St. Andrew: Called and Followed [St. Andrew's Day]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson
Matthew 4:18-22
St. Andrew: Called and Followed.
“The word is near you, on your lips
and in your heart.” That could be a
promise. Or that could be a
description. Or that could be a threat.
Today we celebrate St. Andrew. He is our saint, our patron, the one to whom
we have tied our identity. And we are
his parish – according to the apostrophe “s” in the name of this church.
His story begins in that place
where lake meets dry land; Jesus calls him out of the waters and into a new
reality. This story begins with a word –
a word that cut through the sounds of wind and waves and birds and fisherman
hauling heavy nets onto the shore. The
word was like a knife – making a clean cut – separating Andrew's past from the
entirely new future that was about to begin.
The word was like a knife – lodging itself in his heart.
Our Gospel story today is an origin
story. It is the story of a new
beginning. It is a story of
Creation. In many ways not so different
from the Creation story in Genesis. They
both begin with a word. In both stories
a new man is called into being.
I found that interesting as I
considered our patron, Andrew. In the
Greek his name means “man”. In the
Hebrew the word for “man” is Adam. Both
are the starting point for a new thing, a new idea spoken into reality by
divine word. Adam the first of the human
race; Andrew the first follower of Jesus, the first cell of the Body of Christ,
the Church.
When we celebrate Andrew in the
Church, as we discovered in both the Collect of the Day and the Gospel reading,
we focus on Andrew's call, on this origin story. That is mostly for what Andrew is
remembered. If you have an icon of St.
Andrew, for example, most likely it designates the disciple as “First Called”. In John's Gospel, Andrew clearly comes in
first; he even introduces his brother, Peter, to Jesus. And in Matthew's Gospel, from which we heard
today, he is at least tied for first.
His name even begins with the letter “A” - it must be his destiny; he is
always first in line.
But then what? There is no book of the Bible bearing his
name. His brother, Peter, you know, the
Rock upon which the Church is built, takes on a much larger role in the Gospels
and in the history of the Church.
Besides his call story, Andrew only makes a few appearances in the
Bible. He finds the boy with the fish
and loaves and he introduces Jesus to a few Greeks. Otherwise, he is just a name in a list – over
shadowed by his much, much more famous sibling – he's like the Billy Baldwin of
the Disciples.
Considering all of this
information, one might be inclined to suggest that Andrew peaked early – like a
sitcom with a strong pilot that quickly fades from the airwaves.
And maybe that is not so bad. His call story is, while brief,
powerful. At the word of Jesus, Andrew
drops the nets – nets that held more than just fish. Those nets held a lifetime of stability and
security. And he just dropped them.
Because a mysterious stranger said “Follow me.”
Which, come to think of it,
actually should have given Andrew pause.
In Jewish circles at that time, disciples, followers, were supposed
search out a teacher. It didn't happen
the other way around. Reputable rabbis
did not randomly recruit students. That
should have been a red flag. And yet,
here is Jesus, a man with no disciples, and he commands Andrew and his brother
to follow him. And if Andrew and his
brother are really being honest with themselves, they should question his
choice. They are laborers, not scholars,
not princes, not policy makers or world changers. They are not wealthy; they are not cool kids
with networks of influence. They fish
for fish. It is hard work, grimy work,
important work, but not prestigious work.
Not many rabbis would have considered them choice disciples.
And yet Jesus calls them – love at
first sight. And they leave everything, without even as much as a follow-up
question or introduction – love at first sight.
We can romanticize Andrew's new
life. It is easy for us to affirm
Andrew's decision to follow Jesus. We
have 2000 years of historical perspective.
Andrew didn't even know his name.
We can try to explain the situation away. Maybe Andrew was sick of fishing; maybe he
was looking for adventure. But Andrew
wasn't a trust-fund kid. In his time,
occupations were arranged and laborers did not have savings accounts or
vacation time.
Andrew sacrificed every ounce of
security and stability he had because a stranger walked by his dock and said,
“Follow me.”
Jesus and Andrew took a chance on
each other. They were strangers and each
placed their lives in the hands of the other.
If Andrew risked everything on Jesus, Jesus, by trusting his Gospel to
Andrew, risked the very thing for which he gave his life to an unknown
fisherman.
It was the miracle of Jesus' word
that convinced Andrew to follow. And it was Jesus' word to which Andrew then
dedicated his life. While the Biblical narrative emphasizes Andrew's call,
gives us very little else, Andrew's legacy in much of the world is that he kept
speaking Jesus' word – long after their first encounter on the beach, long
after Jesus' shameful death on the cross, long after the resurrection.
“The word is near you, on your lips
and in your heart.” That could be a
promise. Or that could be a
description. Or that could be a
threat. For Andrew it was all three.
The tradition claims that Andrew
never stopped following Jesus. It is
said he was the first, of course, to
preach the word of Jesus in Georgia, the country, not the state, in Romania, in
Ukraine, in Cyprus, and in Russia. He is
considered the founder and first Bishop of the Church of Byzantine. The word got in his heart and it was on his
lips.
And we know from the stained glass
window in our narthex, Andrew followed Jesus all the way to his own cross. Promise, description, and ultimately
threat. It is said that Andrew even
shared the Gospel with those who sentenced him to death in the late first
century. When threatened with
crucifixion Andrew replied, “I would not have preached the honor and glory of
the cross if I feared the death of the cross.”[1] That response, of course, sealed his
fate.
Today we celebrate St. Andrew. He is our saint, our patron, the one to whom
we have tied our identity.
And that matters. The founders of this parish chose Andrew for
a reason. They hoped that the people of
this parish, including you and me, might be formed and shaped by this great
Saint – the one who took a chance on Jesus before anyone else did, the one who
carried the word in his heart, the one who bore the words of Jesus on his
lips. He gave his life to Jesus – long
before his cross. Jesus called. Andrew followed.
We too are called to follow
Jesus. To be all in. To let the Gospel get into our hearts. To carry the Gospel around on our lips. That Gospel, that Good News, the word of
Jesus, it is like a knife – once it pierces our hearts, we should leave a trail
of Jesus everywhere we go.
Yes, St. Andrew was called – the
first called even. But that is not
really why we remember him, not really why this parish bears his name. He is much more than an origin story. We remember Andrew because when Jesus called
he followed. He followed Jesus for the
rest of his life – and he invited thousands of his closest friends to follow
Jesus too. The word was in his heart and
on his lips. I hope that folks can say
the same about this parish that bears his name.
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