Bartholomew

“I am not called to be famous, I am called to be faithful." Mother Teresa

I would like to start off today with a question. Will you be remembered when you’re gone and if so, for what? This really began to penetrate my thoughts last Sunday at church. I was not really paying attention to the message because some of the pressures of life were dominating my mind on this particular morning. I began thinking of something I had read that caused me to stumble upon a verse found in the book of Luke 6:12.

I was watching the PGA in the morning before I headed to church and the announcers had mentioned a person I had never heard of before. So I did a quick search of him on the pgatour.com web-site. Then I decided to find out a little more about him by checking his stats, world ranking and other info. After just a few minutes, I began to reflect on the thought of, “I wonder how many people know him, I wonder where he grew up, if he had children etc…?” Then I remembered a stat that I had read a few years back and began to think of myself. The stat was in this statement that I have re-worded. “After a generation you will never be remembered…after your kids kid’s are gone, you will never be thought of again”. I know it’s kind of a weird thought, but I am pretty sure most of us begin thinking like this from time to time especially when you’re over fifty.

So as I sat in church this weekend, I stumbled across the verse that I have highlighted, marked and sub-titled in my favorite bible. But it is marked for another reason. I would use this story of Jesus to teach on the importance of priorities.  In this section of scripture, found in Luke 6:12-19, Jesus is found doing what He normally does. He starts off His day in prayer, then He spends time with His family and friends, then He does His ministry or His vocation or some of us call it a job. I was looking at this to work on a teaching about prayer when it hit me, Jesus is calling His disciples. One of them has the name Bartholomew or better known as Nathanael. The name Bartholomew is a Hebrew name meaning, plowman. Nathanael was more likely his personal name.

I began to think about Bartholomew and what he did after Jesus recognized him under the fig tree in the book of John. We never hear of Bartholomew at all after the one encounter with Jesus. But we do hear about Peter, Judas and John, and a small story of Thomas, but that is about it. This story is for the Bartholomew’s out there, which I believe there are many. They were called by Jesus, had an encounter with the living God and went about their earthly ministry never to be heard of, except for the ones they had touched with the story of the gospel. This is for the folks that are not in ministry to get the accolades or even a pay check. Mother Teresa gave up her wealth and security for the burden she had for others that had nothing. There are a lot of stories of so called “Christian’s” failing morally, financially and other unproductive acts, but the good far out ways the bad, but we do not get to hear of the good. The good is almost extinct in some sense, because of all the attention on the negative ones.

I sat and began to meditate on the Bartholomew theory. I realized that it had happened to me, I am a Bartholomew. I remember first starting out in ministry, thinking, “wow, how am I gonna reach all of those people, I’m not a preacher or a professional communicator, I’ll never be able to do this!” Twenty years later, I have had the privilege to invest, pray, lead bible studies to literally 1000’s of people. Most of you don’t know me and you probably never will. My grandkids kid’s will never talk about me and I know that next generation never will. But, I do know this, we are called to be faithful, not famous.

So if you are working in ministry at any level, whether it is your workplace or your church, give it your best, do whatever it takes to please God, Ephesians 5:10 “Find out what pleases the Lord” and then go and do it! Just remember that the world needs Bartholomew’s. Jesus said in Mathew 9:37 “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”  If you are a Bartholomew, you are blessed. If you are a Bartholomew, you are blessing to others. If you are a Bartholomew, God bless you!