Feast of St Andrew the Apostle and Advent 1
Deuteronomy 30.11-14
Psalm 19.1-6
Romans 10.8-18
Matthew 4.18-22
30 November 2025
©Suzanne Grimmett
What would make someone leave everything they had ever known- their livelihood, their only security, their families, their way of life- to follow an itinerant preacher and healer?
What would make Andrew call his brother, Simon Peter to gather their nets and walk away that day?’
Of course, there was history here. It was not the first time Andrew had encountered Jesus. Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist and according to John’s Gospel, had been prompted by the Baptist to recognise in Jesus ‘the one who was to come’. On hearing this, Andrew had sought out his brother and said, “We have found the Messiah”.
We have few references to Andrew during the years of Jesus’ ministry but he apparently continued following, wavering with all the others at Jesus’ crucifixion, but then beholding the risen Lord. He was present at the ascension, sharing in the gifts poured out at Pentecost and was one of those who took the Good News of Jesus out to the world- by recorded tradition around the shores of the Black Sea to realms now known as Ukraine, Russia, Greece and Türkiye. Andrew was martyred for his faith during the reign of Nero, on 30 November in the year 60 CE. Churches of both the East and the West keep 30 November as his feast, making Andrew one of the saints who brings all parts of the Christian body together.
But what was it that gave Andrew the courage to lay down everything and follow Jesus?
It may have been that he heard wise teachings and witnessed Jesus’ healing miracles – but that on its own is not sufficient. There had been other great Jewish teachers and healers in the past and in their lifetime. Certainly, the endorsement of John the Baptist would have been helpful and even necessary for Andrew. But given the radical direction his life would take, even that is not enough. To become the first called, Andrew must have encountered something far greater that was both affirmed by community but experienced personally. Jesus represents a break in the fabric of time and place and human history so great that nothing will ever be the same again- not for Andrew, and not for us. Historian Tom Holland says, ‘we remain the children of the Christian revolution: the most disruptive, the most influential and the most enduring revolution in history.’[1]
This revolution has all the elements of a great mythical saga, yet grounded in our flesh and blood reality and in the particularity of time and place. What we term as Gospel -good news- is tragedy and comedy, a great quest and a great story of love, loss and new hope. All the elements are there, and it is not surprising that we hear echoes of this great story over and again in our best dreams and most loved fiction, particularly in fantasy worlds like that created by J R. R. Tolkien in Lord of the Rings. Maybe, even in his first encounters with Jesus, Andrew sensed something of the cosmic meaning of the story that had begun.
And the thing is, this cosmic story is played out not in the heavens but grounded in real flesh and blood. The incarnation is in and of itself, good news. This story of redemption through sacrificial love is one that takes place in the materiality and embodied messiness of our humanity. Unlike those emperors of the first century, like Nero in St Andrew’s time, who saw themselves as sons of god, the God we see revealed in Jesus is one who did not stand aloof from poverty, shame and suffering, but entered into it. Further, the hopelessness of those whose bodies and wills were subjugated to the whims and desires of those in power was transformed to joy by the good news of Jesus. By the incarnation and through Jesus’ death and resurrection, they were not just acceptable to God but became children of God– part of the divine family. This was a social and spiritual revolution. It is this move which we recognise in the baptism- that by water and the Spirit we are made part of the family of God.
Yet this is just the beginning. Like Andrew, and like Zach and Caleb who are being baptised this day, we are called into a way. Unlike the over-simplifications which interpret this call in the letter to the Romans as a single confession of Christ in a believer’s prayer, following Jesus involves an everyday commitment to being formed and transformed. The incarnational promise is that Christ was born not just once to a young woman named Mary but again and again in human lives. Through our daily choosing to turn to Christ, a promise made at our baptism and reconfirmed through our lives, we commit to the work of allowing the Spirit to work in us, aligning us more closely with the divine nature. To do this is not to set ourselves apart with any superiority, but rather to lay claim to our own weakness, knowing that this, by the grace of God, becomes strength. Through Christ and in Christ, the power of love and forgiveness at work in us is such that we become part of this cosmic story of redemption and peace.
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!
The word of Christ goes out from believer to believer, expressed through the whole body of the Church. But in one of the many paradoxes of Christianity, ours is a corporate faith, yet is claimed personally. There are no words that alone can contain the mystery of the revelation of God in Christ Jesus. At some point, like Andrew, we need to apprentice ourselves to the one who calls us, promising that his yoke is easy and his burden is light as we daily choose to follow his way.
+Amen.
[1] Tom Holland, Revolutionary, SPCK: 2020: 9