[Machine transcription]
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah.
Be seated please.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
As Pastor had mentioned in his welcoming, today is the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle,
which we commemorate today, November the 30th.
And it’s an important date for the church here as tradition has placed the
first Sunday of Advent closest to St. Andrew’s Feast. And Andrew is often
called and referred to the first called based on our gospel text from the
Apostle John. And while Andrew’s credit as the first apostle might be a topic of
some debate, it is no less the basis for the Western Church’s tradition of
beginning Advent with his feast. Now, Andrew is especially revered in the
Orthodox Church. He’s the patron saint of at least eight countries, notably
Scotland, and he’s the patron saint of fishermen, fishmongers, rope makers, and
golfers. Now, church tradition holds that he was martyred by crucifixion in
Western Greece around 60 AD,
and that at his request,
the cross he was placed on was shaped like
an X as he did not deserve to die in
the same manner on the same type
of cross as Christ did.
So now this X shaped cross of St. Andrew is
found today in the flag of Scotland.
If it wasn’t dark,
you would see it tonight in
the upper left side
of our center stained glass panel.
You’ll just have to trust me that it’s there.
Which this panel depicts Christ as the living word.
And if you could see it, you would notice that the X of St. Andrew was just below the
symbol of the keys, which also happens to represent his brother Peter.
More about that in a minute.
So St. John’s account of Andrew tells us what we ought to know about this apostle.
And I think it’s safe to say that he would be quite uncomfortable with all this attention
he’s getting and with all the recognition, and he would be more than a little embarrassed
to know that, among other things, a flag, a city, and a golf course are named for him.
And he seems to have lived in the shadow of his brother, Simon Peter.
And perhaps he was the younger of the two, as the other three Gospels always seem to
mention Peter first.
But Andrew was okay with that, and he wouldn’t care that Peter’s placed above
him, even only in stained glass. Now, we ourselves may be a little too hesitant to
heap such praise on him only because we might think it seems a little too Roman
Catholic. But since we are going to commemorate the feast of these saints
over the next four midweek Advent services, then we ought to remind
ourselves what our confessions say about the Saints. Augsburg Confession Article
21 reminds us that their history, that is the Saints history, is set before us so
that we may follow the example of their faith and good works according to our
calling. And Melanchthon also writes in Apology 21 that we remember the
saints for three particular reasons. Those reasons are, for thanksgiving, for the
strengthening of faith, and through imitation of their faith. So what exactly
does St. John’s Gospel tell us about Andrew? And what about the man is there
for us to imitate? Well, we first see that Andrew was a follower. He was a disciple
of John the Baptist and we know in the days prior to the events in tonight’s
gospel lesson that John was baptizing with water for the repentance of sins
and that Jesus himself had come to John to be baptized. John was proclaiming
Christ as the Lamb of God because this was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.
So we can be pretty certain that Andrew too heard the word, he received the
spirit, he repented, and also came to be baptized by John sometime in these
preceding days. And now here is Andrew standing with John and this other
disciple, most likely this gospel author tonight, John the Apostle, and Jesus
walks by them. And again John the Baptist declares, behold the Lamb of God. And this
is an interesting moment of transition where John is now pointing the two
towards Christ. He’s pointing away from himself to the one that they will now
follow. And Andrew grasps what’s going on here, this deference of John the Baptist,
this pointing to Christ, and he’s going to very soon act in the same manner. So
the two disciples abruptly leave the company of their mentor and their
teacher, John the Baptist, and they begin to follow Jesus, probably at some
distance behind him so they’re not so noticeable, and I’m sure that Andrew and
John thought they were being pretty sneaky and stealthy, but Jesus, of course,
knows they’re there. I mean, can you picture Jesus kind of looking over his
shoulder out of the corner of his eye at them ever so slightly, watching them, but
then in a manner characteristic of Jesus, he turns and confronts him and says,
what are you seeking?” Notice he says, not whom, but what. And at first
these two appear to be maybe caught by surprise by Jesus’s question
because they don’t really answer his question, but they pose a question of
their own, maybe a little nervously. Rabbi, where are you staying? So there are a
couple of things that we might consider in this question. First, again, there is
this moment of transition I mentioned where they’re now leaving the mentorship
of John the Baptist because they called Jesus rabbi, that is teacher, and this is
no small thing. And second, this isn’t an attempt for them to avoid answering
Jesus’ question because they’ve already answered it with their own question. They
want to know where Jesus is staying so they can accompany him, so he’ll invite
them to go be with him so they can learn from him. And then Jesus uses this
rabbinic language that these two would be familiar with, and he invites them by
saying, come and you will see. Now he doesn’t mean come with me and I’ll show
you where I’m staying, I’ll show you where I’m lodging, where I’m living right
now. He means they’ll come and they will learn. They will see the long-expected
prophet. Now the gospel writer is sure to note that the two didn’t just kind of
pop in for a casual conversation. John says they stayed with him that day for
it was about the tenth hour. And this tenth hour doesn’t refer to the Jewish
way of timekeeping that they had arrived at 4 p.m. John here is talking
about the Roman timekeeping manner so he really means 10 a.m. and it’s important
to note that because this means they spent all day with Jesus. Jesus apparently
had a lot to say and a lot to teach. Now unfortunately John doesn’t share this
dialogue with us but would not have been remarkable to
eavesdrop on that conversation. Now Andrew was not very good at keeping
things to himself and we thank God for that. He couldn’t wait to tell others
especially his brother Peter. And so as John the Baptist once pointed to Christ, Andrew
does the same when he seeks out Simon Peter. And with certainty, he tells Peter, we have
found the Messiah, the anointed one, the one whom Peter would come to confess as Christ.
And John, he states that pretty plainly, as most of the scripture writers do, but imagine
that you’re having to recreate this scene, maybe you’re doing it for one of these historical
films or something like that, would not you cast Peter as coming back breathlessly going,
you will not believe who we found, come on, let’s go.
And now in telling Peter and in taking him to Jesus, Andrew has begun his journey as
an apostle of Christ, even though it might mean taking a seat to his older brother.
And this was a scene that was doubtless played out very many times throughout
Andrew’s life as a disciple and apostle. He was the brother who did not seek the
spotlight. We don’t see him at the healing of Jairus’s daughter. We don’t
see him at the transfiguration. He wasn’t in the Garden of Gethsemane watching and
waiting while Jesus prayed. Yet he was always there in the background pointing
to Christ. And we know from John’s accounts that Andrew was the one who
brought the boy with the loaves and fishes to Jesus and thereby setting in
motion the feeding of the 5,000. He was also the one who told Jesus of the
Greeks there in Jerusalem who had said, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. He was the one
who traveled as far as present-day Romania, Ukraine, Russia to preach the
gospel and eventually die as a martyr. He was the one called the first missionary.
And although he is often referred to as the first called, Andrew would be content
to be known, as one commentator puts it, the patron saint of all who humbly and
loyally and ungrudgingly take the second place. So at first glance we may see
tonight’s gospel text is relevant to Advent only because we are commemorating
this feast of St. Andrew. But as we are just now beginning this season of the
church year, we want to look beyond this reason alone because we do have Andrew’s
example to imitate. First and foremost, we are to be repentant. Too often we, and I
mean me, think of Advent as a time of anticipation for Christmas to
commemorate and celebrate the birth of Jesus, and in some ways, in many ways, we’ve
kind of forced this on ourselves with Advent wreaths, with Advent calendars, and
all the like, where we count down the weeks and days to Christmas. Now don’t
get me wrong, one of the joys I discovered becoming Lutheran was the
season of Advent. I mean, wait, we get to do this for four more weeks? Great! But we
We repent in anticipation of the coming of Christ again and again in His Advent and the
Holy Supper.
And we repent and patiently await the return of the Lord on the last day, the day of judgment,
His final Advent.
Also in the imitation of Andrew, we are to humble ourselves.
Andrew never sought the spotlight.
He never sought credit or recognition for anything he had done.
He was probably not one of the ones among the disciples who asked Jesus who
would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So in humbleness we also look to
the example of Christ who in his own humiliation put on our flesh and then
was crucified and died so we may live. And lastly in imitation of Andrew we are
called to be the ones pointing to Christ. Andrew found the Messiah and didn’t want
and wanted to share the revelation of all that Jesus had taught him. He didn’t
keep it to himself. He gladly shared it. He eagerly sought out Peter so that
Peter too would come to know Christ. So in the good works of faith that we do
according to our calling, we invite others to come and see. Come and see the
water with the word that washes away our sin, buries us through baptism into
Christ’s death through rebirth of the Holy Spirit. Come and see the true body
and blood of Christ given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Come and
you will see. So during this Advent season we look to the example of Andrew
and we turn to Christ with repentant and humble hearts as we eagerly await his
period. And on that day we will rejoice with all the Saints and proclaim we have
found the Messiah. Amen. Now the peace of God which surpasses all
understanding guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
