Andrew now, Sermon later
Jesus took with him Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain apart to witness his Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah, and the thundering voice, God from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son: listen to him”. Peter, James and John, but Andrew: what about Andrew?
It’s not MY question and I never have an answer for anything anyway; but a question was “How did they know it was Moses and Elijah?” Thirty-five years ago I heard Bishop Charles Duvall explain that Moses was holding two tablets of stone, and Elijah was singing “Swing low, sweet chariot”, but that is not my question and I am far too serious about scripture to give such a light answer!
My question is different. In all four gospels, Jesus’ first two disciples were Peter and Andrew. In fact, in John’s gospel, Andrew is First Disciple. In Mark, Matthew and Luke, the Synoptics, the first disciples Jesus called were Peter and Andrew, James and John. So reading today's gospel story, my question is "What about Andrew, whatever happened to Andrew?”
At John 6:8, Andrew introduces to Jesus the boy who’d brought his lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish, which Jesus uses to feed the five thousand, and that’s about the most we hear of Andrew.
At Acts 1:13, Andrew is among the Eleven who gather after Jesus Resurrection and Ascension to select Matthias as successor to Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, and then that’s it; in the Bible, we never hear of Andrew again. Whatever happened to Andrew?
Peter and Andrew, James and John, yet as it develops in Jesus’ ministry, his trusted three companions are Peter, James, and John, but not Andrew:
For his raising to life the dead daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37), Jesus takes with him Peter, James and John. What about Andrew?
Today for the Transfiguration (and Mark 9:2), Peter, James and John. What about Andrew?
At the end, as Jesus time is drawing near. He takes his closest companions with him to pray, in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33), Peter, James and John. What about Andrew?
Why not Andrew? Andrew, who early in John’s gospel brought some Greeks to meet Jesus (painting by French painter Jacques Joseph Tissot, later English, James Tissot).
Isn’t Andrew important, trusted, or loved enough to go up on the mountain with Jesus for the Transfiguration, and to meet Moses and Elijah?
I don’t know. Some scholars are not sure Andrew is even Jewish, I’ll come back to that.
Recently I asked Father Steve how old he thought these first four disciples were, how old were Peter and Andrew, James and John? Steve said the rector of the church from which he went to seminary thought these young fishermen were “bored teenagers”. That’s exactly what I think. Teenagers bored with life, working as fishermen every day, with that as their miserable, tedious, boring destiny for the rest of their lives. Worst, James and John working for their father, in their father’s fishing boat. I worked for my father the first decade of my working life, age nine to seventeen, and then 1955, the summer I was nineteen turning twenty, and I can witness: if you have worked in your father’s business under his supervision you will understand Peter and Andrew, James and John. I escaped to university and then into the U S Navy. One morning, the four Gospel Boys jumped ship, left the boat and nets, and James and John left their father there with the hired men, to follow Jesus.
It may seem to have been on the spur of the moment, but they all lived in Capernaum, a small town, and I’m sure as I can be that they already knew and admired Jesus and were just waiting for the chance to up and leave. Besides, Peter, whom I’m putting at seventeen, maybe eighteen, was married, a bewildered and disenchanted young husband with a wife and a whiner in a loaded diaper, and I’m betting the wife was pregnant again, nauseated, irritable and, with the proverbial “not tonight, I have a headache”, no joy to come home to.
James and John I’m putting at seventeen or eighteen, maybe sixteen or seventeen. Living in the same little fishing village, they had been playmates in the streets of Capernaum as children, and were lifelong buddies with Peter. Andrew? I dunno, twelve, maybe thirteen, tagging worshipfully along wherever Simon led him. Jesus, a mature thirty and a standout in the village, held a hypnotic power over everyone he encountered, including Peter, James and John.
Thinking back to Joseph thirty years ago when Jesus was born? With a life expectancy of forty years, maybe forty-five, Joseph was sixteen or seventeen years old and betrothed to Mary, thirteen, fourteen when she became pregnant and the angel came? Joseph was totally smitten in love: I understand, and if you’re male, if you’ve been a teenage boy, you do too. But by the time Jesus was thirty, Joseph was dead, his mother Mary a widow with a handful of sons and daughters to look after her; Jesus, the oldest, her favorite and the most attentive. What the hell, everybody has a favorite.
But Andrew? For all his youth, Andrew, who’d brought two Greeks (were they maybe his cousins?) and introduced them to Jesus. And, look, Andrew had made friends that day with the lad who had bread and fish, maybe because they were the same young age and played together on the mountainside that day. Andrew was good at making friends and connections. He had fallen into his place among the Twelve, and he did not want or expect or need to be a leader of the group like his brother Peter and Peter’s lifelong friends James and John.
Besides, there was the rumor. Andrew and Peter, Peter whose Jewish name is Shimon, lived in the house with their mother, and Peter’s wife living with them. There’s no mention of an older man in the house. Their neighbors James and John were the sons of Zebedee, their father who owned their fishing boat. And we have a gospel story about Jesus healing Peter’s sick mother. But scripture has no mention of Peter’s father, just as there’s no mention of Joseph after Mary and Jesus and family relocate from Nazareth to Capernaum. Peter’s mother was evidently widowed. Andrew, a few years younger than Shimon, has been noted by many scholars as curiously not having a Jewish name, but a Greek name, Ἀνδρέαν, Andrean, Andreas, Andrew. The implication, and basis of the rumor, requires little imagination and no explanation for a child born a few years later, to his widowed mother. Maybe one of Jesus’ friends, or a Greek fisherman passing through? Causes talk, doesn't it, so it may have been a blessing that Andrew followed his brother along behind Jesus.
So then what about Andrew? On several gospel occasions, Jesus takes with him Peter, James and John, older boys from Capernaum, which was also Jesus’ home after, again, his family moved there from Nazareth. Andrew? He’s the kid brother, or possibly half-brother, who has happily found his place and his calling among the rest of the Twelve as one of the “lesser nine” who are simply there to follow, love and serve the Lord.
Andrew is not a leader, but a helper. A loyal worker bee. Andrew is faithful and reliable. He sticks with Jesus from first to last, from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, to Jerusalem and the tomb, to Easter morning, the Ascension, and appointing Matthias. Andrew’s happy: he’s fine. Let’s not worry about him.
T+
+++++++++++++++
In truth, this blogpost was originally written as the basis for my sermon this morning; but on thought, and seeing what the gospel story did for me, I decided to treat it more seriously. But why waste my thoughts about Andrew? So, this early blogpost. Sermon later. T
It’s not MY question and I never have an answer for anything anyway; but a question was “How did they know it was Moses and Elijah?” Thirty-five years ago I heard Bishop Charles Duvall explain that Moses was holding two tablets of stone, and Elijah was singing “Swing low, sweet chariot”, but that is not my question and I am far too serious about scripture to give such a light answer!
My question is different. In all four gospels, Jesus’ first two disciples were Peter and Andrew. In fact, in John’s gospel, Andrew is First Disciple. In Mark, Matthew and Luke, the Synoptics, the first disciples Jesus called were Peter and Andrew, James and John. So reading today's gospel story, my question is "What about Andrew, whatever happened to Andrew?”
At John 6:8, Andrew introduces to Jesus the boy who’d brought his lunch of five barley loaves and two small fish, which Jesus uses to feed the five thousand, and that’s about the most we hear of Andrew.
At Acts 1:13, Andrew is among the Eleven who gather after Jesus Resurrection and Ascension to select Matthias as successor to Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, and then that’s it; in the Bible, we never hear of Andrew again. Whatever happened to Andrew?
Peter and Andrew, James and John, yet as it develops in Jesus’ ministry, his trusted three companions are Peter, James, and John, but not Andrew:
For his raising to life the dead daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37), Jesus takes with him Peter, James and John. What about Andrew?
Today for the Transfiguration (and Mark 9:2), Peter, James and John. What about Andrew?
At the end, as Jesus time is drawing near. He takes his closest companions with him to pray, in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33), Peter, James and John. What about Andrew?
Why not Andrew? Andrew, who early in John’s gospel brought some Greeks to meet Jesus (painting by French painter Jacques Joseph Tissot, later English, James Tissot).
Isn’t Andrew important, trusted, or loved enough to go up on the mountain with Jesus for the Transfiguration, and to meet Moses and Elijah?
I don’t know. Some scholars are not sure Andrew is even Jewish, I’ll come back to that.
Recently I asked Father Steve how old he thought these first four disciples were, how old were Peter and Andrew, James and John? Steve said the rector of the church from which he went to seminary thought these young fishermen were “bored teenagers”. That’s exactly what I think. Teenagers bored with life, working as fishermen every day, with that as their miserable, tedious, boring destiny for the rest of their lives. Worst, James and John working for their father, in their father’s fishing boat. I worked for my father the first decade of my working life, age nine to seventeen, and then 1955, the summer I was nineteen turning twenty, and I can witness: if you have worked in your father’s business under his supervision you will understand Peter and Andrew, James and John. I escaped to university and then into the U S Navy. One morning, the four Gospel Boys jumped ship, left the boat and nets, and James and John left their father there with the hired men, to follow Jesus.
It may seem to have been on the spur of the moment, but they all lived in Capernaum, a small town, and I’m sure as I can be that they already knew and admired Jesus and were just waiting for the chance to up and leave. Besides, Peter, whom I’m putting at seventeen, maybe eighteen, was married, a bewildered and disenchanted young husband with a wife and a whiner in a loaded diaper, and I’m betting the wife was pregnant again, nauseated, irritable and, with the proverbial “not tonight, I have a headache”, no joy to come home to.
James and John I’m putting at seventeen or eighteen, maybe sixteen or seventeen. Living in the same little fishing village, they had been playmates in the streets of Capernaum as children, and were lifelong buddies with Peter. Andrew? I dunno, twelve, maybe thirteen, tagging worshipfully along wherever Simon led him. Jesus, a mature thirty and a standout in the village, held a hypnotic power over everyone he encountered, including Peter, James and John.
Thinking back to Joseph thirty years ago when Jesus was born? With a life expectancy of forty years, maybe forty-five, Joseph was sixteen or seventeen years old and betrothed to Mary, thirteen, fourteen when she became pregnant and the angel came? Joseph was totally smitten in love: I understand, and if you’re male, if you’ve been a teenage boy, you do too. But by the time Jesus was thirty, Joseph was dead, his mother Mary a widow with a handful of sons and daughters to look after her; Jesus, the oldest, her favorite and the most attentive. What the hell, everybody has a favorite.
But Andrew? For all his youth, Andrew, who’d brought two Greeks (were they maybe his cousins?) and introduced them to Jesus. And, look, Andrew had made friends that day with the lad who had bread and fish, maybe because they were the same young age and played together on the mountainside that day. Andrew was good at making friends and connections. He had fallen into his place among the Twelve, and he did not want or expect or need to be a leader of the group like his brother Peter and Peter’s lifelong friends James and John.
Besides, there was the rumor. Andrew and Peter, Peter whose Jewish name is Shimon, lived in the house with their mother, and Peter’s wife living with them. There’s no mention of an older man in the house. Their neighbors James and John were the sons of Zebedee, their father who owned their fishing boat. And we have a gospel story about Jesus healing Peter’s sick mother. But scripture has no mention of Peter’s father, just as there’s no mention of Joseph after Mary and Jesus and family relocate from Nazareth to Capernaum. Peter’s mother was evidently widowed. Andrew, a few years younger than Shimon, has been noted by many scholars as curiously not having a Jewish name, but a Greek name, Ἀνδρέαν, Andrean, Andreas, Andrew. The implication, and basis of the rumor, requires little imagination and no explanation for a child born a few years later, to his widowed mother. Maybe one of Jesus’ friends, or a Greek fisherman passing through? Causes talk, doesn't it, so it may have been a blessing that Andrew followed his brother along behind Jesus.
So then what about Andrew? On several gospel occasions, Jesus takes with him Peter, James and John, older boys from Capernaum, which was also Jesus’ home after, again, his family moved there from Nazareth. Andrew? He’s the kid brother, or possibly half-brother, who has happily found his place and his calling among the rest of the Twelve as one of the “lesser nine” who are simply there to follow, love and serve the Lord.
Andrew is not a leader, but a helper. A loyal worker bee. Andrew is faithful and reliable. He sticks with Jesus from first to last, from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, to Jerusalem and the tomb, to Easter morning, the Ascension, and appointing Matthias. Andrew’s happy: he’s fine. Let’s not worry about him.
T+
+++++++++++++++
In truth, this blogpost was originally written as the basis for my sermon this morning; but on thought, and seeing what the gospel story did for me, I decided to treat it more seriously. But why waste my thoughts about Andrew? So, this early blogpost. Sermon later. T