Be An Andrew

The message given in the Sunday night worship service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  February 26, 2023.  The Bible verses used are John 1:29-42.

            We all know there are twelve disciples, right?  How many of them can you name?

            Don’t worry, I’m not going to call on anybody.  But think about it.  How many of the names of the disciples do you know?

            Some of you probably know them all.  You maybe had to learn them in Sunday school class, or in confirmation, or something like that, and you still remember them.  Until a few years ago, my Mom could have rattled off all their names.  In all honesty, I cannot.  I never had to memorize them, and I’ve never bothered to.

            There are some we could all think of.  Peter.  James and John.  Judas, of course.  But after that, well, it gets a little tougher.  We might be able to come up with Philip.  Maybe Thomas--we remember Doubting Thomas.  And then, after some thought, maybe we could come up with one more.  Andrew.

            Andrew is kind of an unsung hero among the disciples.  He’s mentioned only twelve times in the Bible.  Four of them are just lists of the names of the disciples.  Two of them are when he’s called by Jesus to follow and become a disciple.  Twice he’s just mentioned in passing, and really has nothing to do with what’s going on.  

But the other four times are all something really significant.  Andrew may not do much, but what he does always leads to something that turns out to be really important.

            One of them is in the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  Andrew is the one who finds the boy who has five loaves and two fish, and he’s the one who brings that boy to Jesus.  And of course, Jesus then uses those five loaves and two fish to feed all those people.  If not for Andrew--well, Jesus might have found a way to feed them anyway, but the story certainly would have been different.  Andrew’s part in that story is small, but it’s crucial to how the story plays out.

            Another time, there are some Greeks who want to talk to Jesus.  They tell Philip, but for some reason Philip does not want to tell Jesus about it.  He tells Andrew instead, and Andrew tells Jesus about these people who want to see him.  And this leads Jesus to tell Andrew, and all the rest of the disciples, that his death is going to come very soon.  Again, Jesus might well have found another occasion to tell them about his death, but the fact is that as it turned out, it was Andrew going to Jesus that prompted him to do it.  Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s crucial to how things go.

            Yet another time, Jesus tells the disciples about a time when the temple will be destroyed.  Andrew is the one who asks Jesus when this is going to happen, and what the sign will be that it’s going to happen.  That’s what prompts Jesus to tell them about the end times, about families turning against each other, about false messiahs that will come, and that only the father knows when this will happen.  That’s a whole other sermon, but the point here is that Andrew is the one who asked the question that prompted all this.  Again, Andrew’s part in the story is small, but crucial.

            And it’s the same in our reading for today.  This is just after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, which we talked about last week.  Andrew, at this point, is following John.  But then Jesus walks by, and John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”  And Andrew starts following Jesus instead.

            Now that’s pretty good in and of itself.  But then we’re told, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ).  And he brought him to Jesus.”  Jesus, of course, changes Simon’s name to Peter, which means rock.  And in Matthew, Jesus goes on to say that Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build his church.  And of course, Peter not only becomes the leader of the disciples, he becomes the leader of the church in the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Now, maybe Jesus would have eventually found Peter anyway.  Or, maybe Jesus would’ve found someone else instead.  But the fact is that Andrew is the one who brought Peter to Jesus.  If not for Andrew, the entire story would have been different.  Andrew’s part in the story is small, but it’s crucial.

            We know about Peter, James, and John because they’re among the Bible heroes.  They get a lot of publicity and acclaim, and rightly so.  They were Jesus’ closest friends while he was on earth.  In the years after Jesus left, they were instrumental in forming the early Christian church.  They did great, awesome, heroic things for God.

            But while we respect Peter, James, and John for that, and maybe even revere them for it, it also makes it harder for us to relate to them.  Because the fact is that most of us are not going to be heroes for God, at least not in the world’s eyes.  Most of us are not going to do great and awesome things.  We’re not going to preach to huge crowds.  We’re not going to spread the gospel to large groups of people who’ve never heard it before.  We’re not going to bring thousands of people to Christ.  And so, while we consider Peter, James, and John to be heroes, we also kind of think of them as being on a different level from us.  We admire them, but we don’t really think we could be like them.  And so, a lot of times, we don’t try.

            But Andrew is someone we can relate to.  Andrew did not do great, awesome, heroic things for God, or if he did the Bible does not tell us about them.  Andrew did small things.  But they were crucial things.  Andrew may not have brought thousands of people to Christ.  In fact, other than Peter, we don’t know if Andrew ever brought anyone to Christ.  But there are lots of people who would not have been brought to Christ if not for the things Andrew did.  Andrew may not have been the final step for anyone.  But he was part of the process.  He was a link in the chain.

            That is something that you and I can do.  We can be like Andrew.  We can do small things, but things that are crucial.  We may not be able to be great heroes.  But we can be part of the process.  We might never be the final step for anyone.  But we can be a link in the chain.

            And here’s the thing.  I suspect the chances are that when Andrew did the things he did, he did not do it with any grand plan in mind.  He probably never thought, “I’m going to be a part of the process of bringing lots of people to Christ!”  He simply did what he could do.  He did what needed to be done.  He said what needed to be said.  He asked the questions that needed to be asked.  The questions he asked were sometimes obvious questions, and the things he did were sometimes obvious things, but nobody else would ask them or do them.  Andrew had the courage to ask and to do.  He took advantage of the chances that presented themselves in his time with Christ.

            When Jesus talks about the temple being destroyed, Andrew asks the obvious question, but one nobody else wanted to ask:  when’s this going to happen, and what will the signs be?  When some Greeks want to talk to Jesus, Philip is afraid to tell Jesus about it.  But Andrew knew someone needed to tell him, so Andrew did it.  When they’re looking for food for the five thousand, Andrew finds some food.  It’s not much, and he’s not sure what good it’ll do, but he still tells Jesus about it.  And when Andrew finds Jesus, and knows he’s the Messiah, he goes and finds his brother, so they can both follow Christ.  And whenever Andrew did these things, something happened.  Something changed.  Sometimes in a big way.  You can make the argument that the entire course of Christianity changed because of the things Andrew did and said.

            God may have called you to do something big and heroic--God does that sometimes.  But that’s not how it works for most of us.  Most of us will not be a Peter, or a John, or a James.  But we can all be an Andrew.  We can do what needs to be done.  We can say what needs to be said.  We can ask the questions that need to be asked.  When no one else has the courage to do things, or to say things, we can do them and say them.  And in doing that, we can follow Christ, just like Andrew did.

            You and I might bring people to Christ, or we might not.  But we can all be part of the process.  We can all be a link in the chain.  And when we step up and have the courage to do our part, who knows what may happen?  Something may happen.  Something may change.  Maybe something will change in a big way.  Maybe we’ll change someone’s life for the better.  And maybe, just maybe, that person we change will change the world.