Patrick Comerford
The Kingdom Season, the time between All Saints’ Day and Advent, comes to end today and the Season of Advent begins tomorrow, the First Sunday of Advent (1 December 2024). Today, the Church Calendar celebrates Saint Andrew the Apostle (30 November).
Later today, I am in Cambridge for the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, where I was student for some years. The programme for ‘25 Years of Generous Orthodoxy’ involves a day of prayer and celebrations at Westminster College, Cambridge. It includes a seminar in the Woolf Institute, a concert by the Mosaic Choir and Vespers in Westminster College Chapel, and lunch and a festive dinner in the college dining hall in Westminster College.
It means, of course, that I am going to miss the Christmas Fayre in Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, today, the Lantern Parade, and the Christmas lights being switched on in the Market Square later this afternoon. But, before the day begins, before I head off to begin the long train journey, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 4: 18-22 (NRSVA):
18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake – for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Today’s reflection:
Today (30 November 2024) is the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle, who is often known as the first-called of the disciples.
Before he was called, Saint Andrew was a fisherman, an every-day ordinary-day commercial occupation, working on the Lake of Galilee in partnership with his brother Simon Peter. It is said that when Saint John the Baptist began to preach, Saint Andrew became one of his closest disciples.
When he heard Christ’s call by the sea to follow him, Saint Andrew hesitated for a moment, not because he had any doubts about that call, but because he wanted to bring his brother with him. He left his nets behind and went to Peter and, as Saint John’s Gospel recalls, he told him: ‘We have found the Messiah … [and] he brought Simon to Jesus’ (John 1: 41, 42).
The call in today’s Gospel reading – to Peter and Andrew, to James and John, the sons of Zebedee – comes to us as individuals and in groups. It is not a story of an either/or choice between proclaiming the Gospel to individuals or groups, but a both/and choice.
And this is a two-way call, as Saint Paul reminds us in the Epistle reading today (Romans 10: 12-18): God calls us, and we call to God. Saint Paul’s inclusive language – ‘Lord of all’ … ‘generous to all’ … ‘Everyone who calls’ … ‘all the earth’ – is unambiguous in ruling out all discrimination: ‘For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.’
But that particular form of discrimination is already, inherently, rejected in the Gospel reading. There are two brothers, one with a very Jewish name, Simon from the Hebrew שִׁמְעוֹן, meaning ‘listen’ and ‘best’; and one with a very Greek name, Andrew, Ἀνδρέας, meaning ‘manly,’ even ‘brave’ … ‘strong’ … ‘courageous.’
From the very beginning, the call of Christ rejects the most obvious discrimination between Jew and Greek. Standing against discrimination is inherently built into the mission of the Church.
Some years ago, on my way to or from a meeting of USPG trustees, I visited one of the surviving London churches by Sir Christopher Wren, Saint Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe on Queen Victoria Street. It is two blocks south of Saint Paul’s Cathedral and close to Blackfriars station, and it is the last of Wren’s city churches.
The church was destroyed by German bombs during the Blitz in World War II, but was rebuilt and rededicated in 1961.
As the bitter weather of winter takes hold, I am reminded of a prayer, appropriate for Advent and this winter weather, I found at Saint Andrew’s and which the church offers for people who have no shelter on the streets:
God of compassion,
your love for humanity was revealed in Jesus,
whose earthly life began in the poverty of a stable
and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross:
we hold before you those who are homeless and cold
especially in this bitter weather.
Draw near and comfort them in spirit
and bless those who work to provide them
with shelter, food and friendship.
We ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 30 November 2024, Saint Andrew the Apostle):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence’. This theme was introduced last Sunday with a Programme Update.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 30 November 2024, Saint Andrew the Apostle) invites us to pray:
May we be inspired by the apostle obedience of Saint Andrew, that we may hear the call of the Lord and fulfil his holy commandments.
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who gave such grace to your apostle Saint Andrew
that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ
and brought his brother with him:
call us by your holy word,
and give us grace to follow you without delay
and to tell the good news of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Almighty God,
who on the day of Pentecost
sent your Holy Spirit to the apostles
with the wind from heaven and in tongues of flame,
filling them with joy and boldness to preach the gospel:
by the power of the same Spirit
strengthen us to witness to your truth
and to draw everyone to the fire of your love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of Advent I:
Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflection
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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