He heard the call of Jesus
He was fishing with his brother Simon, and Jesus calls from the shore and says ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people’
It was a call to live a new life, to live in and for the Kingdom of God
He was an ordinary man, a fisherman, living for his business, his family himself, catching fish.
And he was called to begin a new life, to become a fisher of people, living for the Kingdom of God, for Jesus Christ and for other people.
He caught fish – and that was death for them
But now he is called to catch people – not to death, but to life. Life for people who are lost, with little dignity, little purpose and little hope.
He responded to the call of Jesus
He recognises the authority of Jesus, he says ‘yes’ and he leaves his nets to follow Jesus.
He became a Kingdom person
Of course, he continued to live in this world, a citizen of this world, subject to the rulers of this world and to the rules of the world.
But he lived in this world in dependence on that world.
His heart, his longing, his hope, his desire, his identity and his purpose were set in the other world
He allowed God to change him, to shape him by the values of that world: trust in God, forgiveness, mercy, peace, justice, right-ness, humility, love for enemy
He lived for that other world, which is invisible, and yet so very very close.
And he was prepared to give up everything – at first his business and his nets and then, at the end, his life, for the sake of that other world.
He was crucified for the sake of Christ on an X shaped cross.
He was obedient to the call of Jesus
He did ‘follow Jesus and fish for people’
He brought people to Jesus
Not in some dramatic way, like some others: like Philip or Paul.
- John tells us that he brought Simon, his brother, to Jesus
- He brings the boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish
- He brings the Greeks who came to Philip and say, ‘We want to see Jesus’.
And tradition tells us that after Jesus’ death and resurrection, he continued to bring people to Jesus. He preached in Georgia, in Romania, in Kyiv, in Novgorod, and he planted a church in what is now Constantinople.
And whatever the truth behind those traditions, and I suspect that they all can’t be true, we can say that because Andrew – a Jewish fisherman who had a Greek name – responded to the call of Jesus, he has become someone who can unite us: and so we gather today, different peoples from different countries all over the world, with our different and sometimes contradictory, even conflicting, stories and values and collective ‘memories’ or understandings of history
And he is also one of those figures who can unite us as Christian believers. Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, Anglican. We all honor him as the first called, and as the fisher of people.
And he can, we pray unite people beyond the limits of faith
Here in this building: St Andrew brought together the Scots and the English – that was quite an achievement
And it seems to me appropriate, especially today in our current situation, that St Andrew is the patron saint of both Russia and of Scotland
The flag of Scotland and the naval ensign of Russia both share the St Andrew’s cross – one white on blue, the other blue on white.
So I pray that St Andrew will continue to be a place where people from different cultures, from all over the world, can continue to meet together. And I am grateful to you for your support in making that possible, and also to the City government and to the Patriarchate for their support.
But I also pray that St Andrew’s will be a place where people can continue to meet with Jesus, can hear his invitation to become part of his kingdom: not living that way or that way, but this way (upwards together), so that in communion with St Andrew and all the saints, we continue the work of inviting people to come to Jesus, and the work of praying in the Kingdom of God.