Andrew is one of the Disciples and doesn't seem get much air time in Church. Have you ever noticed? I think back to a Sunday where the Pastor was giving the children's message and asked who the four major Disciples were? Why there were a myriad of answers from Paul, Peter, James, John, Mathew, even Mary one little boy who had on brown corduroys and a blue Izod shirt you know the kind with the little alligator on it. Anyways this little boy got a wizened look on his face and said John, Paul, George and Ringo.
I think back to this and I begin to ponder about the story in todays message. We again hear the important story of Jesus' baptism by his cousin John but something is added unlike last week's text. We hear of the first sharing of the Gospel. I can just picture it now a hot humid day, one that I would imagine to be like Galveston, Tx in July. The air is hot, and sticky, and there is John preaching and teaching and here come Jesus. It appears the Andrew was actually a disciple of john's and we hear of how Andrew listened and watched and absorbed all that was happening with the Annointed one Jesus. Andrew was so excited when he had found the Messiah that he asked where Jesus was staying went to visit to learn more, and then ran home and told his Brother Simon. I always found it strange that Peter had so many names do you? When I was in highschool I lived in a small rural town in southeastern Oklahoma. Now nick names apparently were a deep part of the culture Antlers. I had friends with all sorts of nick names why there was James who was Peach, the was Food Stamp who was Kenny, There Frog who was Jeremiah, there was Spud who was Jimmy, and I even had mine own Perch. There was a teacher in my highschool named Marlin and I was dubbed with the nick name Perch but that wasn't my only one, why there was John Boy, John-John, Johnny, J- Dub.
I often wondered if that was not what was going on with Simon, or Cephas or Peter. See names have meaning names have power. Simon means in Hebrew to be Heard. Perhaps baby Simon was a real loud crier. Cephas means Rock in Hebrew and Peter means Rock in Greek. So we find that the Good News was shared with Peter and that he would be a rock to the church.
How exciting it must have been for Andrew who was a follower of John to be at the Baptism of Jesus to see things first hand and then to share all that he saw all that he learned and compelled his brother Simon to come seek Christ? We have seen in this church the good news but we can't be silent as as a stone. We have to speak the love and peace which Christ has given to us. How recently have you told someone about how great God is or how you have been a witness to God's grace as Andrew was.
I'm not asking for you to hold up your hands when I call these numbers out but lets think back to the last time we told someone about Christ and or Christ's work in our Church. Was it yesterday, last week, two weeks ago, a month ago, 6 months ago, a year, 5 years, 7 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 40 years.
The work of Christ is ongoing, salvation is ongoing, it is more than just a one time decision, more than just saying a simple formula. We have to be committed to the process of following in the footsteps of Andrew, in the foot steps of Christ. We have to be so excited, that we want to come home and tell our closest friends and family members even our neighbors about the Anointed One, Christ. Sometimes we watch tv and we see how other Christians live out there faith, sometimes we are inspired. One such time I was inspired was just recently many of you know our friend Dorine. She drives a 1986 white Jeep Wrangler. Her car was stolen last week. The man who stole it sold it to her. He was on Drugs and in his delusions came and stole the jeep after he had lost his suburban in the wake of his drug habit. Mom and I decided to go and look for Dorines car about 4 days after it was stolen this past Monday matter of fact. We prayed that we would find it, so we drove from 21st and grove all the way down grove until we hit central, I turned right and saw a white jeep wrangler just like hers she has a very distinctive car with black hub wells. So I hurried as fast as I could and we picked up Dorine. We went down central towards hillside. Dorine said there's my jeep driving the other way. I whipped around and we followed this jeep to the other side of 1-35 and it parked by an ace cashways. We thought bingo, so we made Dorine get in the floor, thankfully she is petite. Anyways she looked to see if it was her car, it wasn't so we went around the block to get back out on Central and to our astonishment her jeep was parked in a culdesact at the end of some 1940's apartment houses. We got the cops to come and she got her car back. I don't believe in coincidences very often and I think that it was God, when we followed one very unusual Jeep Wrangler, to the right one. At that point I rally did feel like God was our Co pilot.
Today is Ecumenical Sunday. It is a time where we celebrate our unity in Christ with all our fellow Christians around the world. When I was a camp counselor we had team building activities. One of the activities that we would do to inspire trust is that we would close our eyes and fall backwards and another counselor would catch us. This trust building exercise was hard. You had to put your trust into someone besides yourself. When we look at Being a United and Uniting Church lets us be ready to catch those who are falling around us. Let us pray that we can fall knowing that we as the church will come together and catch each other as we fall. Let us look for the things in our loves that have been lost. And more than Anything Let us Fall into the arms of Christ knowing that we are protected and loved by the Annointed one that Andrew Found on that Balmy day on the Shores of the River Jordan. Amen.