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A Sermon by Dean Charles Tyrrell QSO
Nelson Cathedral
Sunday, 24 August 2008
I love saint’s days! Not just because from time to time we can dress up in red vestments! I’m not that vain! The reason I love saint’s days is because in following this time honoured tradition of remembering them, we can get to know and understand some of the characters of the early church. These men and women didn’t walk around with little circlets of holiness hovering above as some of the artists of antiquity portrayed them! They were flesh and blood just like us, with good sides and less than good sides to their characters. Sainthood doesn’t confer a sheen of spiritual protection on a person but rather confirms the presence of the Holy Spirit, the gift of Jesus at his ascension.
Today’s saint is an enigma. Even when I looked up the usually helpful book ‘For All the Saints’ there was little help there. In it Ken Booth wrote,
The Calendar in the Prayer Book assumes that Bartholomew and Nathanael are one and the same. The identification is probable but not certain. About Bartholomew we know nothing other than his name in various lists of apostles in the first three Gospels and Acts. Nathanael, mentioned only by John, was brought to Jesus by Philip and becomes symbolic of an Israelite worthy of the name, who will see the hopes of Israel fulfilled in Jesus. Nathanael appears again in the resurrection episode beside Lake Galilee.
So, where do we go from here? “If there’s nothing to say, say nothing!” some wit may interject in an attempt to get a short sermon and a short service! Well, sorry to disappoint you but there is something to say, so here goes.
In order that we may take something away with us today, I am going to assume that Bartholomew and Nathaniel is one and the same person. As this is his day, I will call him by his Hebrew name, Bartholomew – son of Tholomei. This man was an avid follower of Jesus who eventually, the tradition has it, was flayed alive and then crucified upside down. Have a look at the window in the nave and you will see some of the symbols associated with the martyred saint.
Bartholomew is to us an unknown quantity but to Jesus and the disciples he was a faithful follower whom they could trust. He was known not to be deceitful but utterly trustworthy, unlike Judas who had his finger in the till from the start! In many ways, Bartholomew stands for the quiet, sometimes unseen, member of the church, the solid foundation upon which the church of Christ is built. In the church, there are those who become well known because of the high office to which they have been appointed and those who grab the headlines often for reasons known only to themselves. For example, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, who at heart is an academic, a theologian, was called to the office of bishop and then archbishop, first of Wales then of Canterbury. I am sure that at heart he would love to get back to the halls of academia rather than dealing with what seems to be controversy after controversy! Dr Williams is one in whom there is no guile, no deceit. I wish those who seem to be opposing him at present will remember that.
Let’s take a brief look at each of the three readings set down for this morning’s services. In so doing, I hope we can pick up a lesson and apply it to ourselves today.
The Old Testament lesson is that famous passage from Genesis 28, continuing the story of Jacob in his plight to discern his future. Now Jacob, who ultimately was given the name Israel – which means ‘God strives’ or ‘God contends’ was certainly NOT an Israelite in whom there was no guile. Do you recall that he stole his brother Esau’s birthright by deception from his blind father Isaac? That action, which was irreversible, drove a wedge between him and his brother and caused him to flee. It was while he was wandering, considering his future, that he became betrothed to the beautiful Rachel but only after another deception had taken place! The love story of Jacob and Rachel is too long to recount here but you can read it for yourselves in Genesis 28 – 30. Jacob was told about Rachel’s family by Isaac even though he had been deceived by his son. It would be expected that Jacob would marry the eldest daughter, Leah, but he really only had eyes for Rachel. When Laban, his future father in law gave in and allowed him to marry the younger daughter, Jacob learned what it would be like to be deceived. On the day of the marriage, and after 7 years of waiting, Leah, encouraged by her family, was dressed up in Rachel’s wedding dress and veil and to trick Jacob into marriage. Jacob was hurt by this deception and after remonstrating with his father in law, promised to work for him for another 7 years in order to gain Rachel’s hand. So, ultimately, Jacob ended up with both sisters as wives.
Deception nurtures deception, and that is a lesson we would all do well to learn. We might have the best motives but if we aim to gain something by deception then the sin is magnified instead of being forgiven. Jacob learned that and we must know it for ourselves. Bartholomew was renowned to be an ‘Israelite in whom there is no deceit, or guile’ and we must order our lives to be likewise guileless, honest and true.
The words of the apostle Paul to the Corinthian believers fit in well here. Do you recall our reading where it said,
‘Since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practise cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.’
Paul writing to these early Greek Christians was helping to put their lives into perspective. They were living in turbulent and dangerous days when it might prolong a person’s life if they were to hide the truth of their conversion to Christ. Paul reminded his correspondents that we are mere vessels of God’s grace, like clay jars which are ultimately dispensable. It is God who is eternal.
I feel that today there is a trend to use, even abuse scripture in order to validate one’s own beliefs. It would be easy to pick out passages at random in order to build up a case in support of personal prejudices. Instead, we need to be open to the Holy Spirit who helps us to understand scripture, in its entirety, and not to hop about seeking personal validation. It is when we have this holistic approach to scripture that we can hope to know the wholeness of God’s good grace. For as St Paul underlined,
‘We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.’
Finally let us return to the scene recorded only in St John’s gospel where Jesus was meeting with Nathaniel/Bartholomew. The meeting came about because of the ministry of St Philip. In fact in the Gospels Philip and Bartholomew are always paired together. At first Bartholomew was sceptical about Jesus ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ but Philip persisted and said to him “Come and see.” And so he did and Bartholomew left his first encounter with Jesus so convinced that he was the long awaited Messiah that he said, ‘‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ That was as important and revealing as Thomas’s “My Lord and my God” was to be after the resurrection.
Jesus recognized that this was a good man, worthy of his call to be a disciple and witness to the truth of God in Christ. Now we remember him with great pleasure and are privileged to keep the memory of this quiet Christian alive.
So, this is the day for the quiet Christian, those in whom there is no deception or guile. Since I have been at this cathedral I have been privileged to know many such Bartholomew’s. Just the other day we bade farewell to Gwen St George, for example, and I think Gwen would fit the description of a Bartholomew, don’t you? I am sure you can think of many more. In our lives we may have strived with God, we may have been tested through suffering, but by God’s grace we are still here, we are still together, God’s precious family in this place at this time.
May God bless you on your journey of faith and may it be that ultimately people will say of us that “Here is a Christian in whom there was no deceipt.”
Amen.
This sermon was written and delivered by Dean Charles Tyrrell QSO at Nelson Cathedral on Sunday, 24 August 2008
