Our patron saint: November 2007
8 February 2008 - 9:18pm — Sarah Hall
Isn't it amazing how fast St Andrew's Day comes round? Of course, for us that also means the yearly Caledonian Service is on its way, with extra numbers because some of our friends in the Caledonian Society of Sheffield are with us. Last year one of the Caledonians observed after the service that she had been rather disappointed in my sermon, because I had not mentioned St Andrew. I didn't feel too badly: after all, I had spoken about Jesus, who is even closer to the heart of our faith! However, in order to offer honourable amends to any others disappointed by my omission, I decided this year to devote my November Pastoral Letter to the friend of Jesus whose name our church proudly bears.
If I confine myself to the biblical material about St Andrew, you may think this will be a much shorter letter than usual. And yet three things we do know about him from John's Gospel are worthy of note. We hear that it was Andrew who first told his brother Simon - shortly to become Peter - that he should meet Jesus. When Jesus was surrounded by hungry crowds, it was Andrew who brought a small boy to Jesus, along with his packed lunch. And near the end of Jesus' life, when some Greeks asked Philip whether they could hear this Jewish teacher, it was Andrew whom Philip consulted, and Andrew who took them to find Jesus.
What can these brief fragments of story tell us? Firstly, Andrew seems to have been very good at putting people in touch with one another. In every office you'll find someone who, whatever your query, is the right person to ask, because they'll either know how to get what you need, or they'll know someone who knows. In our church context that role may well be taken by your Elder: if they don't directly have experience of our work with children, or whatever it may be, they'll know the right person to sort you out. But when it comes to signposting people to God, that's not just the work of an Elder. Each of us within our church community is here because we have found something - friendship, purpose, hope - that drew us here and that keeps us coming; each of us, like Andrew, should be ready to communicate what we have found to those we love, by what we say and by what we do.
Following on from that, though Andrew is very good at managing resources, he isn't the world's greatest optimist. As soon as he has brought five loaves and two fishes to Jesus, he's commenting gloomily, ‘But what are they among so many?' And maybe we, like Andrew, are sometimes inclined to underestimate the gifts God gives us. We may be anxious about our future as a church, wondering where the people and the money will come from to carry on our work in Broomhall. But as Andrew found, if it is God's work we are doing, there will always be enough and more than enough to carry it through; maybe we, like Andrew, need to worry less and trust more!
Finally, just as Andrew found himself building bridges across the divide between Jewish and Greek culture, we too may find ourselves, in the course of our life in St Andrew's, getting to know people who do not share all our values or assumptions about life, but who still want to see Jesus in us. So let's not wait for St Andrew's Day to imitate our patron saint - let's start today!
If I confine myself to the biblical material about St Andrew, you may think this will be a much shorter letter than usual. And yet three things we do know about him from John's Gospel are worthy of note. We hear that it was Andrew who first told his brother Simon - shortly to become Peter - that he should meet Jesus. When Jesus was surrounded by hungry crowds, it was Andrew who brought a small boy to Jesus, along with his packed lunch. And near the end of Jesus' life, when some Greeks asked Philip whether they could hear this Jewish teacher, it was Andrew whom Philip consulted, and Andrew who took them to find Jesus.
What can these brief fragments of story tell us? Firstly, Andrew seems to have been very good at putting people in touch with one another. In every office you'll find someone who, whatever your query, is the right person to ask, because they'll either know how to get what you need, or they'll know someone who knows. In our church context that role may well be taken by your Elder: if they don't directly have experience of our work with children, or whatever it may be, they'll know the right person to sort you out. But when it comes to signposting people to God, that's not just the work of an Elder. Each of us within our church community is here because we have found something - friendship, purpose, hope - that drew us here and that keeps us coming; each of us, like Andrew, should be ready to communicate what we have found to those we love, by what we say and by what we do.
Following on from that, though Andrew is very good at managing resources, he isn't the world's greatest optimist. As soon as he has brought five loaves and two fishes to Jesus, he's commenting gloomily, ‘But what are they among so many?' And maybe we, like Andrew, are sometimes inclined to underestimate the gifts God gives us. We may be anxious about our future as a church, wondering where the people and the money will come from to carry on our work in Broomhall. But as Andrew found, if it is God's work we are doing, there will always be enough and more than enough to carry it through; maybe we, like Andrew, need to worry less and trust more!
Finally, just as Andrew found himself building bridges across the divide between Jewish and Greek culture, we too may find ourselves, in the course of our life in St Andrew's, getting to know people who do not share all our values or assumptions about life, but who still want to see Jesus in us. So let's not wait for St Andrew's Day to imitate our patron saint - let's start today!
