In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Christ is in our midst. He is in our midst. Good morning. Good morning.

It is wonderful to be together this morning. As we hear and we celebrate this morning, the Apostle Andrew, the first-called. It’s not every year, of course, that his feast day falls on a Sunday. And so this is a great joy for us to have this call on a Sunday to be able to be together. And in this Gospel reading this morning from the Gospel of John, we hear the calling of the church. We hear Christ calling the church—those two disciples being Andrew and John the Theologian. And Andrew, we hear, being the first-called, comes to Christ.

You see, John is known as not just John the Baptist, but more importantly, John the Forerunner. John is the forerunner to Christ. John is the one who sends his two disciples to Christ. This takes place just after Christ’s baptism. If we’re following sort of chronologically in the Gospels, this is just after Christ’s baptism. And John bears witness to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Christ’s baptism on Christ. And he says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” And again, as Christ is walking by, he says to his disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”

Said another way: “Behold, the Bridegroom.” As St. John Chrysostom points out, behold, the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom, who is Christ, says nothing. It is John the Forerunner who announces who he is. St. John Chrysostom, in one of his homilies on this particular feast and on this Gospel reading, talks about the relationship between the Bridegroom and the bride—that is Christ and His Church.

You see, we have this joining of the Bridegroom to the bride, Christ and His Church, where the Bridegroom remains silent. It is the Forerunner, it is the one who is betrothing the bride to the Bridegroom, that announces it. It is John the Forerunner who gives the bride—the apostles, the church—to the Christ. Others give the bride away; the Bridegroom does not. When he receives her, when Christ receives the church, when the Bridegroom receives the bride, he treats her in such a way that she no longer remembers those who betrothed her. Said another way, we’ve often heard from the epistles: “leave and cleave,” right? This is the relationship that we are to have with the church. This is how we are called. Christ is calling. The Forerunner has given us to Him. And Christ is caring for us as the Bridegroom so that we do not remember anymore or desire to be with those who betrothed us.

So it is with Christ. He came to join Himself to the church, to His people. He said nothing. And then, at being joined to Christ, they no longer see John. Andrew and John the Theologian, who was with Andrew, they no longer see John before they see Christ.

And Andrew’s response is amazing. This is a great example. What does Andrew do when he sees the Lamb of God, when he knows who Christ is? First, they refer to him as a teacher. There’s this eagerness to learn. They understand who He is, and there’s this eagerness to learn. And they say, “Where are you going?” They want to stay with Him. Like a young child wants to learn from their home. “Where are you going so we can be with you?”

But then Andrew does something even more amazing. He runs to get his brother. And he runs with such incredible enthusiasm. Because you see, they’ve been looking for the Messiah their whole life. They know the scriptures. They know Moses and the prophets. And they’ve been looking for the Messiah. And as the Forerunner points them to the Bridegroom, to the Christ, Andrew is so excited. He runs to get his brother, Simon Peter, and says, “We have found the Messiah. We have found the Christ. You must come with me. This is what we’ve been waiting for for a long time.” So they leave, and they go and follow.

St. Ephraim the Syrian interestingly points out about John the Forerunner, which is really something for us to think about. He says regarding John the Baptist: “It was fitting that when the light of the sun appeared, the light of the lantern should fade away.” John the Baptist, seeing the cross, hands over his disciples to Christ and fades away. He has done his job. We, as we often say, are the light of Christ to the world. The light of ourselves, our lantern, our internal personal lantern, should fade away as we have taken on the light of Christ.

So let’s focus just a little bit on this eagerness of St. Andrew. This being his feast day, Andrew being the first-called of the apostles, as he ran to get his brother. Do we have a similar eagerness? Think about something so exciting in your life. For those of us a little bit older, maybe it was when we were kids. It’s something so exciting that happened that we ran to tell our friends. We couldn’t wait to tell our friends. This is what’s happening with Andrew at this point. He’s seen Christ. He’s been introduced to Christ by his teacher, the Forerunner, and now understands who Christ is. And he runs. And he goes to get his brother. “We have found the Messiah.” It is an expression of something that they’ve been longing for for the whole world.

And then as Christ calls them, He changes the names of some and not others. This is often talked about by the Holy Fathers of the church. Some He changes the name and some He does not. It depends on where they’re coming from. It was He who gave in the Old Covenant. In some, we hear He changed names in the Old Covenant: Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah. In some, He assigned names from birth: Isaac, Samson, and those in the prophecy of Isaiah and Hosea. So we see this both happening. And we see the same thing at the calling. Andrew’s name stays the same. Simon Peter—Simon, son of Jonah—becomes Cephas, which is Peter.

But you see, we all have a new name. As we have been called to Christ, as we are the bride (which is the church) and have been adjoined to the Bridegroom, we all have a new name: Christian. We are all Christian. We all share in that name. And others should see that name in us. We are united to the Bridegroom, which is Christ. And we bear his name, Christian.

So as we have in this example this morning of this incredible eagerness, as we reflect on the eagerness perhaps that we’ve had at some point as a child, as we’ve had excitement in our lives, and we run to tell our family, we run to tell our friends—let’s share this eagerness that Andrew has and share that eagerness with one another as we are called as the church. Perhaps this is a renewal for us this morning. This is our purpose as we bear the name of Christ as Christians.

A few questions to think about: Do we see, as the bride, that we have been given to Him? Have we been given to the Bridegroom? Do we long for His teaching as Andrew longed for the teaching of Christ? Do we with great eagerness bring others to Christ? We are now the messengers. We are now bringing others to Christ. Do we do that with eagerness? Eagerness in our actions, eagerness in our words, eagerness in our love for one another. Do we bring others so that they too may be brought to the house of the Father? As Christ says, He takes the bride up to the house of the Father. That is what we are called to do.

So, as St. Andrew, the first-called disciple, may we too long for Christ’s teaching. May we too run to our brothers and sisters and bring them to the Bridegroom. May we too be united to Christ as the bride is to her Bridegroom and go with Him to the house of the Father. And may we too, in everyday, normal activities of life, live up to the calling of our new name, which is Christian.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ is in our midst. Amen.