READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Proverbs 3:1-8
1 Corinthians 12:27-31
- St. Luke 6:12-19
Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and our Lord
Jesus, the Christ.
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His
Church, saying:
“And when day
came, He called His disciples and chose from them twelve, whom He named
apostles:”
As we celebrate the Feast of St. Bartholomew (or Nathaniel)
today, we hear our Lord Jesus Christ choosing Twelve out of many, to be His
chosen Apostles. 12 sent men, as Jesus was sent by the Father, to swindle the
whole world out of their time, effort, and cash. And St. Bartholomew gives one
of the best models of how to do this, that is, to be skinned alive for the
Faith. So, once you do that, then the fame starts rolling in.
Jesus gives us twelve men to spread His Gospel and they are
the only ones authorized by God, to do such a thing. If you want the words of
God, you need an Apostle. Plain and simple. These twelve were not here for
mysterious purposes, but to proclaim the free Justification of Sinners in
Jesus, and for us to continue living in that teaching.
Throughout history, when men try to create religion, in
order to keep the divine and the human separate, they often turned to symbols
to describe heavenly things, because God is unknowable and can’t describe
Himself or His own things, apparently. One of those symbols is numbers and thus
numbers have been used in many religions. You think your mathematics are
harmless, but it is a religion.
What I think happened was, God used a certain number of
things for whatever purpose He described and some people took those numbers of
things as the real message and gift from Him. That is, if you have the right
number of things, or offer the right number, or are the right number, then you
have access to God and no one else does.
So when God creates the world and everything in it in 7
days, 7 becomes a mysterious number. When God reveals Himself to be three
Persons in one God, 3 becomes a religious number. When He chooses 12 tribes of
Israel and 12 Apostles of the Church, now 12 joins the mix. And so on.
In this arithmancy, or numerology, however, numbers are
given the driver’s seat. As in, they can even predict and move God without
God’s approval. For example: if you chant a 3 by 3 Alleluia, then it is most
pleasing to Him and your prayers are heard. If you accidently add an Alleluia,
then He is displeased. 10 is right out.
Numerology is one of the things the Jews turn to after their
return from the Babylonian exile, when the Glory Cloud would no longer appear
in the Second Temple they built. With the apparent lack of the supernatural,
the natural had to suffice for religion. As long as the proper amounts were
present, as long as the proper days were observed, as long as the calculated
laws were followed then God must still be there.
One example of this change is seen in the menorah, the
candles used by modern Jews for Hannukah, mainly. The menorah, literally
“candlestick”, was supposed to be based off the candelabras in the Temple,
which had seven lights on them. 7, of course, being the days of the week
according to the days of creation. A reminder of God’s giving light to the
whole cosmos, yet being present with His people, in a tent.
Just before Jesus arrives, in this
no-supernatural-temple-intertestamental-time, Hannukah actually happens where
the menorah in the Temple stayed lit for 8 days, when there wasn’t enough oil
for 1, in the attempt to restore the Temple again. Thus, the Jews changed the
menorah for themselves, thinking that this was now at least some small miracle
and word from God in so long a time. So now the menorah has 8 +1 candles, by
law.
Now aren’t we acting the same way, pastor, with our candles?
[If you look we don’t have 7 either. We have 8 and if you
count the Paschal candle, that’s 9, just like the Jews.]
Well, technically, there were two candelabras in the Temple,
2 x 7, for the two eyes of God, which makes 14. And the 8 we have are for the
eighth day of Resurrection and Jesus at the center, with the Paschal candle,
makes 9.
And on and on the crazy goes. And unless we heed the words
of Isaiah, we will fall into the same trap of legalism and mysticism,
forgetting God and forgetting the point. Isaiah says in 22:11, “but you
looked not to Him that made it from the beginning, and regarded not Him that
created it”.
Jesus is the giver from the beginning. There is no power in
amount of things given or the number of stars, or the size of offerings. The
sole power of them all is the Word of Promise behind them. It is Jesus Who
promises that He will create all things in 7 days. “7” is not there first, then
Jesus uses the magical power of 7 to do His work.
It is Jesus Who promises to rise again on the eighth day,
not giving special power to “8” or using the special geometric and algebraic
qualities of “8”, but giving resurrection.
Likewise, The Twelve. He gave the twelve sons to Jacob, the
twelve tribes to Israel, and the 12 Apostles to the world in order that “their
line … [go] out unto all lands, and their words to the ends of the earth” (Rom
10:18). That is that the Gospel be preached to all nations.
Here is what the religions of the world get wrong. They look
to the creature, rather than the Creator. They look to the thing given and
divine some mystery in themselves, instead of hearing from the Mouth of God
what is the use and of what number.
Jesus only has one number: complete. Now, where does that
fall on the number scale? It doesn’t. And that’s part of the point. All the way
from the beginning, God plays ritual reversal. Where the world wants to create
access points to heaven, God chivalrously just opens the door. Where the world
wants to decode, and sacrifice, or please God, He speaks plainly.
The ritual reversal is: we don’t offer anything to God. He
offers it all to us. It is all a gift. “He gave gifts to men”, He says
in Ephesians 4:11. If Jesus wants to give 12 Apostles, then He gives the
Apostles, not the number 12. After this, the number 12 now simply has the added
job of reminding us of the Apostles, every time we hear it.
Our own candles in number are only here to point us to God.
And by pointing us to God, point us to His greatest work of salvation on the
cross. For there is only 1 Jesus on the cross, Who is 2 both God and man, part
of the Trinity 3 in 1, giving us the 4 Gospels starting with the 5 books of
Moses and the 6 days of Creation, with a 7th day of rest and an 8th day of
resurrection, dying for us in the 9th hour, perfecting the 10 commandments,
accepting us up to the 11th hour, through His chosen men, the Twelve.
It is not the numbers, it is Jesus. He says, “All day
long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people”, in
Romans 10:21, not “all day long I have given them number codes”. It is the
hands of Jesus, pierced and scourged, that are the message that gives faith,
forgiveness, and eternal life.
This is what St. Bartholomew, and all the Apostles, suffers
and dies for. It is the hands that are tattooed with nails that are held out
for all to see and believe. And there are two hands, just as every man has,
held out by God Himself, proclaiming to repent and believe the Gospel preached
to you.
Jesus reveals to us that “a great sign was seen in
heaven: a woman clothed who has been adorned with the sun, and the moon under
beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1). What
does one do with that truth from God’s own mouth?
Or when Jesus says, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life” (Jn 14:6) and “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything
that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For
he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully
treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the
third day he will rise” (Lk 18:31-33)?
If we keep God relegated to numbers and mysteries, then He
is easy to control and life is easy for us. However, if God Himself has invaded
our sinful world, and if He has proclaimed such truths to us, and if He has
risen even from the dead, then what is more important than hearing that
preaching and His Word, holding it sacred and gladly learning it?
And if that Apostolic preaching and teaching says that the
living Christ comes among His gathered people to teach them and feed them in
public worship, and that the life of the church flows to her from Christ
Himself, then what is more important than weekly gathering together to receive
His gifts and respond to Him with our prayers and praise and offerings?
Now you have a glimpse into St. Bartholomew’s motivation to
suffer and die as his Savior did. Nothing is more important. Nothing is more
important than communing with God Who comes to Church. Nothing is more
important than seeing His Christ behind everything. Nothing is more important
than knowing and believing that Christ is in His Word and Sacraments and in
death, which let’s us trust that Baptism has the strength divine to make life
immortal mine.
So, regardless of whether there are twelve gates, twelve
angels, twelve names, twelve tribes, twelve foundations, twelve pearls, twelve
fruits, or twelve times twelve and a half; now in these last days, God has
spoken to us by His Son.
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