Feast of St Bartolomew – St Helen’s, Abingdon

25 August 2024

WActs 5.12-16 / 1 Corinthians 4.9-15 / Luke 22.24-30
God has exhibited us apostles… as though sentenced to death, because
we have become a spectacle to the world.…

W In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – AmenT

he interior of the Cathedral in Milan — the Duomo — does
not make extensive use of the abundant sunlight with which God
bathes northern Italy, nor does it waste any lira on its electrical lighting.
The lighting scheme leans toward contrast between bright, clear
highlights and dusky shadows; thus it displays to great effect theaspects of the interior that the church wants to make prominent, whileleaving the less favoured side chapels and sculpture in a sort of midday
twilight.
So it was, at least when I visited the Duomo years ago, sauntering
through the aisles and gaping and praying and kneeling and taking
discreet photographs of the memorable sights. I noticed one statue inparticular, of a saint with an unusual robe wrapped around his waist
and draped over his arm, holding a book half-open against his thigh.
The most striking feature of this figure was the intricately detailed
modelling of the saint’s musculature, all the tendons and ligaments
and even some veins clearly visible; he didn’t just have a six-pack of abs,
his whole torso taut with finely detailed rippling muscles… until I halfrealised and half-remembered that this statue memorialised Saint
Bartholomew, who — according to many accounts — was martyred byhaving his skin stripped from him. And indeed, what I had first
perceived as his robe, on second examination surely represented hisskin, draped across his back and casually over his arm as if it were ashawl.
Now, Margaret will attest that I have a weak stomach for such sights,
and I turned away quickly to settle my nerves and regain mycomposure. But the shocking power of that image has stayed with me,
a nightmare, but at the same time a vivid sign (as I am sure that thesculptor intended) that the punishing torture that Bartholomew’s
captors inflicted upon him did not make him a pitiable victim, but
signified for the defiant saint and for the church that remembers him
the truth of St Paul’s words this morning: We apostles have become aspectacle to the world, to angels and to humans. We embody the Gospel
on display. When we follow Christ in the way he set out for us, we makeour the texture of our lives unintelligible to those among ourneighbours who see only our foolishness. While many aim to cultivatesocial prominence, spotlit fame and the political power to force others tofulfil their will, the way of Christ, the way of Bartholomew reminds usthat the narrow gate and the bruising way, lead to life. That may not be
the popular, broad, well-paved High Street, but at the terminus of theWay of the Lord its pilgrims will inherit, as daughters and sons of theKing, a glorious Realm of peace and rest.
One point especially pertinent to today’s feast bears emphasising.
We must not set suffering, mortification of the flesh, as our goal in itself,
not even as a goal for drawing closer to God. Suffering is strictly apredictable side effect of our determination, yours and mine, to live
differently (in the words Jen proclaimed to us last Sunday): ‘It is thewisdom that the Church has that is to be valued, and embraced, even if
those on the outside see it as foolishness’. Not all who suffer areadvancing toward spiritual depth, and not all who are advancing towardspiritual depth suffer. St Paul simply warns us that we ought to expectthat people who think we’re behaving foolishly, or counterculturally, orinexplicably, may treat us as if we are foolish, mad, or dangerous.
At the same time, Paul introduces his discussion of the apostles as ameans of characterising the way that a life dedicated to Christ ought tolook to outsiders. The way of Christ doesn’t lead by way of denying ourbodies, hating our bodies; our bodies are a gift, a very good thing,afforded us for bodily purposes. With our bodies, we cook; with ourbodies we pray; with our bodies we love and serve and care for one
another. With our bodies we sing and make music. With our bodies wepaint, we roll, we touch one another. With our bodies we continue thework of Christ.
And in all these pursuits, our bodies take us to the verge of heaven,to the precipice overlooking the precincts of paradise. Jesus lived andworked and taught, bodily. Jesus died and was raised from death, bodily.
St Paul received the Gospel and preached up and down the EgnatianWay, bodily, and he endured harassment, beatings, and ultimately
death, bodily. Peter and John made known the power of Jesus’s name inhealing the immobile man, bodily. Bartholomew taught and Healed andwas martyred, bodily. And Jesus rose again, bodily, as we all shall rise,bodily. And now as in that day, our prayers, our songs, our service, ourpaintings, our cakes, our poems, our love carry us past the bounds ofbodies, to the hoped-for goal of boundless joy in God’s grace.
So St Bartholomew stands in the shadows of Milan’s Duomo, strong
and proud, every muscle, sinew, vein and nerve and yes even his skinon display to the world that tortured him, bodily proclaiming that theworld with which today we may be misaligned — this world will bereordered, reconciled to the Gospel. On that day, the multitude whohave stood with Jesus, stood with his troubled sisters, with his bedbound brothers, who have persisted in the righteousness that comesfrom God in a world that trusts weapons and wile, all who have stoodby Jesus in his trials: he confers on them, just as his Father hasconferred on him, a kingdom, a kingdom without domination, without
helplessness, a kingdom without subjection where the enemies of peacemust find their way through the unfamiliarly gentle world offorgiveness and grace.
May we all come to that kingdom, poor and lonely, proud andhumble, wealthy and wise. May we all stand up for Jesus as supporters,fellow workers, as his apostles, emissaries, as lightbearers in confusing,beclouded times. May we train our bodies for the joyous task ofamplifying the glory of God in solidarity with Bartholomew, with Peterand Paul and Helen and saints throughout the ages, bodily proclaiming
the hope of wholeness and holiness, the love for strangers andneighbours and friends and rivals, and the embodied faith in Jesus
Christ —In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

Amen