I would like to say something about the gospel reading we've just heard, but I have a story to tell you first. You know that the lane behind the church is often used as a dumping ground for all sorts of rubbish. A couple of weeks ago there were three refrigerators and a washing machine, a sewing machine, a broken cupboard and some computers among all the heaps of plastic bags filled with revolting stuff. One day there was even an old bed, you know the sort, with a wooden frame and sagging rusty wire mesh. Well, quite often the people who wander down the lane go through the rubbish and pick out things that might be useful or things that they might sell and I saw this bed and said to myself, "That wood is too good to go to the dump." so I fetched a spanner, took the bed to pieces and piled the wood up in the shed. Some of it was split and there were nails and screws in it and holes drilled through, but it was good wood so I kept it.

Now as some of you know, Sue and I would like to keep a couple of chickens for their eggs, so I decided to use the wood to make a yard for the chickens. I took the wood and I got out my tools. I have one of those disposable saws - the sort you can't resharpen, I have screwdrivers and hammers and spanners and an old brace and bit that used to belong to my grandfather. I cleaned some of the rust off the tools, trimmed the split parts off the wood, pulled out the nails and the screws, and began making my chook house.

Then it occurred to me that Jesus was a carpenter and that my chook house could be a parable of the kingdom of God. I could imagine Jesus walking along the lane, just as he was walking along in the gospel, and he came across the broken bed. As a carpenter he would know good timber when he saw it - he loved wood and loved working with it, so that to see a nice piece of pine going to waste grieved him. In the same way, when he saw Matthew with his life going to waste, he was grieved. Jesus the carpenter would have taken the timber and carefully cut away the split parts and drawn out the nails and unscrewed the screws.

I can imagine Jesus doing the same for Matthew's life, healing the memories of a life which was coming apart and taking away the hurts and fears that had been hammered into his soul. So it is with everyone who feels as if they've been thrown on the rubbish heap of life. God sees our true worth, not our mistakes or the wounds the world has given us. "Those who are well have no need of a physician," said Jesus, "but those who are sick. I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners." Jesus came to forgive our mistakes and to heal our wounds, to cut away the split parts and to draw out the nails. And he came because God loves us and is grieved when our lives come apart and we are lost. Each one of us is a gift of God to the world, and God does not want his gifts to be thrown aside. Instead, God wants to build us up into something wonderful. A chook house is rather a humble metaphor for the kingdom of God - St Paul calls it a temple of the Holy Spirit - but I was building a chook house.

I mentioned tools earlier, because that is another description for Christians, we are not only the timbers in the house of God, we are the tools which God uses to build it. Some tools are old and rusty and blunt, like my grandfather's brace and bit - they need cleaning and sharpening - some of us who have been Christians for a long time need to learn again the truth that sets us free and to find a new sharpness in our faith. Some tools are good and useful - but they need to be used in the right way. I have a good solid hammer, but it is not the thing to use with nuts and bolts - every Christian needs to discover how best they may serve God - and sometimes a new tool needs to be prepared for use. I needed a chisel to fit the lock on the door, so I went out and bought one. It was all shiny and new, but it was blunt - they don't sell them sharpened, so I had to find a sharpening stone and prepare the chisel for use.

As an example of a shiny new Christian, I would like to take James Clarke, who will become a Christian in a few minutes. Here he is, a brand new gift from God, ready to be welcomed into the church, to be built up as part of God's community of love and care, and ready to be used by God - to shine as a light in the world to the Glory of God. He needs to be taught how to shine and how to be a building block.

The best way for Christians to prepare themselves is to be part of the worshipping community of the church - one cannot be a Christian without meeting Jesus - the ruler of the synagogue knelt before Jesus to ask for new life for his daughter, and the haemorrhaging woman came up and touched the fringe of his cloak for her healing. For the same reason the church comes together to meet Jesus Christ in word and in sacrament. On Sundays we meet to share the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist and to be part of the body of Christ ourselves as we share the greeting of peace and fellowship after the service. At other times we may pray together or read the Bible together - Jesus said to Matthew, "Follow me." Jesus rescued Matthew from the tax booth and called him into a new relationship with God. We, too, are found by Jesus wherever we are, and he says to us, "Follow me."

May we have the faith and courage to be built as part of his Kingdom and used as the tools and instruments of his peace.