The Lesser Festival for Saint Bartholomew, 24 08 25

A Sermon by Pastor Evan McClanahan

John 1:43-51 NRSV

^{The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”}

A Man with No Guile

 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Prank videos are one of the more viral kinds of video you will find on social media. They may be somewhat harmless jump scares or choreographed segments using hidden cameras. I guess it goes all the way back to “Candid Camera,” but now since everyone has a video camera, they are pretty easy to create.

 I don’t like them. Besides not being a good use of my time – even my leisure time when I have fulfilled all of the day’s responsibilities – I’m not sure they are good for my soul. Yes, some pranks are harmless fun, especially in real life if they a part of the process of team or morale building. Think of the new recruits in a military unit, a baseball clubhouse, or a fraternity. They will prank one another as a way to build important camaraderie, camaraderie needed later in the trenches and foxholes of life.

Apart from that, many of these pranking videos just seem mean. I don’t like fooling people. I don’t like the lying that accompanies such pranks. I don’t like taking advantage of a person’s good nature and willingness to trust. And comedically speaking, there is often no wit involved, just laughing at someone else’s expense. There is a cynicism that can become all too prevalent when pranking becomes our main form of comedy. I’ll take puns anyway.

Of course, cynicism is not just a problem in comedic video circles. Cynicisms defines our public life in many ways. At the top, our media and political leaders massage each word to imply this or deny that, spinning the truth constantly if not outright lying to our face. where the well-being and lives of potentially millions of people are at stake, it is intelligence officers that often guide elected leaders on what they ought to do. And they will lie and lie and lie again to provoke a war or to elongate a war.

At a much more local level, the way we are marketed to reduces us to propagandized consumers only. The way we have allowed crime and homelessness to define cities is insanely cynical. It can become a problem that is created, that requires a lot of money to solve, and yet no matter how much money is spent “on the problem,” the problem is never solved. That is deeply cynical.

Perpetual lying, even for the sake of a supposedly noble cause, erodes trust and gets us closer and closer to a world where the only things that matter are money and/or power. Even written contracts or judgements in a lawsuit mean very little, because everyone engaging in them knows that the terms will not be kept without the use of force. These are the little – or big – things that define a world marked more by cynicism than the virtues of Saint Bartholomew.

Yes, today is Saint Bartholomew’s day. You may have noticed that his name was not read in our texts today and that is because Nathaniel in John’s Gospel is believed to be the same person as the Bartholomew listed in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That is because, like Clark Kent and Superman, these two men are never in the same place at the same time. (Bartholomew is almost certainly a Hebrew name, “Bar”  in Aramaic meaning “Son of”, as in Barabbas or Bar-Jesus or Bar-Jonah. So perhaps John is highlighting his Greek name while Matthew, Mark, and Luke are highlighting his Hebrew name.)

But Bartholomew is given one of Jesus’ highest compliments in all of scripture. It is right up there with the woman that anoints Jesus’ feet and Jesus says that she will be remembered wherever the Gospel is proclaimed. Or the Roman Centurion, whose servant is ill: to him, Jesus says, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

What does he say about Bartholomew? John records: “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” Modern translations will often use the word “deceit” instead of guile. But isn’t “guile” a better word? Of course, it means deceit. But “guile” has a cunning quality about it. It rhymes with “bile”, and that’s kind of what “guile” is: duplicitous, acidic, revolting in its qualities.

 But in Bartholomew, there is no guile. He is what you might call a “straight shooter.” You might say about him, “What you see is what you get.” But more to the point, he has no interest in deceiving others. In all of his interactions, he is honest, forthright, and he puts the interests of others first, or at least equal to his own. Because if you have no guile and you intend no deceit, you must, by definition, put the needs of others first.

Let’s put it this way, if someone is selling you a car, you hope they have no guile. If someone is giving you a bid on some construction work, you hope they have no guile. If someone is telling you why you are wrong about your religious or moral convictions, you hope they have no guile. Yes, people without guile are rare and a true blessing. Because there are no secrets, no ulterior motives, and no changes to the deal after the fact.

Now, of course Bartholomew was not perfect. He sinned. But his sins were not of the devious variety. And surely this is a quality to which we should all aspire. In all of our vocations, our intentions and motives and speech should be clear. If we say something, we mean it. If someone wants to know our thoughts on something, we offer them. We do not expect a reward for doing the right thing. We are open books. We are radically transparent people because we have nothing to hide. If we do not intend to deceive people, then there is no reason not to be transparent. We want our Lord, if not the world, to say about us: in us, there was no guile.

This would be a blessing to the world, a world marked by cynicism and duplicity. For example, as I watch peace negotiations taking place between, really, Europe and Russia, I have this daydream where I imagine one president leaning towards the other and saying, “Hey, let’s put all these military and economic and land questions to the side. Tell me, what do you think about Jesus?” In theory, all nations involved in this conflict are Christian. Vladimir Putin crosses himself regularly. Why can’t that be appealed to?

I would love to see the face of the other man if someone dared to ask that question, in all innocence, without guile, with no cynical outcome other than peace. For Jesus, you see, is   a name that elicits a reaction. Either positive enough to end wars. Or negative enough to perpetuate them.

For God hates violence, but the devil loves violence. Jesus, and most of all a shared commitment to Jesus, is enough to bring peace to the world. So, in my daydream, the guile, the deceit, the treachery, the advanced planning, and the spin are all wiped away with the mention of Jesus’ name. For once the name of Jesus is invoked between two men, they must either commit to him and work towards peace, or they acknowledge an even darker conflict than the battlefield.

If I am not speaking plainly enough, let me say it this way: the President of Russia needs to be evangelized. The president of Ukraine needs to be evangelized. The Prime Minister of Israel needs to be evangelized. The leader of Hamas and the leader of Iran need to be evangelized, too.

Yes, Jesus is not just good for our souls. He is necessary for peace. And we should be evangelizing these nations. That would acting without guile, without deceit, as Bartholomew might. We should project the same kind of innocence and clarity that Bartholomew did, even in so-called secular settings like peace negotiations. It would be our most powerful tool in achieving peace. More powerful than B-2s and bombs and soldiers. For if two men share a kinship in Christ, the moral authority and the moral demands to change become impossible to ignore.

Bartholomew would go on to preach to many nations and, if the stories are true, died an agonizing death for converting the king of Armenia to Christianity. And that really proves the point, doesn’t it. Bartholomew possessed such little guile, that he was willing to pay the ultimate price for meddling in the most dangerous politics of all. Might we have the courage – or perhaps it is just the lack of concern – to be as guileless as Bartholomew. To share the Gospel with all without fear of reprisal. And to be considered by Christ to be above reproach. Make no mistake, in a cynical age, it would be a revolutionary act to be found without guile.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

— 

©Evan McClanahan

   pastor@flhouston.org

   First Lutheran

   Houston, TX, USA