Acts 1: 1-11
St Andrew’s Day
Advent is all about preparing to celebrating the incarnation;
the historical fact that God came to earth in the form of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Word became flesh in order to teach and heal and come to the help of sinners
by dying on the cross to take away the punishment they deserve
so that they could have a relationship with God.
This is the time of the Church’s year when we remember that God came to His people,
but how for the most part they rejected Him and even put Him to death.
Today’s reading from Acts 1 tells us, encourages us, or warns us,
that the Son of Man will come back one day,
not as a baby born in an insignificant middle-eastern village the next time,
but as King of kings and Lord of lords, coming in clouds with great power and glory.
No more in a state of humiliation as he did the first time, but in a state of exaltation,
and while those who love him and follow him will be pleased,
those who have rejected him and only used his name as a swear word will be devastated.
Until that day comes, Paul in 1st Corinthians 1
tells us to eagerly wait for the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
and trust him meantime to help us to be His witnesses, His disciples of the 21st century.
One such Christian who took this advice was the disciple and apostle Andrew.
The New Testament records in Matt 4:18, Mark 1:16 and Luke 6:14
that St Andrew was a son of Jonah, or John;
that he was born in Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee,
and that both he and his brother Simon Peter were fishermen by trade,
hence the tradition that Jesus called them to be his disciples
by saying that He will make them "fishers of men".
The Gospel of John (in chap 1:40) teaches that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist,
whose testimony first led him and John the Evangelist to follow Jesus.
The name "Andrew" comes from the Greek : "áíäñåßá" = Andreia
which means ‘manhood’, ‘manly’ or ‘valour’.
Andrew was manly or brave enough to follow John the Baptist
who was a rebel as far as the Jewish priests were concerned
and ended up having his head cut off,
and Andrew was manly or brave enough to give up his job and livelihood
to follow Jesus;
disciples having no wage or fixed place of work or ‘employment rights’
and facing opposition from the Jewish authorities almost every day.
Somehow, (through the agency of the Holy Spirit)
Andrew at once recognized Jesus as the Messiah,
and hastened to introduce him to his brother (John 1:41).
For the rest of their lives the two brothers were disciples of Christ.
If Andrew had not come to Jesus, then maybe Peter would never have come,
and for Catholics, there would have been no pope,
or at least not one called Cephas or Peter, ‘the rock’.
This challenges us: if we are here because WE recognize Jesus as Saviour,
do we do all WE can to introduce our relatives, friends and neighbours to Jesus?
Are we ‘fishers of men’?
November 30th is St Andrew’s Day here in Scotland,
but as well as being patron saint of Scotland Andrew is also patron saint of Russia,
and of Sicily, Greece, Romania, Amalfi, and Luqa (Malta);
and patron saint of Army Rangers, mariners, fishermen, fishmongers, rope-makers, singers and performers, sore throats, spinsters, maidens, old maids
and women wishing to become mothers.
Andrew receives only a bare mention in the Book of Acts.
In chapter 1:13 he is listed as one of the witnesses of Jesus’ ascension into heaven,
but the early church historian Eusebius quotes Origen
as saying that Andrew preached the Gospel in Greece, Asia Minor and in Scythia,
along the Black Sea as far as the Volga and Kiev.
This is how he became the patron saint of Romania and Russia.
According to tradition, he founded the See or Diocese of Byzantium,
which would be re-named Constantinople and is now called Istanbul in AD 38.
Andrew is supposed to have installed a priest called Stachys as bishop.
and this diocese would later develop into the Patriarchate of Constantinople. ,
and Andrew is recognized as the patron saint of the city.
Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at Patras in Achaea,
but he did not die in the same way as Jesus;
early church history texts say Andrew was bound, not nailed, to a cross;
but a tradition grew up that Andrew had been crucified on a cross
of the form called ‘Crux decussata’ (an X-shaped cross),
which as a result is now commonly known as a "Saint Andrew's Cross".
This is why the Saltire (or "St. Andrew's Cross") became the national flag of Scotland.
According to tradition, this was performed at his own request,
as he considered himself unworthy to be crucified on the same type of cross
that Christ was crucified on.
Several legends state that the relics of Andrew were brought under supernatural guidance
from Constantinople to the place where the modern town of St Andrews stands today.
Certainly, after he died, St. Andrews bones were entombed,
but around 300 years after Andrew's martyrdom the Roman Emperor Constantine,
the first Roman Emperor to become a Christian,
ordered that the saint's bones should be moved from Patras where Andrew had died,
to his new capital city of Constantinople, which is now Istanbul in Turkey.
Legend has it that a Greek Monk called St. Regulus
was warned in a dream that St. Andrews remains were to be moved
and was directed by an angel to take those of the remains which he could
to the "ends of the earth" for safe-keeping.
St. Regulus dutifully followed these directions,
immediately going to St. Andrew’s tomb,
and removing a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap and some fingers
and transporting these as far away as he could.
St. Regulus is said to have being shipwrecked
and washed ashore at a Pictish settlement on the East Coast of Scotland.
He must have thought that he had indeed reached the 'ends of the earth'!
Anyway, the settlement was to became St. Andrews in Fife.
This is how the association of St. Andrew with Scotland was said to have begun,
and Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland in the middle of the tenth century.
Well over a thousand years later St Regulus's Tower
still stands among the ruins of St Andrew's Cathedral, which, in its heyday,
was a great centre of Medieval pilgrimage.
St. Jerome wrote that the relics of St. Andrew were taken from Patras to Constantinople
by order of the Roman emperor Constantius II around 357
and deposited in the Church of the Holy Apostles.
The head of the saint was given by the Byzantine despot Thomas Palaeologus
to Pope Pius II in 1461.
It was enshrined in one of the four central piers of St. Peter's Basilica
in the Vatican.
In September 1964, Pope Paul VI,
as a gesture of good will toward the Greek Orthodox Church,
ordered that all of the relics of St. Andrew that were in Vatican City,
were to be sent back to Patras.
The relics consisted of the small finger, part of the top of the cranium of Saint Andrew
and small portions of the cross on which he was martyred,
have since that time been kept in the Church of St. Andrew at Patras in a special shrine, and are reverenced in a special ceremony every November 30, his feast day.
Another legend says that in the late eighth century, during a joint battle with the English,
King Ungus of the Picts, who lived from 820–834,
saw a cloud shaped like a saltire, and declared that Andrew was watching over them,
and if they won by his grace, then he would be their patron saint.
Whatever the truth of these ancient legends,
the Saltire, the Scottish flag, is without doubt based on the cross of Andrew's crucifixion and maybe the significance we should take today is that Andrew,
although sometimes overshadowed by his brother Simon Peter,
was the first disciple.
There are quite a few legends associated with St Andrew’s Day,
for example, around midnight on November 29,
it was traditional for girls to pray to St Andrew for a husband.
They would make a wish and look for a sign that they had been heard.
A girl wishing to marry would throw a shoe at a door.
If the toe of the shoe pointed in the direction of the exit,
then she would marry and leave her parents' house within a year.
Or she would peel a whole apple without breaking the peel
and throw the peel over her shoulder.
If the peel formed a letter of the alphabet,
then this would be the first letter of the name of her future groom.
German folklore advises single women who wish to marry
to ask for St Andrew's help.
The night before the 30th, they were to sleep naked,
and were supposed to see their future husband in their dreams.
Young women were also told to note the location of barking dogs on St Andrew's Eve,
as their future husbands will come from that direction.
One historical mistake was made following Robert the Bruce’s victory over the English
at Bannockburn in June 1314
because the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath cites Scotland's conversion to Christianity
by Saint Andrew, "the first to be an Apostle".
St Andrew of course never set foot in Scotland in his lifetime.
However, since 1320 numerous parish churches in the Church of Scotland
and congregations of other Christian churches in Scotland
have been named after Saint Andrew.
There is another story, that Acca, the Bishop of Hexham,
who was a renowned collector of relics,
brought the relics of St. Andrew to St. Andrews in 733,
but there was already a religious centre at St. Andrews at that time,
either founded by St. Regulus in the 6th century
or by the Pictish King, Ungus, who reigned from 731 - 761.
Whichever tale is true, the relics were placed in a specially constructed chapel,
and this chapel was replaced by the Cathedral of St. Andrews in 1160,
and St. Andrews became the religious capital of Scotland
and a great centre for Medieval pilgrims who came to view the relics.
It is not known what happened to the relics of St. Andrew
although it is most likely that these were destroyed during the Scottish Reformation.
The Protestant cause, propounded by Knox, Wishart and others,
won out over Roman Catholicism during the Reformation
and the what they called the "idolatry of Catholicism",
statues of Mary and Saints, relics, and decoration of churches,
were expunged during the process of converting
the Roman Catholic churches of Scotland
to the harsh simplicity of Knox's brand of Calvinism.
Knox would not even have simple crosses in his Presbyterian churches!
The place where St Andrew’s relics were kept within the Cathedral at St. Andrews
is now marked by a plaque, amongst the ruins, for visitors to see.
It doesn’t matter where his bones are now;
it is his example that makes St Andrew important.
He believed in Jesus and brought Peter and maybe others to him.
St Andrew never wrote a gospel or an epistle and never had one addressed to him.
He never did anything ‘outstanding’,
yet he is notable because he responded to Jesus’ call to follow him
and become a fisher of men instead of a catcher of fish.
We might sometimes think that we are not important,
but if Jesus was telling the truth in Matthew 10
when he said not even a sparrow falls without God knowing it,
then we can be assured that even if we never become the patron saint of a country
or anything else,
that God DOES know what we DO do for Him.
Soon we will celebrate the First Coming of Jesus;
let us then continue to ‘eagerly wait for the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’
and trust him meantime to keep us always ready to be His witnesses,
even in this part of the earth.
Yes, Scotland is far from the events of the 1st century, but distance is no object to Almighty God.
Amen and the peace of God ............................................
