Waymarkers

SUNDAY 26^th June 2011

10am

MATT 10:40-42

If you go up to the woods today,

You’ll be in for a little surprise.

If you go up to the woods today,

Get ready to use your eyes.

For things are appearing in the woods on the top of Box Hill that weren’t there a few months ago.  And the presence of these items have the potential to spoil a bit of the Learning Volunteers fun!

I work with the Learning Warden on Box Hill and often take parties of young school children out into the woods for various play and curricular activities.

The woods up there are criss-crossed with trails – you have to know your way around.  So quiet often when we get to a fork in the path, we pretend to the children that we are lost.

A discussion then ensues... is it better to go that way, although that’s where the bears live... or should we go that way, but we’d need to watch out for the crocodiles.  The right route is eventually chosen, because everyone knows that crocodiles don’t live on Box Hill!

But now way markers are appearing alongside the paths and the cross roads to guide visitors along the newly devised trails and walks and to inform them where they are.  And I tell you... It won’t be long before some eagle eyed child is telling us not to be so silly and to read the signs on the marker posts!  They’ll be sorry when we run into the bears!

Today is a day of way markers for some of the folk of St. Matthew’s.  Way markers that chart our journey on our path of Christian faith.  Baptism and Confirmation.

In a few minutes time Catherine will be Baptised.   Baptism is the first marker in our journey, but be very sure, you were already loved by God even before you were born, but this symbolic cleansing and rising up into a new life within the family of Christ, marks the official welcome into our community here in church, we’re thanking God for his gift of life and openly acknowledging his love.

And Confirmation.... this evening eight of our brothers and sisters will be confirmed at St. John’s church.  This marks a new phase of Christian life.  You stand up and make a Public declaration of your faith.  Through the laying on of hands by the Bishop, God is asked for them to be able to live a life of discipleship through the Holy Spirit. For many of us, our Baptism vows are taken by parents and Godparents on our behalf, and here is the opportunity to once again renew those promises. To be welcomed into the heart of the family of Christ.

And for those of us who are there to witness these occasions, we revisit those vows and promises too.

Then we come to the Eucharist itself, whether you attend once a year, a month, each week or more often...  it’s like a familiar landmark you come to time and time again on your way home it is part of the landscape, dependable and rock solid..  It can be a time of Renewal, coming back to the way marker each week and being pointed in the right direction again every time.  It is a place that you know well, somewhere to finish up at and a good place to start out from.   All comes together at the table in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Gospel reading is short on words this morning but huge on meaning, and speaks of another kind of way marker.  Part of Christ’s teaching to those who would be wandering missionaries... a discourse that encourages but also warns that followers will be treated in the same way that he is treated.   But the sentiments apply to us also.

The words tell us that Christ is behind us in everything we do in his name.. here he is behind me as I offer up these words, and that behind him is the father.  And I couldn’t stand up here and talk to you in this way, if I didn’t have that feeling of being guided to do what I do.

And if we do it in his name, it is all one, whether it’s the Archbishop of Canterbury preaching at the wedding of the heir to the throne, or an Aid Worker stopping to give a thirsty child in Sudan a cup of water, or the old age pensioner who puts the few coins she can afford into the Christian Aid Envelope each year.

The way marker we find in this reading is that of welcome.  In fact Jesus mentions it no less than six times in this short passage!

Think of a time when you were welcomed into a place where you hadn’t been before.  A smile or word of welcome makes you feel a whole lot better about being there.  Did a greeting from a stranger ever start a whole new relationship for you?  Within the church family, the kind of welcome received is vital to someone for whom a church is a strange and alien place, full of strange ritual, where everyone else knows what is going on... or appears to anyway.  For those who pluck up the courage to put their toes across the threshold, the type of welcome received, can be the difference between them coming back again and becoming part of the community, or going away and telling others how cliquey and stand-offish those so-called Christians are!  It doesn’t have to be a huge gushing act, a smile, a simple greeting, and offer of help, a listening ear.

Whoever gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones?  The little ones referred to here, in the gospel are probably the twelve who are just beginning their mission.  Just starting to learn exactly what it will involve.    But further on in the gospel little ones comes to mean, those who are new followers of Jesus and then expands to all those who are seen as ‘small’ in the eyes of the world.  And God rewards those who even make the smallest contribution – a cup of water to someone who is thirsty.

The way markers of our Christian life.... Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist and Welcome.  Unlike the way markers in Box Hill Woods, these are not made of wood.  They won’t rot, disappear and be forgotten as if they never existed in years to come.  They mark our journey in a permanent way.  God enfolding us into his family, welcomed with love.  Yours Forever!!

AMEN