Acts 5: 12-16
Luke 22: 24-30
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples. I’d like to use the feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle to think a little about what it means to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and what it means to call the Church ‘apostolic’. In a few moments, we’ll say the creed together and towards the end we’ll declare that the church is ‘one, holy, catholic, and apostolic’. What does it mean to call the church ‘apostolic’? So that’s the theme this morning: what it means to be an apostle of Jesus Christ and what it means to call the church ‘apostolic’.
When we think of followers of Jesus Christ, there are two words that come to mind: disciples and apostles. The four gospels tell us about the first twelve disciples, and they also tell us about a wider group of women and men who are disciples. The word ‘disciple’ means a pupil or student. In the ancient world, that meant someone who lived alongside a teacher, hanging on their every word, imitating their way of life. That’s what Jesus’ disciples do: as they walk together on the shores of the Galilee and move between its town and villages, they share Jesus’ daily life. They listen to his words and observe his actions. They come to know him as the good shepherd who draws his disciples into the very life of God.
We also have the word ‘apostle’. The gospels tell us that Jesus named his twelve disciples ‘apostles’. St. Luke writes the sequel to his gospel about the life of the earliest Christian community and calls it ‘The Acts of the Apostles’. St. Paul doesn’t use the word ‘disciple’, but he does refer to himself as an apostle. So what is an apostle? An apostle – the Greek word apostolos – is someone who is sent. An apostle is a messenger. This is why Paul refers to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ: he encountered the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus and was sent to witness to Christ’s new life, particularly to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish world. Jesus also sends his closest disciples, calling them apostles. St. John in his gospel records Jesus greeting the disciples, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20.21)
So here’s the picture: God the Father sends his Son Jesus Christ into the world. Christ in turn draws his closest disciples from Galilee and sends them into the world to witness to his gospel and risen life. The risen Christ calls Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and sends him into the world as Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. These first apostles, the ones who are sent, including Bartholomew, have authority because they are eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life and resurrection. They are equipped with Jesus’ teaching and the gifts of the Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost.
We are an apostolic church in the sense that the church of today is exactly the same church, the same body, as that formed by the first apostles, the first to be sent by Jesus into the world to witness to his risen life. We inherit our Christian faith from the first apostles; we don’t invent it. It’s something we receive as a gift and live afresh in each generation. The first generation of apostles handed their faith in Jesus Christ to a new generation. They laid hands on them and sent them into the world to teach the Word of life, to baptise, and to celebrate the Eucharist. So the dynamism of sending continues down the generations. It is renewed when new ministers are ordained and sent into the world in this ‘apostolic succession’.
But here’s the crucial bit. Those of us who are ordained have hands laid upon us by the Bishop and are sent so that we can witness to Christ’s risen life. But we witness to Christ only so that we can gather God’s people, feed them with the word of life and the bread of heaven, and send them into the world to witness to Christ’s risen life. We gather here this morning to hear God’s word in scripture and receive Christ’s risen life in the Eucharist, only so that we can be sent out into the world to witness to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. That’s why the very last sentences of this service, the dismissal of God’s people, are very important, because we’re being sent: Go in the peace of Christ. Go, all of you, as Christ’s apostles, the ones who are sent into the world, and tell the world that Jesus lives. In that crucial sense, we are an apostolic church: we are sent into the world to witness to Jesus Christ the risen Lord.
That sounds daunting, doesn’t it? Sent into the world to witness to Jesus Christ the risen Lord. How? What does that mean? It can mean many things but let me offer you two thoughts. If we are the people of God who inherit the faith given to the first apostles, we go from church this morning into the world as people who – despite the pain and suffering of the world, despite the pain and anxiety that we all experience – believe that life and love are eternal. What’s final and fundamental is not death, but life as God’s gift in Jesus. And that gives us hope. It enables us to pray because we have hope. It enables us to live having already died to sin and death. That’s the first thought. The second thought comes from this morning’s gospel. If we are the people of God who inherit the faith of the first apostles, we go from church this morning into the world as people who serve. The love of Christ for the world is shown in the service that we offer to the world. If the church is to have any authority in the world, it will only be the authority born of service. The service that each of us offers may not be heroic or remarkable. It may be as simple but vital as praying for others in need. It may be helping a neighbour or volunteering. We may see our job as an act of service that enables others to flourish as human beings made in God’s image, through education or medicine or the arts or business or academic research or hospitality. But we see ourselves fundamentally as servants in the world, enabling the lives of others because we believe our life comes as a gift from God.
We give thanks today for St. Bartholomew the Apostle whose faith we inherit. We are sent into the world today as an apostolic people, a people who are sent to witness to the risen life of Christ crucified. Having been sent, we’ll gather again next week to know the forgiveness of sins, to learn more as disciples of Christ through the scriptures, to be fed again in the Eucharist, and to be sent again as apostles of Christ and servants in the world. At the end of this service, go in the peace of Christ and give thanks to God. In lives of love and service, following the example of St. Bartholomew and the apostles, make known the love of God in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.