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sbartholomew03
Getting
Under Your Skin
Text:
John 1:43-51
Date: St. Bartholomew, Apostle (Pentecost XI)
8/24/03 mid evanescense immortal
When someone says that something or someone is “getting
under their skin,” they usually mean to say that that thing or person
is irritating, bothersome or upsetting. Someone made a list of things
that “get under his skin.” They include “people you want to avoid
but keep running into,” “the moment you realize summer is over,”
“overly-cheery people when I’m depressed,” “cover charges,” “baseball’s
inter-league play,” “change for the sake of change,” “out-of-state
tuition,” and the number one thing that gets under this person’s
skin: corporate politics. You may have your own list.
Of course sometimes the phrase is used positively as
in love for a certain pet or a grandchild or another person, or
when something has captured your attention so fully it grows from
being merely an interest to a hobby, a preoccupation to maybe even
a full-fledged occupation and vocation. Sometimes it can have both
a positive and negative effect as with the game of golf. Now I’ll
admit the intended pun as today we celebrate St. Bartholomew, Apostle
who was martyred by being flayed alive. He is represented in art
usually as an older man holding a knife and his own skin. As one
of the twelve apostles [he is called Bartholomew in Matthew, Mark
and Luke, but Nathanael in John’s Gospel—we might think in terms
of last and first names], having witnessed the teaching and miracles
of Jesus, his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, the
Good News of salvation through the forgiveness of sins solely and
alone through faith in Jesus truly “got under his skin,” that is,
it became the most important thing in his life, even more important,
in the end, than life itself, for he discovered Jesus is life itself.
It wasn’t always like that, of course. Faith starts
slowly and always comes as a surprise, a miracle! Furthermore, the
way and life of faith in Jesus is at once a way filled with the
greatest joy and fraught with danger. The old hymn describes this
as the first stanza begins, “I walk in danger all the way,” balanced
by the last stanzas that confess, “I walk with Jesus all the way,”
and “My walk is heav’nward all the way.” “For all the world I would
not stay; My walk is heav’nward all the way” [LW 391].
But faith starts slowly. Or, better, our awareness
that God has given us faith gradually awakens. Faith begins with
a word. Not just any word but the Divine Word spoken from God in
our hearing. The day came when Jesus decided to go to Galilee. It
was time. And so he found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” It
was an inviting word, a challenging word, a word charged with purpose
and hope for the future. Like a nuclear reactor notice the chain-reaction
that word sets off. John the Baptist released John and Andrew, Andrew
first found his brother Peter and brought him to Jesus. And Philip
found Nathanael Bar-Tholomew and urged him to come and see. So at
the beginning of John’s Gospel we have five called and chosen to
follow. If you did not know anything from the other gospels you
would then be surprised to read at the end of chapter six that they
are suddenly called “the twelve” (v. 67). Where did the other seven
come from? We’re not told of each individual call to follow, but
only how that call comes to this day through witnesses, disciples-made-fishers
of men. Through whom has God’s call to salvation come to you? Your
parents? A friend or a teacher or maybe even (believe it or not)
a preacher?
Did you notice all the “finding” going on here? Jesus
found Philip. Andrew found Peter. Philip found Nathanael. Behind
it all, however, is the One who said, “the Son of Man came to seek
and to save the lost” [Luke 19:10 (ESV)]. The sinful heart does
not seek after God (Rom. 3:11). Rather, it must be the other way
around. God is the shepherd who seeks out his sheep and rescues
them (Ezekiel 34:12). The love of God is a seeking Love that sends
the hurrying feet of those he has found to search and urge and call
the bad and good on every street to fill his boundless banquet hall
(LW 346:3).
It seems that John and Andrew and Peter and Philip
responded immediately and unquestioningly to Jesus’ call to follow
him. Many cannot remember a time they were not Christians—baptized
and brought up in a Christian home. Others, however, may be like
Nathaniel Bar-Tholomew! First, he thought he knew too much. Philip
said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also
the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Well
Nathaniel knew the Messianic hope of Israel, that God said he would
raise up a prophet like Moses from among the brothers (Dt. 18).
Maybe Nathaniel was a bit of a Messianic expert knowing also that
the Messiah would be from the house and lineage of David and that
he would come from Bethlehem of Judea. “Jesus of Nazareth” didn’t
fit the picture. “Nazareth? Nazareth? Can anything good come out
of Nazareth?” Not that Nazareth was a bad place, you understand.
It’s just that Nazareth isn’t mentioned among the 324 or more Messianic
prophecies in the Bible! And what is it about Jesus that still puzzles
you? You’re in good company with Bartholomew. There was plenty that
Nathaniel B. did not yet know about Jesus. Yet with two simple words,
charged with the same drawing power as Jesus’ “follow me,” Philip’s
invitation, “come and see,” that, against his initial doubt and
reluctance, Nathaniel came and saw.
Take this literally, my friends. Evangelism really
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