“‘You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
‘How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!’
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’”

Uh oh. This is particularly troubling in Jesus’s day because wealth was seen as a blessing from a God, an indication of God’s favor. Further, it provided the wealthy one the opportunity to contribute to sacrifices in the temple, support for priests and rabbis, and promote orthodox practice outside of Jerusalem. Clearly, in Jesus’s day, the wealthy had an advantage in making it to God’s kingdom. That’s not, however, how the kingdom works. The kingdom must be received (like a child would) without any entitlement. It must be received as a gift, not purchased like property. It cannot be earned without God’s grace, because it is God’s work, not ours. 

Beacon of Hope
Commitment Weekend

“They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
‘What were you arguing about on the way?’
But they remained silent.
They had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest. 
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
‘If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.’”

It is here! The Beacon of Hope Commitment Weekend has arrived. As a community, I believe we have done our best to discern our needs, listen to the feedback given by our members and adjust our priorities, and present our case for support prayerfully and as clearly as possible. In a very special way, I want to thank our Campaign Directors and the close to 80 members of our Campaign leadership team. Also, our staff has done a terrific job of balancing campaign work and the ongoing ministry needs of our community. I am especially grateful to God for this moment in the life of our community. In the midst of the ongoing crisis in the Church, the faith of those involved in our campaign and of those who have already pledged or given has been a bright spot for me. It is amazing to see. 

From the beginning of the campaign, I have had a profound trust that God will provide for what He wills for us to accomplish. The only way this happens is through your cooperation with God’s plan as you are able: proportionally to your means, generously with joyful giving, and sacrificially out of love. It is clear that the money to reach our goal over 3-5 years is present in our community. It is a profound and humbling reality, however, to experience the faith choice many are making to give their very hard earned money to support our community’s ministry, outreach, and service to others. Many of you have never been asked to consider giving at the level we have asked you to consider. Many of you have never given before at the level you have pledged. This is nothing short of a miracle: God’s grace, through faith, in action. 

Foundational to this campaign is the steadfast belief that Jesus is our true Beacon of Hope. It has nothing to do with status, individually or as a community, but is all about the mission God has given us. We are only here because of what Jesus, sent by the Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit, has done for us and for the whole world. Each of our lives, our precious time, our varied talents, and our financial resources are essential to our mission. We cannot do what God has called us to do without, first, recognizing God’s great blessings in our lives and, second, the participation of each of you. It takes all of us through our small and big decisions to make manifest God’s love in our community and world. Every one of you has a significant, even essential, contribution to make for God’s purpose. 

The Beacon of Hope campaign is not about who is greatest, but about how through the miracle of your faith and your giving, we as a community can become the servant of all. As a beacon of hope, we do not shine our own light, but the light of Jesus Christ, to those who are wounded, searching, marginalized, or lost. May the light of Christ, the true Beacon of Hope, shine through us. 

“He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
‘Hear me, all of you, and understand. 
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.

From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

All these evils come from within and they defile.’”

How much money you make, what kind of clothes you wear, what kind of car you drive, how many followers you have on Instagram, where you live, where you went for you last vacation, what your title is, what degrees you have earned, what level of success you have achieved—these things may be significant accomplishments, reflect your talents and drive, and be recognized as gifts from God. They will not, however, get us to heaven nor do they indicate our value as a human beings. They may even become chains that bind us. We live in a world where image counts and status means something. I get that. When the image or status becomes more important than the reality of our hearts, however, we are trapped. Trapped on a treadmill of keeping up appearances, maintaining the outside as our inside crumbles. 

“So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep,
he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib
that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:
‘This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called ‘woman,’
for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.’

That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.”

This is from the second story of creation from the Book of Genesis, which is a bit more earthy than the first. To our modern sensibilities, the first story is a bit more palatable, “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness...God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). While this first story is a bit more abstract and categorical, both stories are in the category of myth. For Catholics, myth has something of a technical definition in relation to scripture. It does not connote fantastical imaginary content, but does point to a deeper meaning, reality, or truth behind the story. It may not be scientific truth or historical truth, but it is divinely inspired symbolic truth. 

“He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days. 

He spoke this openly. 
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan. 
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.’”

It was a pretty brazen move on Peter’s part to rebuke Jesus, even in private. We all want to avoid pain and suffering. We go so far as to deny it exists, minimize it’s power, gloss over it’s ramifications, pretend everything is alright. Jesus doesn’t do that. He shows us that the way of love is to embrace suffering. It is the only way to victory, from death to new life, from the cross to resurrection. We must not avoid, but embrace the pain. Jesus says:

“As a result of this, many of his disciples returned
 to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?’
Simon Peter answered him, ‘Master, to whom shall we go? 
You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.’”

If I am honest, there have been several times in my life when I wanted to leave the faith of my parents, and later my own. That has varied from leaving the Catholic Church to leaving Christianity all together. Three examples are below:

“‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’
Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses' aide, said,
‘Moses, my lord, stop them.’
But Moses answered him, ‘Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!’”

What is my role as your pastor? In Latin, the word pastor means shepherd. In John’s Gospel, Jesus states, “I am the good shepherd.” Jesus lays down his life for the sheep, whom he knows and who know him. Jesus, as the good shepherd, is the model of a pastor, being in relationship with and laying down his life each day for those entrusted to his care. Traditionally, Jesus is also understood to model three offices or duties or, in Latin, munera: priest, prophet, and king. Functionally, these three munera can encompass many of the specific responsibilities of a pastor to sanctify, teach, and govern. 

“He took him off by himself away from the crowd. 
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,

‘Ephphatha!’— that is, ‘Be opened!’ —
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.”

I can imagine a child hearing these words and responding, “Ewww! Gross!” It is all very earthy with fingers in ears, spit, tongue touching, and groaning. The Jesus who is usually seen healing in other gospels with a word and in total command seems here to be a little less like God and a little more like a two-bit magician or snake oil salesman. Sure the man gets healed, but it’s hard to imagine that the all powerful God who created the universe out of nothing by the power of his word would need such paltry tricks to simply heal a person. Maybe this God-man is much more man than God. How embarrassing!