There are a few people in church today wearing a special badge. If you're wearing a special badge put your hand up. Most of those wearing a badge are the children who have been preparing to receive communion for the first time today. Would any of you children like to come forward so we can see your badge. What does it say?
I belong to God, and I belong to the Church. In the middle, what is written – name. (say all their names) Beautifully decorated. I've got one too. We all belong to God and we belong in the church. Of course, we don't usually wear a badge like this (maybe we should do, every week!)I hope you'll be able to look at some of the children's badges later. (Children sit down).
We might not wear a badge like this every week. But there is something that we do do in church which is a bit like a badge of belonging. What is that? Baptism. Baptism is a sign of belonging – that we belong to God and we belong in the church. Right at the beginning of our sessions preparing for communion, we talked first about baptism and what happens at a baptism and I asked the children to bring in their baptism certificates. Interesting that the children were baptized in different places: Nigeria, Italy, Germany as well as in Switzerland – which is a reminder that the church is international, as we see in our congregation here.
What was written right in the middle of our badges? When we are baptized we are called by name to be friends of Jesus and members of his family. But our journey as Christians doesn't stop at baptism; that is just the beginning. Then, of course, we need to grow in our faith. The children came up with a few things we can do which help us do that:
We can come to church where we worship God and learn more about Jesus with others, old and young. We all belong in the church and need one another as we follow Jesus. We are Jesus' family, we are his body. So, I hope you children will come to church, Sunday by Sunday, as I hope we all will.
We also grow as followers of Jesus through prayer. Talking to God and listening to God helps us draw closer to him. Do you remember we drew round our hands and each finger reminded us of a different kind of prayer? Thanking God, saying sorry, asking for help, praying for others, and simply being silent and still in God's presence. We can talk to God about everything, there is nothing we can't talk to God about, though we don't always need to use words. It was also wonderful to hear some prayers that the children said at home that were special to them.
Caring for one another is another way we grow as Jesus' friends. And I know a lot of caring goes on in the church. People are very kind to others when they are sick or upset. We can all look out for ways we can show care for one another, but also to those in need outside the church. There are many people we may know who are sad or lonely or struggling.
As Christians, we also read the Bible and listen to stories of Jesus. (show JC Bible). In our sessions, we read a passage from the Bible every time we met as a group – sometimes acting it out – and we shared some of our favourite Bible stories. We need to read the Bible in order to know who Jesus is and what it means to follow him.
Then, of course, another way we grow in our faith is by receiving the bread and wine and that is what we are especially thinking about today. If baptism starts us off on our journey of faith, communion is the food we need on that journey. We need this food deep inside to help us to grow.
We heard two short Bible readings this morning (one of them beautifully read by Erik). They both tell us about Jesus giving his disciples the bread and wine at the Last Supper before he died. In both readings, we hear that Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks for it, breaks it, and gives it to his disciples. 'This is my body' he says 'do this in remembrance of me.' Then he does the same thing with the cup of wine. 'This is my blood' Jesus says. We say the same words, and we use the same gestures in our communion service every Sunday. Christians have been breaking bread and sharing wine to remember Jesus right from the beginning up to today. As Paul says in our first reading, he received that tradition, and he handed it on to the Corinthians. We have received it and we hand it on too.
The bread and wine help us to remember the Last Supper; they help us to remember that Jesus died for us, his body was broken for us on the cross, that we might live.
It's good to remember important things and sometimes we keep things, or do things, to help us remember. We shared some of these things in our group: we remember people's birthdays through cards, presents and parties, we keep photos of people and of special occasions to remember them, and sometimes we eat special food to recall important events or seasons, like eggs at Easter, or specially decorated biscuits at Christmas – and the teenager group made some beautifully decorated biscuits at their event on Friday. (For those of us who are English, it's not specially decorated biscuits but mince pies and Christmas cake. Other cultures will have other traditions). For Christians, eating the bread and drinking the wine helps us remember that Jesus died for us.
But, receiving communion is not just about remembering something that happened long ago. In some mysterious way, Jesus feeds us now with his life and his love. As we pray over the bread and the wine, and as we come in faith and trust, with our hands open to receive, Jesus feeds us deep inside. Not with a food to make our bodies strong, but with a food to strengthen our hearts and spirits, to help us to grow to be like him.
When we have been baptized, whether that's very recently for some of us, or 80 years ago for others of us, we need to grow. To help us to grow, we come to church, we talk to God in prayer, we care for each other, we read the Bible, and we receive the bread and the wine in communion. I hope you children will go on doing these things, and we will all continue to do so whatever our age.
I just want to say one further thing. In our communion service week by week, when we have sung praises to God, prayed to him, read the Bible and received the bread and wine, what do we do then? Do we stay in church all week camping out in the building till next Sunday? No, we go back to our homes, our schools, our work. At the very end of the service David or I will say 'Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.' That's very important. The food we receive in communion, the strength and nourishment of God's love, is to make us strong to live our daily lives in following Jesus. We come in to church to be fed, then we go out to serve the Lord, and then we come back to be fed again the following week.
It's been a great joy to spend time with the children over the last few weeks preparing them to receive communion today. I think we have learned a lot together. The children each had some sheets to fill in in a special communion workbook, and perhaps some of them might want to show them to you – as well as showing their badges – over coffee time.
But finally, I want to say that I will pray for you – and for all of us – that we will all grow in our faith as friends of Jesus: as we worship in church, read the Bible, pray, care for one another, and receive the bread and wine week by week.