+Points to ponder

1. How does the story of St. Bartholomew encourage you in your Christian faith?
2. St. Bartholomew died a martyr’s death for his faith. In what ways do we need to die for the sake of our faith?
3. Is there someone you can think of that needs to hear the Gospel? If so, begin by praying specifically for the Spirit to open their eyes and heart.

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto each of you from God our Father and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: almighty God, Your Son, Jesus Christ, chose Bartholomew to be an apostle to preach the blessed Gospel. Grant that Your Church may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

“An earthly ruler gathers taxes from the people. The heavenly Ruler gives His Son to the people. An earthly ruler demands; the heavenly Ruler offers. God spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’ An earthly Caesar fills his coffers with the coins of the people, but the heavenly Ruler sends His Son that people might have treasures in heaven.”

St. Paul suggests this very thing in the text just before our reading in 2nd Corinthians. He writes, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Paul alludes to the power of God in creation, when His Word literally brought light into existence. And more, that miraculous Word of creation is at work through the Gospel, which alone can enlighten hearts that are dark with sin.

Further, the righteousness, love, and grace of God (indeed God’s very heart) are seen in Jesus. This is the treasure of which we hear Paul speak at the outset of our reading. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” “Like invaluable gifts wrapped in plain paper, ministers of the Gospel, such as Paul, were frail; they dispensed the Gospel’s treasures. God’s overwhelming, all-encompassing power in His grace toward the world, comes then, into stark contrast to human incapability.”

Thus, Paul elucidates this human incapability, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” Paul and his colleagues are spared the full outcomes of their frailties by the surpassing power and grace of God in Christ Jesus.

“Sharing the Gospel with others is challenging in a sinful, rebellious world. ‘Great and grievous, indeed, are these dangers and temptations, which every Christian must bear. We bear them even though each one were alone by himself.’ But you and I – we – can always trust in the Lord and the power of the Gospel to see it through. He has promised to be with us always.”

As we share the treasure that is the Gospel of Jesus, Paul reminds us that we are “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”

“Paul, as a minister of the Gospel, not only preached Christ crucified, but also was literally wounded for that message. To this Christians – we – are challenged to reflect that Christ is love by willing self-sacrifice and service, so that others might come to know Jesus’ love.

“Picture a father away on a business trip. Before coming home, he buys a gift for his little boy – a billfold with a $5 bill hidden inside. He walks into the house, calls his son, and gives him the gift. The boy is so excited that he grabs the billfold and runs to show his friends before his father is able to explain that there is more to the gift. It was good the boy was excited about the gift, but he should have contained his enthusiasm until he fully understood and appreciated the total gift. Even so, our mission is to the whole person [to share the greatest] gift of the Good News of Jesus Christ and the new life He brings.”

As we continue to work together on being Help, Hope, and Home, in the Body of Christ here at Redeemer, we do well to hear and heed the wisdom of God from reading in the book of Proverbs: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” We are but clay vessels animated and blessed by the Potter who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs – who brought us together as His people – who sent His Son that we could be His Church – who calls us into His mission of Love and Mercy even in the midst of the turmoil and tumult of a world hell-bent against the Gospel.

And so, with this mission in mind, we are brought to the festival of St. Bartholomew whom we celebrate today. “St. Bartholomew (also called Nathanael) was one of the first of our Lord’s disciples. His home was in Cana of Galilee, where the Lord performed His first miracle. According to St. John’s Gospel, Philip sought to introduce his friend to Jesus in Judea. Nathanael was more than a little skeptical about a Messiah who hailed from the town of Nazareth (a town not even mentioned in the Old Testament). But Philip urged him, ‘Come and see.’ He did, and as so many have done since, he left a changed person.

When he approached Jesus, the Lord said, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael did not understand how the Lord could possibly know him. Jesus answered, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’ This elicits the powerful confession from Nathanael, ‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God! Your are the King of Israel!’ Jesus then promised that he would see greater things than this. ‘You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.’ Jesus promised him something better than Jacob’s vision at Bethel.

Bartholomew was with the other disciples, except for Thomas, behind the locked doors on Easter evening when our Lord appeared, and then again with them a week later when Thomas was called from unbelief to faith. In John 21, he went fishing with Peter, Andrew, James, and John. The risen One called to them from the shore, blessed them with a miraculous catch of 153 fish, and then shared a breakfast with them. Thus, at least three times after the resurrection, the Lord revealed Himself to Bartholomew. He was, of course, with the Twelve and Mary in the Upper Room on Pentecost and so a recipient of the Spirit’s flame and a participant in the miraculous speaking in various tongues.

According to very old tradition in the Church, St. Bartholomew carried the Gospel of Jesus to Armenia. There he had success in converting the king, but the king’s brother was reportedly so angered at this that he had Bartholomew flayed alive. He died a witness to the resurrection. The terrible torture lasted only for a time, but the eternal life His Savior had won was forever. His symbol in the art of the Church is a flaying knife.”

St. Bartholomew’s life and death – sharing the Gospel and dying for the faith echoes – gives a picture of Paul’s teaching found just after our reading for today. He says, “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So, death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence.”

Paul and his companions were persecuted, beaten, and threatened with death. Bartholomew, as we heard, shared the Gospel in the face of the threat of death. And so, in Paul’s and Bartholomew’s frailties and struggles, the Gospel message exhibited its power all the more.

Beloved, you and I, along with all those who follow Christ, are not exempt from pain and suffering. We are not immune from the slings and arrows of those seeking to cancel and to annul people who won’t succumb or surrender to the self-delusions on which many of the ideologues sit.

As ones belonging to Christ, we do not belong to the world. Thus, Jesus reminded His followers: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

And so, when earthen vessels are broken, when we – you and I – can admit that we are but ‘cracked pots,’ the treasure of God’s power and grace is even more clearly revealed to a world that so desperately needs the Good News of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”