In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
Come and See! Those
have been some of my favorite words ever since the late 90s
and early 2000s when I was studying for the ministry in Nashville, TN. At that time in my life, I had just begun to
have a transformation concerning my faith. I began exploring the liturgical
traditions including the Episcopal Church, but also the Roman Catholic Church
and the Eastern Orthodox Church. I found
this gem of a café and coffee shop in West Nashville and would go there to read
and write. It was run by an orthodox
priest. The smell of incense mixed with
fresh baked breads would fill the air, at certain times you could hear chanting
coming from the chapel in the back, when the priest and others would gather for
the offices at certain times of the day.
When they weren’t chanting, the room would be filled with the glorious
sound of Byzantine music played from the audio system. I was drawn to the place. It was
a wonderful place to sit and read theology and write my papers. It made me curious. There was something about this…I had never
experienced anything like it. It was
beautiful. These people had faith that
was different than I had experienced before.
I wanted more. I decided I would
attend a service. It was Great
Vespers. – Evening Prayer but much
different. Offered on the Saturday
evening as a way of preparing for the little Easter (or pascha as they would
call it) that each and every Sunday is.
No one was sitting.
Everyone stands for the entire service with the exception of a few who
are unable to stand for such a long time, there were a few chairs to the side
of the room. I walked into the room and immediately
noticed people going to this icon and that, venerating the icons. While they were doing that, a priest was
chanting a prayer behind the iconostasis (which is a wall that separates the sanctuary
where the altar is from the nave where the people are. There is a small door through which the
priest and deacon and altar servers go in and out. Multiple times during the service, one of the
clergy would come out with incense and offer it towards the icons on the iconostasis
and the altar and then towards the people and some of the other icons in the
room. It was a multi-layered
experience. The people were doing
something, the deacon was doing something, the priest was doing something…it was
beautiful. It was clear they were
offering their very best for God. It was
not made for me but for God. If I wanted to join in their offering to God, I
could, but they would not water anything down for me…they would not poll me to
find out what I wanted. No – it was
truly a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
I remember when the service ended that day, I was amazed at
what I had just experienced. I wanted to
understand the beauty I beheld. I
approached the priest just before I left and asked him question after question
about the various things that I had experienced in that service. He simply looked at me with a smile and
offered an invitation: “Come and see.”
Come and see.
We heard those words this morning from the Gospel Lesson. I
love that first exchange between Andrew, the first disciple, and Jesus. When Andrew and the other disciple left John
behind to follow Jesus, Jesus turned to Andrew and the other disciple and said,
“What are you looking for?” What a
question right!? You see, John’s Gospel is full of double meanings, he
constantly takes the immediate concern and wraps it in deeper meaning with
eternal significance. So think not just
that people are following Jesus and he wants to know why, but the bigger
existential question, “What are you looking for?” “What are you REALLY looking for?” Andrew responds with, again, what seems to be
an insignificant question, “Where are you staying?” Again, maybe Andrew only had in mind that he
was trying to figure out where he would stay now that he is following
Jesus. I mean it had to be better than
where John was staying right? But there’s
a deeper double meaning that John the Evangelist has in mind here. The word used for ‘staying’ here is the same
Greek word that is elsewhere translated “abide,” which is one of the central
themes of the Fourth Gospel. Jesus is
constantly inviting the apostles and others to “abide in his love, in the rich
love of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.” Does Andrew really know what he is asking
when he says to Jesus, “Where do you abide?”
And to that question, Jesus responds with those beautiful words, “Come
and see.”
Come and See. These
are words that have to do with mystery.
Where Jesus abides / where he stays or remains is much deeper than a
quick response will allow. How Orthodox
Christians worship was not going to be explained to me in a moment. Instead that priest invited me to embark on a
journey that is too deep for mere words.
And that’s what the double meaning of Jesus’ response to Andrew is all
about: Come and see. Come and see love that is too deep for
words.
And Andrew does just that.
He goes and abides with Jesus for the afternoon and evening.
And what comes what next is what Andrew is known for – you
see, Andrew cannot keep the good news to himself. After sitting in the presence of Jesus for an
entire evening, he cannot help but to run back to his brother Simon and invite
him to come and see Jesus. Simon, Simon,
come and see this rabbi that I met. He
is more than a rabbi! He is the Messiah
from whom we have been waiting! Come and
See! And Simon did just that. He met
Jesus and received a new name and he, too, began following Jesus.
Andrew the first disciple and the first evangelist. I like to call him the come and see
disciple. Come and see what is too deep
for words.
In Matthew’s Gospel, the story is told of another time when
Jesus encountered Andrew and Peter – likely sometime after this story in
John. Jesus was walking on the shore of
the lake of Galilee and saw Andrew and Peter casting their nets in the sea. This time he called them to leave the old
vocation behind. They were
fisherman. Jesus invited them to follow
him and begin fishing for people. There
are two other times in the Gospels where Andrew is mentioned. One is in John 12. At the feast of the Passover, there were Greeks
who came to Jerusalem and who wished to "see Jesus." They told Philip
they’d like to come and see Jesus.
Philip turned to Andrew for advice and Andrew knew just what to do…we
take this to Jesus. The other is in the
feeding of the five thousand. When Jesus
asked Philip, “Where are we to buy food for these people to eat,” Philip was
dumbfounded. He said, “Six months wages
wouldn’t buy enough food for each person in this large crowd to get just a
little…” But then Andrew piped in. Well, there is this boy here who has five
barely loaves and two fish…” I could see
him now, little boy – bring what you have and come and see what the Lord will
do with them. And we know the rest of
that story! Everyone ate and there were
12 baskets of leftovers remaining.
If you weren’t proud to be a part of St. Andrew’s Church
before you got here today, I hope you are now.
Having Andrew as our patron saint is something to be proud of – what a
disciple of Jesus Christ. He is known as
the first disciple, the first evangelist – the come and see disciple who can’t
help but to follow Jesus and after being with Jesus, go and tell others about
him. When he’s faced with what seems to
be impossible odds, he knows the transforming power of Jesus. He knows that a small meager offering of a
few loaves of bread and a couple fish, once passed through the hands of Jesus
will become more than enough to feed God’s precious people.
What characterized Andrew then is the call of every parish
that bears the name of the blessed apostle today. We are called to be a come and see
people. People who know Jesus when we
see him, because we have prepared for his coming. After heeding his invitation to come and see
where he abides and abiding in that love ourselves, we cannot help but to go
and tell others to come and see the one who is changing our very lives. And when challenges come our way, and the
odds seem to be stacked against us, St. Andrew Christians do not panic or put
our heads into the sand. No, we trust
and remember what happens when just a small offering passes through the hands
of Jesus, great things happen in our midst.
Brothers and sisters, on this feast of St. Andrew, may God’s
spirit awaken us to follow in the footsteps of blessed Andrew towards a bold
faith so that we are known in this community as come and see disciples of Jesus
Christ: The people of God who follow Jesus, who abide with him in the rich love
of God, who bring others to Jesus, and who dare to anticipate God doing big
things by offering the little that we have in the hands of Jesus.
St. Andrew asked Jesus: where do you abide? Jesus says to St. Andrews: Come and see.
