It is a real joy to welcome Daniel and Lynne, their family and friends here this morning and to have the privilege of baptising their baby daughter, Kalyssa. While I have baptised many babies before, all those occasions were in the Special Care Baby Units of the hospitals in which I have worked. Believe it or not, this is my first baptism in a parish setting, so it is a particular joy and delight for me.

Well what an amazing week this has been, a week that has seen the extraordinary rescue of 33 miners from what could so easily have been their tomb. 69 days earlier the mountain swallowed them as they were in the middle of their normal days work in the copper and gold mine down in the bowels of the earth. It could so easily have been a slow death and oblivion. Rather what their families, the people of Chilie and the world has witnessed and experienced has been the very best that humanity has to offer: the strength of the human spirit, human ingenuity and creativity, dogged determination and perseverance, scientific and engineering skill; using all our God-given gifts, abilities and resources. Vast numbers of people involved at the site of the rescue operation itself, and thousands upon thousands more across the world holding all those caught up in this human drama before God in prayer. The uncle of the Florencio Avalos, the first man to be rescued exclaimed

What, you may be asking, has an event thousands of miles away on another continent, joyful though it may be, got to do with Kalyssa

the midst of life we are in death; and baptism has the language and symbolism of death as well as life drawing Kalyssa, and all of us with her into the Easter story of Christ

As those miners have emerged into the brilliant light of a new dawn, some have spoken of the journey of discovery their experience has been.

In the warmth and safety of her family, Kalyssa too is on a journey of discovery as she explores the world around her. Her life will know its own rich tapestry of joy and sadness, love and pain, beauty and ugliness, wisdom and stupidity, laughter and tears - that is the stuff of our living and our dying.

Similarly, our Journey with God is not just for the happy times when life seems relatively easy. It is also about crucifixion; none of us are spared the pain and sadness of life, bitter disappointments, lost loves and the death of those dearest to us. God is with us through it all and our Easter faith reminds us that after every crucifixion, there is resurrection.

Throughout Kalyssa journey, stories will be shared the family, of life, stories of faith and hope, strength, courage and love; stories that we have heard so many times in recent days from the people in Chile.

This morning, surrounded by the new family of which she is about to become a part ies will play their part in unfolding for her the joys, mysteries and delights found in the stories of scripture which underpin our faith. They will help her to discover for herself the reality and presence of God in her life. Guided by their example, Kalyssa will learn about prayer, the thread will draws us ever closer to God and to each other, this pilgrim community; the thread that was such a powerful life-line for the men buried deep beneath the earth.

But we begin with water, the stuff of life itself, without which nothing can survive. But water can also drown and destroy. Baptism is about both these new life; and in that action is brought together all the mixed stuff of life