St Andrew

Last Thursday was the Feast Day of St Andrew – most of us will know him as the Patron Saint of Scotland, but perhaps some will know him as the Patron Saint of Russia or even Greece. Apparently he became Patron Saint of Scotland because of a legend that his relics were taken there in the 8^th century – it seems that at the most this involved 3 fingers from his right hand, a bone from his arm, one tooth and a knee cap, but nevertheless this apparently inspired Hungus the king of the Picts, to defeat the English, and the cross of St Andrew became the standard of Scotland !

But whatever traditions and legends have surrounded Andrew he has undoubtedly left an example for us to follow today in terms of his service and his commitment to the cause of sharing the good news of Jesus.

Andrew along with his brother, Simon Peter, was the first of the disciples to be called – responding to Jesus’ promise to make them fishers of men. He then seems to have remained with Jesus throughout his ministry, and after Jesus’ death and resurrection it is thought that he travelled on several missionary journeys before eventually being martyred on an X-shaped cross.

And so to his example today – and I want to think about 3 particular things. The first is his willingness to follow Jesus. When we first hear of Andrew in John’s gospel he is a follower of John the Baptist – perhaps he was already searching for the Messiah, and this made him more alert to the call of Jesus, but to dismiss his willingness to follow quite as easily as that would be a huge mistake.

Andrew was leaving his job as a fisherman, but also his home, perhaps a family and certainly any chance of security. Today it’s very easy for us to pledge allegiance to Jesus, because actually it seems to cost us very little, but the challenge we are set by Andrew is to really think what we are doing for Jesus today.

In this season of advent we have the chance for self examination and preparation – what are we doing with our lives ? what is our commitment to Jesus ? what more could and should we be doing ?

The second point is that whilst Andrew and Simon Peter answered this call of Jesus immediately it seems that Andrew had met him before as well – in John’s gospel again we are told that John the Baptist had already said that Jesus was the Lamb of God, the promised and the expected Saviour – he was the one who people had been waiting for, and when Andrew heard this he ran off to tell his brother the good news, ‘We have found the Messiah !’

And that excitement is a wonderful example to us. He was so pleased with the news that he wanted to share it with others – and that excitement and that need to share good news is something that the Church today so often desperately needs to recapture.

Last week as some of you know I went on a course called ‘Leading the Church into growth’, and one of the points that was made was that however many great efforts we make at evangelistic events, or wonderful services, or whatever, the most effective tool for sharing the gospel of Jesus is for us just to tell people what he means to us, and to show that to people in our lives.

As we approach Christmas we have wonderful opportunities to invite people to a service of celebration – perhaps for the Christingle Service next week or the Carol service the week after… Andrew was well aware of the need to make the most of opportunities – it was he who brought the boy to Jesus with 5 loaves and 2 fishes, and it was he, along with Philip, who brought some Greeks to meet Jesus.

He didn’t know how Jesus could use the loaves and fishes, but he believed that he could – he may not have known whether the Greeks were ready to follow Jesus, but he knew that he had to offer them the chance to listen.

Andrew was a great evangelist and missionary because he saw and he took the opportunity to just share what Jesus meant to him. We may not all be great evangelists, and we are not called to be, but we are all called to evangelise…

And the third thing to consider about Andrew is that he was always ready to take a back seat – he was among the first disciples to be called, yet he never really seemed to be in the inner circle – for example when Jesus went to heal Jairus’ daughter it was Peter, James and John that he took with him, and again it was those three that went with Jesus to the mount of Transfiguration, and into the garden at Gethsemane after the Last Supper.

None of this seemed to bother Andrew – even the fact that he was so often referred just as Simon Peter’s brother doesn’t seem to have worried him at all.

What was important to him was spending time in Jesus’ company, doing the work of Jesus – he didn’t care who took the credit as long as it was Jesus who received the glory… He was never a man to steal the limelight, but he was always there, always dependable and always ready to serve – he was the kind of man that every leader depends upon.

And Jesus still depends on such people today – there will be some called to positions of leadership in the Church, some called to be specifically evangelists or missionaries, but that doesn’t make the rest any less important – there’s the well known and true story of Albert McMakin, a 24 year old farmer who became a Christian – he was so full of enthusiasm, a bit like Andrew, that he invited his friends to come to a meeting and hear about Jesus.

One of the friends he eventually persuaded to come was Billy Graham – a man who has since been used by God to change the lives of millions of people throughout the world – we won’t all be like Billy Graham, but we can all be like Albert McMakin.

Perhaps an even better example is that of Andrew himself who went off excitedly to tell his brother about Jesus, and that brother, Simon Peter, eventually became known just as Peter, and was described as the Rock upon which the whole Church would be built.

Andrew lived and died as a missionary of Christ – he lived and died serving God with a huge amount of devotion and love. He reminds us to seek God’s will and be willing to act upon that will, he reminds us to take the opportunities we have to tell people about Jesus, and he reminds us not to be filled with pride in what we do, but to point to the majesty and the wonder and the love of God himself.

As we begin this advent season I think it’s worth asking ourselves how much love and devotion we are really giving to God, and how much do we look for and take opportunities to tell people about Jesus and about our Church, and finally perhaps it’s also worth asking ourselves if we are really listening to what God wants us to do, and whether we are really doing it… I’ll finish with the Collect for St Andrew’s Day :-

Almighty God who gave such grace to your Apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus and brought his brother with him: call us by your word and give us grace to follow you without delay and to tell the good news of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. AMEN