Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
Our entire society gears us to crave success. We’re taught from an early age that hard work will get us to the top of everything, and that is where we want to be. Power, money, fame, and success are things that will mean we’ve made it.
Bartholomew, the Disciple we remember today, didn’t quite fit into that definition of success. Yes, he’s there in Scripture and mentioned as being with the “cool kids”, but other than that, we don’t see much mention of him. In fact, the one real story connected with Bartholomew we get is identified with Nathanael in John, and we are still unsure whether Bartholomew and Nathanael are, in fact, two names for the same person or just two separate individuals who followed Jesus. That story has more to do with Nathanael moving from doubt to belief in Jesus anyways.
What Jesus tells us in the Gospel today is that all of this is okay. Having fame and recognition doesn’t matter. We are not called to lord power and recognition over others. We are called instead to serve, just as Jesus did. We are called to help others, even if it means we don’t always receive recognition. We are called to render unto others even if we receive nothing back.
We may not know everything Bartholomew did and that’s okay. It means that he listened to what Jesus said and served, and as Jesus tells us, serving makes him the greatest of all.