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Sermon: St Bartholomew - 24 Aug 2014

 
Preacher:
Date:
Sunday 24th August 2014
Service:
Cathedral Eucharist
Listen:
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Greatness through service, growth through faithfulness and graciousness in our dealings with others.

St Bartholomew the Apostle, 24th August 2014.

+ In nomine Patris…

What does human life in the world look like when lived by a Christian? What does it look like when lived by the collection of Christians called ‘Church’? And what does leadership look like in that body? These are all questions raised on this feast of St Bartholomew the Apostle, and we can begin to find answers in today’s readings that describe greatness through service, growth through faithfulness and graciousness in our dealings with others. Today’s feast helps us to draw from the roots of the Church that is preached by Jesus Christ as the way to life in the Father’s presence and that is anointed by the life-giving Spirit of God at Pentecost, at which Bartholomew was present.

So who was Bartholomew? And what does it mean to say he was an apostle? Who Bartholomew actually was is lost in the mists of time. There is certainly a Bartholomew mentioned as being one of the eleven who witnessed the Ascension of Jesus, and joined with the Mary, the Mother of the Lord, and the other disciples, praying expectantly for the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.13, 14) which duly came in tongues of fire and a mighty rushing wind on the Day of Pentecost.

And an apostle? For the answer to that we have to begin at the end. Every time we gather for the Eucharist the final words send us out, ‘get out of here…’ or rather, ‘Go in peace…’ That is the clue to being an apostle; an apostle is one who is sent, sent for a purpose in the power of the SpiritG ‘go’ is an apostolic, missionary word. Bartholomew, the one who is sent in mission to live as a Christian in the world.

‘Mission’ is a slippery word, and today more so than ever. It’s a word long ago appropriated by the military and business: bomber pilots go on missions; businesses have mission plans and strategies. Mission can have the sense of being one step removed from things or be a spin off. Similarly in ‘church-talk’ mission is sometimes associated with functions that are almost quite remote, self-standing activities or projects, often overseas. That is mission as an ‘add-on’. Bartholomew, and the apostles, show us mission not as an ‘add-on’ but as integral to the life of the Church, because mission is life in the Spirit.

Recent writers on mission have spoken of the missio Dei, the mission of God, emphasising that the life of the Church is always initiated and led by God. Mission is the business of inhabiting what it means to be a Christian living in the world, both as individuals in our decisions and choices and corporately. So my decision about my financial giving to church or charity, my propriety in decisions that affect the lives of others are the stuff of mission. Debates about women bishops, sexuality and those things that consume the Church are not side shows, they part of our life, our mission because they are about discernment and how we graciously life alongside each other for the sake of the world. Celebrating the Eucharist is an expression of God’s enduring mission.

Mission is about living the gospel of Jesus, being renewed by the Spirit and led to the Father’s presence. Mission is about us telling the story of the good news of God’s love for the world from his act of creation to each act of recreation day by day.

A recent Church of England report was called From Anecdote to Evidence. It was about mission, but emphasised numbers in relation to church growth. The point it was trying to make was that there are good stories to tell about the life of the Church up and down the land but that these stories, anecdotes, need backing up by evidence. If missio Dei is about God’s mission it is primarily attested to by story, by anecdote. Metrics and measurements don’t tell the complete story of living life as Christian in the world today, or what that life looks like. We have confused numbers and numerical growth with health and faithfulness. Was Bartholomew successful as an apostle? Am I? Are you? Is success even the right criterion?

A more pertinent question is about faithfulness in apostolic mission. Was Bartholomew faithful? Am I? Are you? That begins to get us somewhere, since it is God’s mission under which we are sent not our mission to be successful or numerically growing to which we second the Holy Spirit.

There’s a challenge then for those called to lead in apostolic mission today. Those people are our Bishops (Common Worship: Ordination Services Study Edition p. 55). That is where there is a beautiful convergence on the feast of Bartholomew with our dedication to the Holy Spirit and being a cathedral, the Bishop’s church, as he leads in mission. Leading in mission is not about dreaming up initiatives and programmes, but rather going with the grain of where God is acting and leading, in the Body of Christ and God’s world. The challenge is remain faithful in a changing world, as it always was.

So to return to the scriptures and my opening questions. What does human life in the world look like when lived by a Christian? What does it look like when lived by the collection of Christians called ‘Church’? And what does leadership look like in that body?

At table on the night before he died Jesus describes life in the Church as the greatest among us being like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves the table (Luke 22.26). Yet he promises a kingdom in which those who remain faithful in his trials – which continue today - will eat and drink in with him in that kingdom (Luke 22.28-30). A call to faithfulness in the apostolic faith.

St Paul clearly knew this teaching and as a pastoral theologian in apostolic ministry reflected on the life of the budding Christian communities in places like Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi and Galatia and taught them drawing deep on his experience of the Risen Christ. Writing to the Corinthians, in the passage read today, he says human life lived in the church – by the baptised and those called to lead - looks like this: apostolic ministry is one of being treated like the dregs of the world and yet, ‘when reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered we speak kindly’ (1 Corinthians 4.12, 13). This sounds hard for us in a success, growth obsessed society; so how painful it must be for bishops and the faithful of Iraq, Syria and other parts of the world as they live out the mission of God in their contexts.

Little success: great faithfulness in living out the faith handed to us by the apostles. On this feast of Bartholomew the Apostle let us recommit ourselves to greatness through service, growth through faithfulness and graciousness in our dealings with others.