Minor Festival -- Festival of St. Andrew, Apostle

           Lutheran worship is liturgical.  While that often refers to an order of worship, it can also refer to the calendar of the Church Year.  The Church Year includes major festivals, such as Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, etc...  On Sunday, November 30, we will recognize a minor festival, the Festival of St. Andrew, Apostle.

            St. Andrew (together with St. John) was the first of the twelve who would become apostles to follow Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  The first thing Andrew did was to bring his brother, Simon Peter, to the Messiah.  Ironically, it was not Andrew, but Peter, who became a more prominent apostle.  Little is told of Andrew in the gospels, and almost nothing in Acts.  Tradition says that Andrew preached the gospel in Asia Minor and Greece, and that he was martyred in Achaia, being nailed to an “X” shaped cross for three days.  May we, like Andrew, be eager to bring people to Jesus.