Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

Scattered throughout the church year are festivals on which a particular saint is remembered and honored. For more than 1,200 years now, August 24th has been set as the day to commemorate the life and work of St. Bartholomew. Inspite of this long tradition, most people don't know much about Bartholomew. Think about it. What can you tell me about this apostle? I suspect that it isn't much. After all, nobody really knows much about this first century man of faith, because the Bible doesn't tell us much. The only time that the name Bartholomew is mentioned in the New Testament is in the lists of Jesus' twelve disciples. All we really know about Bartholomew is that he was part of that close, intimate group of men who traveled with Jesus during his earthly ministry.

We may not even know his real name. Lacking lasts names like we have, people in the first century were often distinguished by the place from which they came or by their father's name. In our Gospel reading, Jesus is identified in both ways: as "Jesus, son of Joseph" and as "Jesus of Nazareth." Bartholomew means "Son of Talmai" and looks more like a surname than a given name.

We actually may know a little more about Bartholomew. Did any of you wonder why the Gospel lesson for today tells about Philip and Nathanael, but never even mentions Bartholomew? It is because many scholars agree with an old tradition in the church which considers Nathanael and Bartholomew one and the same disciple. This is because in Matthew, Mark, and Luke Bartholomew is included in the list of the Twelve, but Nathanael is not. In John, Nathanael is mentioned, but never Bartholomew. Both Bartholomew and Nathanael, however, are associated with Philip. This would make this disciples full name Nathanael Bartholomew (son of Talmai). If this tradition is correct, then we know a little more about Bartholomew than we first thought. But not much.

Other, extra-Biblical traditions about Bartholomew seek to fill in the gap. Some of these traditions say he was a missionary to India, some say to Persia, some say to Egypt. One tradition says that he was skinned alive for his faith and another says he was sewn into a leather bag and dropped into the ocean. Obviously, these traditions cannot all be true, but they are undoubtedly correct about one thing - Bartholomew was a faithful disciple who served in the name of Jesus and made a difference in his world.

Every six years, August 24 falls on a Sunday, and pastors are left to talk about Bartholomew. But what can you say about such an obscure saint when the Bible gives you so little to go on? Well, as I think about Bartholomew, I am struck by how much like most of us he is. Most Christians are rather ordinary, undistinguished saints. Of all the Christians who have lived and died since the days of Jesus, the vast majority are virtual unknowns. Very few of them have left us with anything more than a name on some church records and perhaps a little of their lineage. It is no different for most of us. In a few hundred years, what record of our faith and life will be remembered? I suspect that most of us will be like Bartholomew - a faceless name on some church roles, a person of the past with no distinguishing marks.

If that strikes you as rather depressing, remember that we have not been called to make a name for ourselves. We have been called to live and to serve in the name of Jesus. It is much more important that we lift up the name of Jesus than that we make a name for ourselves. What we do in the name of Jesus will make a difference, whether we are remembered by name or not.

Because Bartholomew was that kind of a disciple - ordinary and undistinguished, yet a faithful servant who served Jesus and made a difference in the world - I would nominate him as the patron saint of ordinary Christians - Christians like you and me. Bartholomew was not like Peter - the colorful, impetuous disciple whose words and actions stand out in so many Gospel stories. Neither was Bartholomew like Paul, the intense and prolific apostle who planted the church on virgin soil and nurture it with inspired letters that are still read and studied today. No, Bartholomew was just an ordinary saint, and the role he played was neither outstanding nor exceptional.

But undistinguished and unexceptional does not mean unimportant. The work of God's kingdom has always been carried out by ordinary saints like Bartholomew and by common Christians like us. Church fathers such as Augustine and great reformers such as Martin Luther certainly made outstanding contributions to the faith and life of the church, but without the ordinary saints who carried on the work that they had begun, there would be no church today and the reformation would never have gotten off the ground. It was the countless unknowns, the nameless and unsung saints of the past who have carried the Gospel down through the ages. And it is the host of ordinary Christians, who today are teaching Sunday School, walking for hunger, inviting others to come and see Jesus, providing a meal when someone is hospitalized, serving on a church council or committee, who are helping to build up the kingdom of God now and to carry the Gospel into the future.

Bartholomew was just such an ordinary disciple, and this ordinariness is reflected in the calling of Nathanael. Nathanael did not have a dramatic conversion experience. He was not like Moses who stood before a burning bush and heard the voice of God. He was not like Paul who was knocked to the ground on the Road to Damascus. No, Nathanael was simply a faithful Israelite - a Jew who had grown up believing in God and waiting for the promised Messiah. When he met Jesus, he realized that this was the one for whom he had been waiting. Following Jesus was not a step in a new direction for Nathanael, but a step forward in the direction he had been going.

Many of us are like Nathanael in this regard. We grew up in a Christian home and never knew anything else except the love and forgiveness of our God. We never had a dramatic conversion experience where we went from no faith to true faith, but we did come to see Jesus and to recognize him as the Son of God.

In Nathanael's experience we see that God often comes to people in rather ordinary ways and through rather ordinary people. When Nathanael was told about Jesus of Nazareth, he was not impressed. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" he asked. Now, Nazareth was a rather small, unimportant village just across the valley from Nathanael's hometown of Cana. The two villages were rivals at the time - rivals at the bottom of the heap, not the top. It was not surprising that Nathanael was dubious that someone of distinction or importance would come from such an ordinary place. But Nathanael was willing to go and see - and he found in what undoubtedly appeared to most people to be a rather ordinary Galilean the extraordinary presence of God.

Our God still comes to us in ordinary ways - through the ordinary water of baptism, through the ordinary bread and wine of Holy Communion. And God still comes to us through rather ordinary people - average parents, mediocre pastors, undistinguished Sunday School teachers. Yet when we come with an open mind and true heart, we can see the extraordinary presence and experience the extraordinary power of God. When we do, God uses us, ordinary people doing ordinary things, to build up the kingdom and to make a difference in our world. So as we commemorate St Bartholomew this year, let us seek to follow his undistinguished faithfulness. Without striving for glory and recognition, let us be content to be faithful, ordinary followers of Jesus. Then there will come a day when we will hear our Lord say, "Well done, you good and faithful servant." Amen.