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St Andrew : a reflection

Homily delivered by the Rev Alastair Cherry at Glasgow Churches Together's service for St Andrew's Day, held at the Roman Catholic parish church of St Leo the Great, Dumbreck, on 30 November 2006. Mr Cherry is Convenor of the Presbytery Council of the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Glasgow.

A rather new and wet behind the ears student minister was let loose on the people by his bishop. He had written his sermon out and had practised it several times in front of his girlfriend ... she said she knew it almost better than he did! 

But he was still unsure. Who would be in the congregation and what would they think of him? Would they like his illustrations and laugh at his jokes? Would they be impressed by his original interpretation of the scripture reading? Would they compare him with the student who had been there before him the year before?

Still wondering, he climbed the pulpit steps with a certain heaviness of tread. He looked down at the assembled company as they sang the last lines of the hymn. As he was about to place his notes on the open Bible he noticed a piece of paper sticking out from the end page of the Bible. As the last words of the hymn were sung he pulled the page out from the bible to find a brief inscription on it, a Bible quotation.

The words were simple and to the point and they shook him to the core! They said: “Sir, we would see Jesus!”

The task of the preacher is to let the folk see Jesus. The words come from a verse that is contained in one of three encounters in the Bible of the patron saint whose feast-day we celebrate today. Andrew, asked by the Greeks to introduce them to Jesus, simply complies with their request.

We know little of this man Andrew we call our own in this country. As far as we know he never came to Scotland and in fact one scholar says it was a ploy of the bishop of St Andrews to have his new bishopric enhanced in the city that was to be named after the saint by choosing him as patron saint.

In fact it is suggested Andrew’s bones were brought by St Rule [or known by his other name of St Regulus] to Kilrymont, later to be called St Andrews.

Andrew was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee, a fisherman of Capernaum. He fished with his brother Peter, a far better known saint, outspoken and impetuous … and in many ways Andrew lived in his brother’s shadow … a shadow so dark at times it almost obliterated him.

There are three instances of him in scripture. The first is where he meets Jesus for the first time. He is a thinking man, for he is already a follower of John the Baptist. John calls Jesus ‘The lamb of God’ and Andrew follows Jesus to find out more. Jesus invites he and another follower of John to come and find out about him. Andrew is convinced, he sees Christ as the lamb of God and there seems to be no question about it.

But it doesn’t end there, for so convinced of this is he that he immediately seeks out his more cynical brother Peter and tells him he has found the Messiah. It would appear this is something he has to do.

Andrew, almost always mentioned as Simon Peter’s brother… living in his shadow… and yet responsible for Peter being brought to Christ. It was almost as if Andrew knew that Peter had gifts he did not have which would blossom under Christ’s direction.

Peter goes to find out for himself and the rest as they say is history!

The second story tells of the boy with the loaves and fishes. It is interesting that Andrew always seems to be with the crowd, talking with them, finding out about them... and when the cry goes up for food, Andrew finds this boy in the crowd of several thousand folk.

Perhaps as a fisherman he was interested in the boy with the fish, maybe he was giving him hints on how to gut the fish, where the best fish were to be caught, what kind of bait to use.. and in a friendly way brought him to Jesus to see if the sharing of his small amount of food could help. And of course it truly did.

Andrew introduced himself to Jesus, then Peter, then the boy. And these introductions produced a result that benefited not just Jesus, but others, himself, his brother Peter, the thousands of hungry people and I daresay the boy with the picnic himself.

And the third episode is the Greeks who want to speak with Jesus. Philip doesn’t know what to do, but Andrew does… and he brings them to Jesus.

Andrew, the one never in the limelight, the one in the shadows, but the one always seeming to be there, at the right place at the right time, ready to bring folk into the limelight, to realise another encounter for folk on the road of life.

We remember the Peters of this life, and the John’s too and yes, we may even also remember the Judas’s … but the Andrew’s of this world? What about them?

Andrew’s don’t write stirring epistles, they don’t preach great sermons, they don’t win three thousand souls with one message. They work no miracles.

But they bring the Peters who write the epistles, who preach the sermons, who win the 3,000, who perform the miracles.

Who brought Augustine, Anselm, or Leo  to Christ? Who brought Hilda or Bride or Margaret? Who brought Luther, Calvin or Knox, or Wesley, Barth or Bonhoeffer? Who brought you to Christ? 

In all these cases there may be someone the new Christian could name, but who can tell the many Andrews there were in the life of these great men and women and also in us who quietly and unobtrusively led people to Christ.

We would see Jesus!  That should be addressed to us and more than that …if we are able to meet the request we will be an Andrew and who knows whose life we will put on the right path.

God bless Andrew and may his example of a selfless life ready to help others…  be ours too!

Amen