Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends,

Attached below you can see an icon of the Gospel for the Eucharist today, Christ’s encounter with the rich young man. One thing I love about the icon is the scorpion and snake at the rich young man’s feet - those have new resonance now that I live in the desert!

There are several things that leap out of the passage we will hear today. The most moving to me though is this line, Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.” This was a man who had sought to do everything right - he tells Jesus that he has followed all the commandments. He’s striving to figure out how he can earn eternal life and trying to live a life that will get him there.

Jesus sees him and loves him - and thus gives him news that makes him walk away in grief because the truth is too hard to bear with Jesus standing right there. Jesus has told him that he must sacrifice the thing that makes him who he is - after all we still know him as the rich young man. How hard is it for all of us to hear this from Jesus too? We try. We attend church. Sometimes we read the Bible. We volunteer to help the less fortunate. We probably don’t murder or do the other things on the list. We lead ministries and coordinate classes. Maybe we’re readers, acolytes, or ushers. Some of us put on a collar and lead worship.

Yet, if we’re honest with ourselves, could we also bear to hear this from Jesus and not grieve?

Could we we honestly say that we’ll give away all that we have and all that we are to follow Jesus? To be honest, it’s a hard thing to hear from him. I think that if all of us were able to look Jesus in the eye, without grief, and offer up our gifts in response to his call then churches would never worry about money again. Really, churches don’t worry about money now - at least as the rector here I don’t.

I worry about mission. I worry about how money becomes a barrier between rather than a bridge between people. I worry that fear stifles generosity. I worry that distrust dampens giving. I worry that church is a place that people give a tip to rather than the very site of their falling in love with God. I worry that we won’t have the resources to raise up children in the faith. I worry that people see a pledge as a burden rather than as the participation in the care and feeding, spiritual and literal, of so many. I worry that weak pledging often reflects weak teaching and prayer.

My worry is not about money - it’s about what the money represents. Money is one way we each have to show what our faith means to us, what our neighbor in the pew means to us, and what our mission to seek and serve Christ in the vulnerable means to us. If it were not important (and hard) Jesus would have been fine with the rich young man’s service, intentions, and adherence to the law. Instead Jesus sees him and loves him enough to call him to a deeper commitment of the heart. He calls him to unburden himself for the sake of sharing blessings beyond measure.

Jesus wasn’t worried about the money - he was worried about what the money meant to the young man - and to us.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert