Today we return to the beginning, where this church started: under the providential patronage of St. Andrew the Apostle. Many years ago, Christians began to dedicate their places of worship: to God the Holy Trinity, or to Jesus Christ our Lord, or to Saint Mary the Virgin or another of the saints. Dedication placed the parish community under the patronage of that saint: worshippers acquired a “friend in heaven” who would look out for the parish’s interests, and intercede to God for its members.
Sometimes the dedication would commemorate a local saint, a favorite son or daughter who had made good in the heavenly sweepstakes. As a result there are church dedications, in England and Wales in particular, where the memory of the saint commemorated has completely died out, and only the name remains. Sometimes a lesser-known dedication has been edged out by someone more noteworthy, or otherwise augmented by the addition of a better known patron! But usually the dedication has been to a prominent and well-known saint, whose memory would remain.
St. Andrew’s Church, New Johnsonville, has been blessed in its dedication to St. Andrew, apostle and martyr: one of the twelve called at first by Jesus, to be with him and to join him in his ministry. Our Gospel reading tells the story. Andrew was a fisherman, and Jesus called him and his brother Simon Peter, and James and his brother John, to fish for people. The brothers left their nets by the Sea of Galilee and followed him, as we heard in our reading.
The Gospel account of his call constitutes Andrew’s everlasting memorial. Tradition tells us that unlike his brother Peter, martyred in Rome at the heart of the Roman Empire, Andrew followed God’s call outside the borders of the Empire. In the time following Jesus’ death and resurrection, Andrew journeyed into barbarian Scythia, the present day Russia and Ukraine, to spread the good news of everlasting life through Jesus Christ. St. Andrew has been adopted as the patron of a number of nations, including Scotland. Another tradition tells us that Andrew was crucified on a cross in the form of an “X,” which is where the Scottish saltire flag comes from.
Our Gospel reading gives us the impression of energy and movement. We hear “immediately” a couple of times: “Immediately they left their nets and followed him” (Matt. 4:20); and “Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him” (Matt. 4:22), and this creates an accelerated pace. Andrew and the others are on the move, not stopping to wrap things up but eager to press on ahead to where Jesus will take them. It’s significant that “where” is not specified. For the apostles it’s enough to be going down the road that Jesus himself walks. No destination needs to be given.
The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and death tell the story of a journey to Jerusalem. It’s an extended narration of the final journey that Jesus took before Passover with his friends and colleagues. It ended with his crucifixion and death, but God raised him from the dead. This is the central mystery of the Christian faith, the unexpected and unimaginable act by which God in Christ brings life out of death.
As we hear in the Gospels, the mystery of Christ’s dying and rising has significance for us. Jesus became a “ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28), as it says elsewhere in the Gospel, extending the mystery of his death and resurrection to us. We share in this mystery, this unexpected and unimaginable gift. The mystery of everlasting life through death becomes our own mystery, as we walk the road with Jesus.
Today, at St. Andrew’s Church, we go back to the beginning of the story in order to chart a new course. God’s holy catholic Church continues its journey; we will still be walking the road with Jesus and Andrew and their friends, though the journey is taking a twisty turn today. The Gospel says “immediately,” and in this life there is always an awkwardness in that word that can catch us up and surprise us. There is never enough time or a more graceful occasion for a solemn business like this.
The writer Cyril Connally once wrote that “a rapid series of unbearable partings” is part and parcel of what it is to be human (“England Not My England”), and I think he is right. I also think it is part of what it means to be a Christian. “Unbearable” is the watchword. Yet God gives us the grace to persist in the face of the unbearable. Here and now, there is still work to be done. Here and now is when Jesus calls us to follow him, to continue on the journey which leads to Jerusalem, to death and resurrection and to new life in him.
In the days to come we will continue under the patronage of St. Andrew, whom we’ve come to know so well here at St. Andrew’s Church. What a gift. We have a friend in heaven, and we walk with him and with Jesus along the way. May we, in the fullness of time, come at the end of our journey to the Jerusalem that is above, to the heavenly city, where the saints of God feast forever. There, with Christ himself throned in splendor, may we live forever, according to his promise, in our heavenly home.