Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
A friend of mine and I were talking this week about labels, especially the political labels that we hear tossed around so often during election season: "liberal", "conservative," "Republican" "Democrat" and so on. Both of us pointed out to each other that we didn't really feel like we fit neatly into any of those categories, that there were some things about us that might make people think we're conservative, but other things that might make us seem liberal. We thought "moderate" didn't really do us justice either, since we both hold our views very passionately, and moderate sometimes implies a kind of easy-going passive kind of nature (rightly or wrongly). So we found ourselves frustrated by the labels.
This week was also the beginning of school, and in the aftermath of having this conversation about labels with my friend, I started seeing - to my chagrin - all the times and ways I put labels on my students or other people I encounter: athlete, quiet, gregarious and so on. I guess it's part of human nature to want to categorize things, but I also know that labels can be harmful because they prevent us from really engaging with each other. We can miss so much about others this way!
That was my frame of mind, then, as I read today's gospel reading (John 1:45-51) and I want to suggest that Jesus here offers a way beyond labeling in this passage. Just prior to this passage, Philip has seen Jesus and become convinced that this is THE man. I am so struck by Philip's instantaneous and generous response to Jesus' message - he runs to go tell a friend, Nathaniel. (Tradition says Nathaniel is the same person as Bartholomew, whose feast day we observe today.) So it is that Nathaniel is called to follow Jesus, not by Jesus himself, but by a friend!
Now, Nathaniel is skeptical of Philip's news, and comes close to putting a label on Jesus: Nazorean, from Nazareth, and nothing good comes from there! But Philip insists: "No, Nathaniel, come and see!" And Nathaniel doesn't just walk toward Jesus, he gets up and goes running toward him.
I think it is this action of Nathaniel's - the fact that he is willing to set aside the label to eagerly run toward Jesus, that leads Jesus to say that Nathaniel has no duplicity in him. I think labels often have the effect of making us duplicitous, of not saying or doing things we should say or do because we presume we know what another person will think, feel or life (again, without actually engaging that other person). We end up lying to ourselves and others out of fear or misplaced concern for what they'll think.
But here is Nathaniel showing us another way - why not acknowledge the label is there, and then go running to meet the person anyway? Now, I think it is important to recognize, too, that Nathaniel also shows caution: he waits to hear more from Jesus (the fig tree) before deciding that Jesus is the Son of God. But the fig tree isn't a very high bar for confirmation, for Jesus scoffs: this little fig tree causes Nathaniel to have faith? He'll soon be seeing all God's brilliant glory! (Our first reading for today (Revelation 21:9b-14) gives us a wonderful poetic sense of what that looks like.) The point is that Nathaniel is a very generous person who embraces Christ because of the small things, and despite first thoughts, appearances and labels.
So, on this feast of the apostle Bartholomew (Nathaniel), let us reflect on ways to be likewise generous toward others and less duplicitous toward ourselves. Let us be quick to run and embrace others on one hand, while also holding a (small) amount of caution in the other. And let us be prepared to follow Christ even and especially when he speaks to us in the small things, like the fig tree.
- Jana M. Bennett