St. Nicholas Orthodox Church
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese
9100 Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA 71115
Sunday, November 30, 2014 (Feast of St. Andrew)

We all know what it’s like to wait. When we were kids we waited for the end of the school year and the beginning of summer. As summer wore on and it got hotter, we couldn’t wait for the cooler weather to come. We’ve waited for teeth to fall out, for someone to notice us, for someone to call us. Some of us have waited to meet someone to marry; or we’ve been engaged and couldn’t wait for the big day to arrive. And of course, we all remember what it was like when, as kids, we waited - and couldn’t wait! - for Christmas.

The Saints know about waiting. They’ve all waited like we have; they also know especially about waiting for the Lord. The Old Testament Prophets - and all the people of Israel with them - were awaiting the coming of the Messiah. And that continued right up to the day that St. John the Baptist pointed to the Lord and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” One of those who eagerly awaited the coming of the Messiah was Andrew. He was a disciple of St. John, and heard him say that Jesus was the One. And at that point, he didn’t wait; he immediately followed Christ.

St. Andrew embodies the hopeful anticipation of the Israelites for the Messiah. He also embodies the yearning that we ought to have as Christians. Although we already know Who the Messiah is, and although we may think we know all about Him, nevertheless we have much to learn from St. Andrew.

It’s funny, really, how it went with St. Andrew and the Lord when they first met. At least the way I imagine it based on St. John’s Gospel, Andrew started literally following the Lord as He walked along, accompanied by another disciple. At some point, Jesus stopped, turned around and addressed Andrew and the other disciple: “What do you seek?” To paraphrase, He was asking them, “why are you following Me?” Not knowing what else to say, or how to express what they were seeking, they replied by asking Him in return, “Rabbi, where are You staying?” In other words, they wanted to be wherever He was, and that was about the extent of what they knew. They sound shy, a little awkward perhaps, but the question they blurt out shows that they understand the only really important thing for them at that point - they need to stick with Jesus.

Of course, Andrew has one little errand to run before abandoning all and following Christ, and that is to go get his brother, Simon, and bring him along on the adventure, too. He does this, and together they and the other disciples begin to follow the Lord in response to His invitation to “come and see.” And indeed, they begin to see just who this Messiah is and what a transformation He will bring to their lives.

The world we live in is still in need of a Messiah. In countless ways we inhabit a world similar to that surrounding the Disciples. Their people faced oppression from the Roman occupiers, threats of disease like leprosy, and other fears; we face threats and fearful circumstances in the form of ISIS, riots in Ferguson, Ebola, and many other things. We, like they, live in the midst of a fragmented, broken world in which passions run wild and destroy lives: everywhere we look we see drug addictions, chaotic sexuality, and greed for more and more (like that exhibited each year on “Black Friday”) doing damage to human beings.

Everything we see reminds us that all is vain apart from Christ. We have no other hope. We have no other Savior. Apart from Him, we are careening towards destruction. He’s the only possibility of real, life-giving change in our world. And everything that really matters is found in and through Him. When we contemplate the reality of our eventual death and of the eternity that follows, and of the real and abundant life of everlasting joy that Christ desires to give us, then other things that might have seemed important - like getting a new, 50-inch TV - lose their luster.

In other words, it’s not just the world as a whole, or other, “lost” people, that remain in need of a Messiah. We personally - each one of us - remains in daily, hourly, minute-by-minute need of Jesus as our Messiah. We have to become more aware of our own desperate situation apart from Him. Our hearts long for Him, but we often anesthetize our hearts so that we don’t feel that longing so acutely. It’s a blessed thing to be aware of our own lack apart from Him, and, knowing that there’s no other Savior, to wait for Him. Yes, to wait. We are in good company when we wait for Christ to come to us. We are with all the prophets, and with the disciples. We are with Simeon in the Temple, who waited all his life for the Lord, and when at long last he saw him and held him as an infant in his arms, he said “Lord now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace…for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation…” That is, “I can die now because my eyes have seen the One I’ve been waiting for all my life; in Him, my life is complete.”

The Lord is coming. We may face many trials and tribulations in this life. We may feel that the night is closing in. We may wait many years for the deliverance that we seek; in fact we wait all our life for the complete fulfillment in us of the promise of His coming. In the meantime, He comes to us in many small ways, sometimes in bigger ways, and often in unexpected ways, showing up in unexpected places. He comes to us when and how He knows best. Some ways and places we can expect, though: just as He manifested Himself to Luke and Cleopas on the road to Emmaus, so He makes Himself known to us in the “breaking of the bread,” and in the opening of the Scriptures.

However long God gives us in this world, we as Christian await the Lord’s coming. We wait, not in dejection, but with faith, hope and love. We wait now, during this season, for the coming we celebrate at Christmas; He will come again one day and establish His everlasting Kingdom. And He is coming to us even now, and at every moment. And He is bringing peace, joy and perfect love to us, if only we will open our hearts up to receive them. However long the night of waiting may continue, we know that the Sun of Righteousness will rise at last - in our hearts, and for the whole world. To Christ, who is our Light and the fulfillment of our desire, be all glory and honor, together with His Father who is from everlasting, and His all-holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

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