St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

Coconut Grove, Florida

Easter IV (B) • April 29, 2012

Sermon by the Rev. Jo-Ann R. Murphy, D.Min.

Assistant Rector

I don’t believe there is a better metaphor for the Christian life than that of pilgrimage and I don’t believe I’ve seen a better film about pilgrimage than The Way which came out last fall but I only saw last weekend.  Our journey as Christians begins with the cross of Christ marked on our foreheads at baptism.  We continue – from the moment we are “sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever” --  to grow into the full image of Christ.

In The Way the main character, Tom, played by Martin Sheen, is a sixty-something lapsed Catholic who on impulse sets out on The Camino de Santiago, also known as the Way of St. James, to scatter the ashes of his more-or-less estranged son who was killed in a freak storm while on the pilgrimage.  Tom doesn’t know why he suddenly decides to take up his son’s hiking gear and make the trek, but only the most obtuse film viewer would miss the ever-so-obvious reason that whether Tom knows it or not he is searching for his own “way.”  It’s what the Camino represents that really resonated with me.  “We take all comers,” Tom is told.  “We’re not going to tell you how to do it, and we’re not going to tell you what you’re looking for, but you might find it.”

We here at St. Stephen’s are beginning today to take a close look at our core values, what we stand for.  We say we seek out and invite and welcome all people and encourage them to join us in a life of mercy & justice, learning, worship, and service.  I couldn’t say it any better than the film says it:  “We’re not gonna tell you what how to do it, and we’re not gonna tell you what you’re looking for, but you might find it” – here.  “We take all comers.”

This pilgrimage, this Christian journey we’re on that began at baptism and that never ends involves lifelong learning.  We are never finished or done.  We grow into the image of Christ a little bit more every day, every week, every year.  And so St. Stephen’s offers a myriad of opportunities for Christian growth and formation throughout the days and weeks and months of every year.  Christian Formation or Learning as our “Get Involved, Stay Connected” booklet calls it, is for “all comers.”  Classes and groups abound, but Christian Formation happens in a myriad of ways not just in “formal” or “organized” sessions.  We learn about the prayers and creeds and hymns of the Church by being in worship on a regular basis; we learn about the service that Christ calls us to by volunteering to make sandwiches for the Thelma Gibson Aids Ministry and by preparing taxes for lower income neighbors; we learn about Jesus’ “other sheep not of this fold” by participating in a mission in Honduras.  But here at St. Stephen’s we do teach the basics of the faith – of course we do – in Invest II classes for all ages on Sunday mornings and in Education for Ministry during the week; in Inquirer’s Classes in the fall; in individual counseling sessions before baptism and marriage; and even on our website where Robin has written an easy-to-understand article called “New to Church? A Beginner’s Guide.”  Learning is a core value because if we do not know what we believe or how to practice what we believe faithfully, how will we know how to be the witnesses we are called to be in the world?

In the film Tom starts out a tight-lipped despairing father but he, against his wishes, is thrown together with Joost, a boisterous Dutchman, Sarah, a cynical Canadian, and Jack, a garrulous and sometimes annoying Irish writer.  Tom tries to ignore all of them in his manic determination to walk off his grief, but his comrades wear away his defenses over the 450 miles of pilgrimage together and we understand that he is emerging from dark, private sorrows when he offers comfort to Sarah as she weeps with regret for her past choices.  When the pilgrims reach the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, said to be the final resting place of St. James the Apostle, they don’t stop.  It’s not over for this little community that has formed.  They go on together, continuing to Cape Finisterre, which was once thought to be the end of the world.

Here at St. Stephen’s we travel together, too.  Just as the Good Shepherd knows his sheep and his sheep know him, we here are in relationship.  For it is community that we travel best; in community we learn the most.  There is no destination, no ending place.  We continue on pilgrimage, we continue learning, until the “end of the world.”   So let’s keep on going.  Let’s keep on learning.  “We take all comers.  We’re not gonna tell you how to do it and we’re not gonna tell you what you’re looking for, but you just might find it.”