The Feast of St. Andrew-transferred
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Mountain Home, AR
November 30, 2025
Good morning! I’m Melanie Lemburg, the new canon to the ordinary for the diocese, and I’m delighted to be here with you to celebrate your patronal feast day—the Feast of St. Andrew!
I’ve come here straight from our family Thanksgiving gathering at our family farm in Northeast Mississippi. My parents and one brother have houses on the farm, and we were joined by my second brother and his family along with my husband and two kids. And for one chaotic week, we all lived together again, all on top of each other (like puppies!). Siblings sharing rooms, some even with their parents; all of us sharing bathrooms with a granddaughter’s boyfriend thrown into the mix. It has been an interesting week, being in such close quarters to those who are the nearest and dearest to my heart, and it has been both a gift and challenge to once again live so near to each other when we have been accustomed to being spread out around the country.
We have a number of factors coming together for us today: it’s the first Sunday of Advent, and here, today, we also celebrate the life and ministry of Andrew the apostle and lift up how his witness inspires your witness here in this community.
And our readings for St. Andrew’s feast day have theme that winds through them like a ribbon that can speak to us today in this place, in this moment.
In the collect of the day, we ask God: “give us, who are called by your Holy Word, grace to follow [Jesus] without delay and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence…” In the Old Testament reading, we hear Moses saying to the people: “Surely the commandment…is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away…No, the word is very near to you.” In the epistle reading, we hear Paul writing to the Romans, “the word is very near to you.” And in the gospel reading, we see Jesus walking near the brothers—Simon and Andrew- and he calls them to follow him, and immediately, they leave their nets and follow him.
In other stories of Andrew in the gospels, we see that Andrew has a particular gift of seeing what is nearby, and then bringing that person or resource to Jesus. He does this in the story of his call to follow Jesus in John’s gospel. In that gospel, it is Andrew who encounters Jesus first, and then he goes and finds his brother Peter, saying to him, “We have found the Messiah,” and he brings Peter back to meet Jesus. It is Andrew who brings the boy with five loaves and two fish to Jesus, and it is also Andrew who brings two Greeks to Jesus so that even the Gentiles might be taught by Jesus.
Andrew has a knack for noticing what and who are near him, and then, through his gentle encouragement, bringing them into Jesus’s presence.
And into this mix, we add the season of Advent, which is a slow uncovering, a gradual revealing of God with us, of the Word who is already near us, as we light our candles in the darkness.
And I can’t help but wonder what does this mean, that the word is already near to us? How is that Word already being revealed in our midst? In our families? In this community? In the chaos of our common life as a nation? Where have you, like Andrew, noticed that the Word is already so very near to you? What does it mean for us to try to seek the Word that is already near?
I have just started reading a new book as a part of my Advent observance this year. The book is titled Give Me A Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year by Christine Valters Paintner, who is the online abbess at Abbey of the Arts, a virtual global monastery that offers resources to people to help nurture contemplative practice and creative expression. In this book Paintner picks up the ancient monastic practice of identifying a word or phrase for reflection and spiritual nourishment for a season. The seekers would often say to the desert mothers and fathers, “Give me a word.” And this phrase is often repeated throughout the parables of the early church. Paintner describes this word saying, “The word being sought was not a theological explanation or counseling. It was part of a relationship that had developed with the assumption that this word, when received by the disciple, would be life-giving. It was meant for this person in this moment and season in their lives.” She continues, “When we receive a word, often it is confirmed through synchronicities that continue to appear to us or a sense of felt rightness. I sometimes describe this process of listening as looking for shimmers. Shimmering is a way to describe when something in the world is calling to you, beckoning you, sometimes even urging you to pay closer attention. Sometimes what shimmers is challenging, but we know that wrestling with it will yield something bigger in our lives. Sometimes what shimmers invokes wonder and awe. We notice a felt response in our bodies and spirits that asks us to attune more deeply to what is being revealed.”[i]
Advent is an appropriate season to be on the lookout for these shimmers, both in our individual lives as well as in our corporate life. What in your individual life is invoking a sense of wonder or awe from the world near you? Where are you as an individual being challenged?
And as you as a congregation allow yourselves to be inspired by Andrew, I wonder what shimmers near you all from the world nearby that beckon to your attention? Who is near to you in this community who could be brought to Jesus by your kind and thoughtful witness?
Let us pray. Almighty God, who didst give such grace to thine apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of thy Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give unto us, who are called by thy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
[i] Paintner, Christine Valters. Give Me A Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year. Broadleaf Books: Minneapolis, 2025, pp xi-xii.
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