John
1:35-45
May 18, 2014
The next day John again was standing
with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed,
“Look, here is the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples heard him say this,
and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to
them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated
means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They
came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was
about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and
followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother
Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated
Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are
Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
The next day Jesus decided to go to
Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from
Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to
him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets
wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
Would you die for a lie? I’m not asking if you would die
for a mistake, such as being a soldier in a war started on false premises, or
receiving false information that would lead you to risk your life for another.
I’m asking whether you would be willing to risk dying for the proclamation of a
something that you knew was a lie. If you created a lie about you’re having
more influence than you really had, about a great feat you had supposedly
accomplished, or about a great discovery you had made, and were threatened with
death for it, would you be willing to die to keep the lie alive? Simply put,
again, would you be willing to die for a lie?
It was my asking this question, and then learning about
the life of the apostle Andrew, that helped decide whether I believed in the
resurrection or not. Even as I went into seminary, I wasn’t completely sold on
truth of the resurrection. Since I wasn’t going to seminary with intent to be a
pastor, I’m not sure it mattered whether I had it all figured out. But I wanted
answers. At some point I became interested in what happened to all the
apostles, and so I began to research it. In the Bible, you never really get
much information on what happened to any of them. The closest we get is reading
in Acts that Paul went to Rome to appeal a death sentence before the emperor,
but Acts doesn’t tell us what happened to him in the end.
When I investigated what happened to the apostles, the
person who fascinated me the most was Andrew. Like all of the other apostles,
except John, Andrew died a fairly gruesome death through crucifixion after a
long mission to spread the gospel through much of what were, at the time, wild
tribal areas. It was his refusal to bow down and worship the Roman emperor that
led to his crucifixion. So, if the resurrection was a lie, why would people
like Andrew have been willing to put up with such a struggling life, and with such
an excruciating crucified death? Before going to seminary, I had been
influenced by people who had said that Jesus was never resurrected, and that
the disciples and followers of Jesus had invented it because they didn’t want
to see their power and prestige diminished. The question is, if it was all a
lie, would Andrew have willingly suffered so much for that lie?
To understand how much Andrew was willing to sacrifice his
life, it helps to learn something about him. As I mentioned a few weeks ago,
Andrew was the younger brother of Peter, who eventually became the head of the
early Christian church. The gospels don’t tell us much about him, other than
the fact that he was clearly in Jesus’ inner circle of disciples. He was a man
Jesus relied on.
After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, Andrew was one
of the apostles who helped the early church grow. After seven or so years
spreading the gospel in Jerusalem, he moved with Peter to Antioch, which is in
present-day Syria. It was from there that he launched his mission to spread the
gospel. Much like Paul, Andrew was sent out to new lands to start churches, but
unlike Paul, Andrew was sent to marginally civilized, and some uncivilized,
areas. Much like Thomas (about whom Rev. Frierson preached a few weeks ago),
who was sent far afield to what is now Pakistan and India, Andrew travelled as
far, but his travels went north. Unlike Paul, who travelled in and through
highly literate areas, Andrew travelled through very illiterate areas. That’s
why we have no letters from Andrew to the churches he founded or visited.
Andrew started his mission on the island of Cyprus, where
he was shipwrecked. Legend has it that after the members of the crew washed
ashore, Andrew struck a rock with his staff, and a healing spring bubbled up.
Washing his eyes in the spring restored the sight of the blinded ship captain.
From there, Andrew went north along the shore of the
Black Sea, eventually settling in the area of what is now Southern Romania at
the mouth of the Danube River. For twenty years Andrew lived in a cave,
travelling out to preach the gospel. Again, would a liar live like that? This
was no cult leader. I know something about cults. Early on in my ministry I
became somewhat involved in the Cult Awareness Network after meeting some
people who left cults and told me of their experiences. What is typical of
cults is that the leaders typically rule other members’ lives, amassing wealth
and perks for themselves. Andrew amassed nothing, but lived a life of
deprivation for Christ.
After starting many churches in that area, Andrew
travelled north to the top of the Black Sea, where the Dnieper River, after
running through what is now the Ukraine, empties into it. Going up river, he
reportedly lived for a while in a place that he prophesied would become a great
city, and which eventually became Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine. From there
he travelled north to what is now Novgorod in Russia, which is northeast of
Estonia. It’s because of these missionary travels to bring Christianity that
Andrew is considered the patron saint of Romania, the Ukraine, and Russia.
As a side note, many of you know that Andrew is also the
patron saint of Scotland, and that Scotland’s flag, which is a symbol of St.
Andrew, is a giant white X (Andrew was eventually crucified on an X-shaped
cross) on a blue background. Does this mean that Andrew went to Scotland? No.
The reason that Scotland named Andrew it’s patron saint had to do with the
Scott and Pict (the tribes that made up Scotland) king, Oengus II, praying to
God that if his army defeated the Angles (precursors to the English) in battle,
he would make Andrew his saint. The morning of the battle he saw a huge X in
the sky, and won despite having inferior numbers. So Andrew became the patron
saint of Scotland.
Back to Andrew: From Novgorod, Andrew returned to the
Black Sea area, moving to the Eastern edges and into the lands then called
Scythia. From there he went south and preached in what is now the country of
Georgia. After almost thirty years in tribal lands, suffering under harsh,
harsh winters, and humid, mosquito-plagued summers, Andrew returned to more
civilized areas. He came back to what was then called Byzantium (which
eventually became Constantinople, and is now Istanbul) to help the church
there. He helped install the first bishop of Byzantium. Eventually he travelled
to city of Patras, which is on the northwestern edge of the lower peninsula of
Greece (the Peloponnese). It was there, because he refused to bow down under
the persecutions of the emperor Domitian, and was crucified. The reason his
cross was shaped like an X rather than a T is that, like Peter, Andrew said he
was unworthy to be crucified like Jesus, and asked to be bound to an X-shaped
cross.
Looking back on all of this, does this sound like the
actions of a person promulgating a lie? Would Andrew and others really have lived
like this and then died like this for a lie? Some might say that the answer is
“yes.” But my next question was the one that was the clincher for me: Would people who apparently have so much
spiritual depth, wisdom, and insight die for a lie? What is indisputable is
that there is tremendous spiritual depth in the gospels, demonstrated in Acts,
and presented in the letters of Paul, Peter, James, and John. The writings and
teachings of false prophets and cult leaders simply don’t last through the
ages. Andrew was part of the tradition that shaped Paul, Peter, James, and
John. He was part of the tradition that gave us the gospels. These were all men
who wrote with tremendous spiritual depth and power, and were willing to suffer
and die terrible deaths themselves. Would all of that be typical of people
following a lie?
When I look at Andrew’s life, ministry, and death, it says
a lot about what a life of serving God means. A life of faith doesn’t necessarily mean moving to the Ukraine to
spread Christianity, but it does mean some things that are related.
First, I think Andrew’s life sends a crucial message
to those in suffering who ask, “Why would a good God allow ____ to happen?” You’ve
heard people ask these kinds of questions. When they are in the midst of
suffering and struggling, they’ll ask why God would let whatever it is to
happen to them. The problem, when they ask that question, is that you can’t
answer it at the time. People who ask that question don’t really want to hear a
credible answer. They are suffering. They are in pain. And they want God to
help them. Still, Andrew’s life is an answer to that question: A good God doesn’t always keep us from
suffering. But a good God does call on us to be an answer to suffering.
Read that sentence again and let it sink in.
Nowhere in the Bible does it suggest that if we are
faithful and good that no bad will come to us. Nowhere in the Bible does it
suggest, or even imply, that a life of faith translates into a life of ease. In
fact, just the opposite is true. The Bible is very clear that when we have
faith, we often are led into struggle to relieve the suffering of others. Look
at Andrew’s life. He struggled his whole apostolic life. He lived in a cave for
twenty years. He travelled to tribal lands that weren’t especially kind to
Greek-speaking, Roman Empire dwelling strangers. He endured harsh winters and
humid summers. He walked everywhere. He gave up a normal life and paid for it
with his life. But in the process, Andrew brought hope and life to thousands. A
good God doesn’t always keep us from suffering, but a good God does call on us
to be an answer to suffering.
A second lesson from Andrew is that to live a life
of faith means being willing to stretch for God. That means doing what you
might not really want to do, and going where you might not really want to go, but
serving anyway. It means stretching to serve God, even if it puts you in
uncomfortable and uncertain situations.
This is exactly what we are doing at Calvin Presbyterian
Church with our mission to Trinity Presbyterian Church. If you don’t know much
about this, Trinity Church in Butler was a 200-member church as few as five
years ago. It went through a crisis because of a difficult pastor, and shrunk
to 17 members. They are now just a bit over 25 members. We have made a two-year
commitment to lead their worship services and help them grow again. Rev.
Frierson will be their primary preacher at their 11 am service, which means she
will be here only occasionally at our 11 am service. It also means I am leading
their session, and helping them navigate through their struggles by leading the
church. This is a stretch for us personally, and for Calvin Church. But it’s
what God wants us to do, and so we’re called to stretch.
This same kind of stretching is what we are trying to do
with out Finish in Faith capital campaign, which we are embarking on beginning
on June 8th. We are asking you to stretch to help us get rid of our
debt so that we can move into the future without the shackle of long-term debt.
This is a stretch, but considering we’ve gone from $.16 million in debt down to
approximately $249,000 in seven years, that means we’re a congregation that
gets the need to stretch.
Ultimately, Andrew’s message can be distilled down
into a simple one. Much of what we are called to do be answer to the world’s
suffering and to stretch in ways that many people don’t see, but God sees it,
and it is important to God. So serve God, be an answer to suffering, and be
willing to stretch.
Amen
