and lay it at their feet and have it used for the good of all. They sold their property but they didn’t bring all the proceeds, they kept some of it, and they were remembered for withholding what everybody else was giving; for being selfish and protective of their own interests instead of being concerned about the good of the whole community. So even in the Bible…even at this critical time when the community was being formed…there were people singled out and remembered for negative reasons, for the way they didn’t give of themselves to the whole community.
So there are negative reasons.
But there’s also positive reasons, too, positive reasons that we can be singled out. Last night I was watching the show after the Red Sox baseball game. They were interviewing Jason Varitek who is the catcher of the Red Sox and who was in the off season named the captain of the team – the first time they’ve had a captain in quite a while, and I remember when that was done. He was singled out to be considered the official leader of the team and it was because he spent so much time with young pitchers helping them to develop their styles and being very patient and encouraging with them, for taking time after games to stay many hours later and work with them and help them to gain their confidence; for his integrity and how he treats everybody equally on the team and he was singled out—a really good example of a sports figure who doesn’t seem to have an oddball part of his life to go against him so he’s being remembered now and singled out by his team for being a person of high integrity and hard work ethic.
And we are remembered that way from time to time too and I have another story from myself. It wasn’t until I got to seminary that I did a little bit better in school, well, I did better but I didn’t have anybody like Miss Porter, but I had a preaching professor named the Rev. Dr. Eddie S. O’Neal, who was also a very imposing figure: a big man, a strong man, a man with a great command of peoples’ attention. He called me “Chuck”. I’m not Charles, I got off better with Dr. O’Neill. But he had this habit of expecting great loads of work. Most classes were four credits, his was only two but you had to read as many books as you did for the four credit classes, and when you were delivering your sermons he would be very challenging and critical of everything you did to try and help you develop. In fact, this didn’t happen to me, but many people got up to deliver their trial sermon in the class and as they were standing up there he would walk up just before they began and take their notes away from them so they had to do the whole thing, expecting they would have their notes, but then didn’t. I had a chance to tell him a couple of years ago, “I’m doing it—without notes”, although they’re back there if I need them, or there’s something back there. One wonderful thing that happened at the end of the class was that I got an A in the class and that was very good but the best thing happened at graduation. There used to be an award that they gave at Andover-Newton called the Whittemore Bookstore Award for Preaching and Promise in the Parish Ministry. A lot of Ps there—a lot of alliteration, and in the graduation booklet there was my name next to that, and it had to be recommended by the Rev. Dr. Eddie S. O’Neal to receive that award. So that just was the most wonderful thing feeling singled out this time for a positive reason not for talking at the wrong time but I guess for talking at the right time, and saying the right things and doing well in that class and it was something I will never forget.
So being singled out can be a very positive thing too and that’s the kind of thing we want. And that’s why Barnabas was singled out in the Book of Acts by Luke. I told you this before but if you’re becoming Biblical scholars you should know that Luke is thought to be the writer of Acts as well as the gospel of Luke, the two-part story of Jesus’ life in the early Christian church. So when Luke is telling about the whole community, at the very end of this second summary statement he singles out Joseph, also known as Barnabas, also known as the Son of Encouragement. He’s singled out, probably because of the way he gave his gift because he was encouraging to others and because later on he backed it up by following Paul on one of his missionary journeys and continuing to give of his faith and himself for the growth of the early church.
Now we all
have chances to go one way or the other, to be remembered in a certain situation
and singled out for something negative or for something positive…for something
selfless, for something that shows we have integrity, that we have faith, that
we are Christ-like. We have opportunities, and chances, all the time--moments
come up when we know that we can step out of the crowd and single ourselves out
and distinguish ourselves by doing something that’s going to make a positive
difference or do something that’s going to make a negative difference. It’s
just a momentary decision but it’s our decision. It’s up to us to decide to
be Ananias and Sapphira or Barnabas. The correct answer is
And the good
news today is it’s all a very simple task. I was talking with someone the
other day about the difference between simple and easy. It’s not always easy
to do the kind of thing that distinguishes you where you’re singled out for
doing the right thing, the thing that makes a positive difference. But it is
simple—it’s a simple decision. You’re caught in that moment and you know
you have it in you to step out of the crowd and do something that’s going to
make a difference and it can go either way. It’s simple to say, “I’m going
to do the thing that’s encouraging. I’m going to do the thing that makes a
positive difference.” Now the demands of that may not be easy, but the
decision to go that way is simple. It’s one way or the other, and you go the
way that’s the way of encouragement and the way of positiveness. And the way
to do that is to know that your faith lives right deep in the center of your
heart. That every day you wake up and that’s what’s going to guide you. That
you invite God to be present in your life as I’m sure Barnabas and all the
other Apostles did and Ananias and Sapphira probably didn’t that day, invite
God to be present in you and everything you do and seek to live as Christ lived
and follow the example of Christ in every situation. It’s just reminding
ourselves of those things and remembering when we have the chance to step out
and be singled out, that that will lead us to the right choice.