Today is the Feast of St. Bartholomew. The Gospel reading today is from John 1, where Philip invites Nathanael to meet Jesus. In the synoptic Gospels, when the Twelve are listed, the name Bartholomew pops up. It is believed that Nathanael is Bartholomew. The name means Son of Ptolemy. Bar means son and his father was Ptolemy. It morphed into Bartholomew.
Nathanael asks a question to his friend Philip when Philip tells him Jesus is from Nazareth. "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Nazareth was a Galilean backwater town that seemingly had no connection to anything. But the question has always struck me with the implications.
Think of places where we may ask that question. Can anything good come from Washington DC? Can anything good come from a prison? Now let's take it a step further. Can anything good come from the Lloyd (or fill in the blank) family? See where that goes? Often our prejudices can jade us to believe nothing good can come from a place or group we may not think highly of. When our prejudices make us lean that way, let's remember what good came from Nazareth.
Father, forgive our prejudging because of someone's background. Remind us that you can bring good from anywhere...or anyone. Amen.
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