Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

From Old Testament of the Day: Therefore the Lord waits  – to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself – to show mercy to you. [Isaiah 30.18a]

From the Epistle: Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. [Ephesians 2.19-20; NKJV]

From the Holy Gospel: Nathaniel said to Him, “How do you known me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” [John 1.48]

      The Feast of St. Bartholomew, the Apostle, is found in the historic Western church calendar this year on Tuesday, the 24 of August, and we have transferred it to this Sunday service. Moreover, the first two readings of the day come, not from the propers for St. Bartholomew Day, but from the Feast of St. Philip and St. James, which we skipped earlier, on the 1^st of May to be exact. Why this shuffle? This is why!

I.

     The Holy Gospel for this day, just read to you, presents Philip and Nathaniel (which is Bartholomew's less formal, everyday name). They are friends. Philip has already heard of Jesus and wants Nathaniel to accompany him to see Jesus. Nathaniel is not very impressed with his friend Philip's plan.

     Throughout the Gospel records, Philip's plans and proposals do not impress those who hear them. It is to Philip that Jesus puts the question of where to buy bread to feed five thousand men, for which Philip is stunned. During Holy Week, Philip is impressive as he and fellow apostle-in-training, Andrew, bring some inquiring Greeks to Jesus (where most upstanding Jewish believers would have shooed such Gentiles a way).   But, by Holy Thursday, Philip's impressive talk falters, as he says, in gross ignorance of what he is asking on his and his fellows' behalf: “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us!” Imagine that, “show us the One who cannot be seen through human eyes, and we'll be satisfied” – meaning, then we'll REALLY believe. To which Jesus must say, “Have I been with you so long, and still you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen ME has seen the Father.”

     Well, back at the beginning of our Lord's ministry, Philip drags an uninterested Nathaniel/Bartholomew to see Jesus, and Nathaniel isn't impressed, UNTIL – Jesus mentions where and when He sees Nathaniel while still far away. That gets Nathaniel's attention, though for the wrong reason. Jesus must teach these two their first lesson in apostleship: “Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these – truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

     You might wish also to hear something from May 1 of St. James, the son of Alphaeus, also called “the  Younger,” to distinguish him from James, the son of Zebedee, called “the Elder,” whose death we observe on the 25^th of July. But, while we are pulling apostles' days together, alas, for other than identifying James the Younger's name we know absolutely nothing of a certainty about the life and words of this apostles.

Indeed, beyond the  encounter between Jesus and Bartholomew, we know virtually nothing of certainty about his life and apostolic service either, although he, too, has been connected, in today's observance of his martyrdom, with the  event back in the last days of our Lord leading up to the cross, when the disciples disputed among themselves concerning who is to be the greatest among them as the chief followers of Jesus.

II.

The point here is this: The disciples are not to be seen as greater and lesser in their own eyes, nor in yours. They are what Christ has called them to be: Servant-leaders in the Church. And not just any servant-leaders such as God raises up in every generation. These are the  unique first-and-in-that-light-only servant-leaders of Christ's Church. They are the foundation of the New Testament Church, and for that we honor them today, with gratitude to the Lord who called them to service and through them extended the Gospel throughout the world and throughout time, and especially with gratitude for that same Gospel that has saved, protected, and forgiven us!

St. Paul describes our relationship between them and us in this way, in the Epistle that you heard today: “You are no longer strangers and aliens” – meaning, the fast growing and soon-to-be vast believers among the former pagan Gentiles are not going to be second-class citizens in a Jewish-founded Church.  No, rather, as St. Paul continues – “but you are fellow citizens with the saints (of old) and members of the (one and only) household of God that actually exists.” “Moreover,” St. Paul goes on, “you are part of the Church which is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself being the one true cornerstone.”

Now, this is all well and good, and comfortingly familiar. But what does it truly mean for you and for me to be built on the foundation of the apostles? It means this: You are not to think anything, or say anything, or believe anything, as true and right and helpful, UNLESS what you think or say or believe comes straight from the apostles and prophets, as we find the record of their teachings in the Scriptures.

III.

Does this mean that we should not have an organ for our services because the apostles didn't have, let alone know how to play, a keyboard? Not at all! It means that everything that comes to you through the Word of God is to be embraced as exactly how your heavenly Father wants you to think, ponder, believe, or say in daily life. Nothing new will ever further inform or flesh out God's Word to you. It is yours in and only in the apostolic Word of God.

Moreover, it is important that the Church and those who are privileged to lead in it, understand how the connection of the truth of God's salvation is captured in the Scriptures, and the manner in which, through Word and Sacrament we are brought into and kept in the Church of Christ, taught there, and sustained there. Thus, the connection between the truths of the faith in Christ and the apostles, and the experience of our lives as Christians today, is a two-directional highway, carrying the truth to us and carrying us back to the truth.  That is the nature of the Christian life. Traveling back and forth between the holy days of salvation and the daily lives of salvation, surrounded by the saints, moment by moment, today. And all along that highway, our Lord God awaits with His grace and blessings. It is as today's Old Testament teaches: Therefore the Lord waits  – to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself – to show mercy to you! And all the saints of all time call to you and guide you today, as you are now on the highway of life, saying God  will be gracious! God will show mercy to you! Their voices comprise the foundation of your faith!

We have saints days because in their being, doing, and teaching, to whatever degree that God has granted you to have all or any of these, you are being called back to your fundamental faith, which comprises the truth of your sinful situation, and then the promises of God, how the Holy Spirit continues to awaken you to faith, saves you, calls you to lives under the Gospel, and for the Gospel, and protects you, and keeps you, and delivers you, with all the saints, into the halls of everlasting life.