On 24th August we celebrate the feast of St Bartholomew, hence the change in the liturgical colours to red. But who is this Bartholomew? Although he is listed in the synoptic gospels as being among the apostles and also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension, he is one of the apostles of whom no word is reported nor any individual action reported in the New Testament.

The fact is from about the ninth century, scholars have associated him with Nathanael, as mentioned in John’s gospel. In the synoptic gospels, Philip and Bartholomew are always mentioned together, while Nathanael is never mentioned. In John’s gospel, on the other hand, Philip and Nathanael are similarly mentioned together but nothing is said of Bartholomew.

Scripture tells us how Philip on his conversion went and found his friend Nathanael/Bartholomew and invited him to meet the Lord. But Nathanael was cynical about the veracity of anyone who came from Nazareth. But Jesus knew how to handle cynicism. ‘Before Philip even spoke to you, I saw you under the fig tree’, Jesus told him, and then the truth dawned on Nathanael, that no ordinary persons vision, in the blinding Palestinian sun, could penetrate the thick shade of a fig tree from a distance. So Nathanael’s cynicism melted into an affirmation of Jesus as Son of God. Once converted, he remained a loyal - if largely unrecorded - member of the twelve.

One tradition has it that after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, evidenced by the writings of Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea. He writes of a certain Pantaenus of Alexandria, who, in the late second century, journeyed to India. Eusebius writes……’and the story goes that there he found, in the hands of some persons who had come to know Christ in that land, the gospel of St Matthew which had anticipated his arrival; for that Bartholomew, one of the apostles had preached to them and left behind the writing of Matthew in the actual Hebrew characters, and it was preserved up to the said time’.

It is also said, that with his fellow apostle Jude, Bartholomew is reputed to have introduced Christianity to Armenia in the first century and both Saints are considered the patron Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is in Azerbaijan that he was martyred by being flayed alive and then crucified head down.

For someone who is hardly mentioned in the Scriptures, Bartholomew is venerated throughout Christendom; in Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Oriental Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. And for those who are interested, he is the patron, amongst others, of bookbinders, butchers, cobblers and leatherworkers.

Bartholomew’s day is associated with a tragic event in that it was on this day that the massacre of French Huguenot’s began in Paris in 1572, when thousands were killed in the religious wars of the time.

So that is what we know of Bartholomew, but this cynical man recognises Jesus for what he is and proclaims him Son of God and King of Israel and takes his place with the inner group of disciples.

Today’s gospel reading shows us the apostles squabbling among themselves as to who is the greatest but strangely enough Jesus commends them for standing by him in his time of trial and difficult times. It’s easy to come along side a friend when life is good, but the testing of friendship comes when trouble arrives.

There must have been something special about Bartholomew that encouraged Jesus immediately to reveal that he could see beyond normal sight. Usually such things were kept hidden. He must have wanted Bartholomew in his team urgently that he needed an instant decision. We don’t know why but the God deals with individuals in different ways.

We can be sure that he will work like this today. Some of us take a longer time to come to full belief, while others declare immediately for Christ. Bartholomew’s case shows that a ‘snap decision’ can lead to a lifelong commitment; we should not be afraid of making up our minds fast (nor of having God make our decision for us, on occasion).

We probably wouldn’t have recruited our mission team as Jesus did. We would have prepared a set of formal application forms etc. We would have needed references etc.

Jesus’ way was simpler and look at the candidates he selected. They came fro a variety of backgrounds; among them, fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot revolutionary. Sometimes we wonder why He could not have selected a better group? Why does he continue to risk his message to weak human beings, frail members of a fallen race, like ourselves.

They may not be a group that we would have selected, but our Lord called them the salt of the earth.

Bartholomew took the gospel to distant lands and paid the ultimate price of martyrdom and now the work of the church is in our hands. God wants all the earth to experience his love and only with our co-operation can he continue his work. He invites us to be his witnesses in today’s world, to promote his ideals and to reflect his concern for the poor and the needy. Only with our words can he speak to people and only with our hearts and hands can his compassion reach them. We are called upon to be an influence for good in our community by being sensitive to the people with whom we live and work.

Will we sit under our fig tree and wait for Jesus to pass by or do we seize the initiative?