From the Rector: The Eye of the Needle

3 October 2024

Dear Friends of St. Mark’s,

This Sunday's Gospel from Mark is about how hard it is for those who make an idol of wealth to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus states, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:17-31). Last Sunday we grappled with divorce; this Sunday Jesus addresses the idolatry and love of money. Several times in the Gospels, Jesus speaks about money to his disciples, and this is simply because money is frequently at the root of too many problems for humanity.

One of the challenges when we speak about money is to avoid the trap of becoming self-righteous. Just as people attack the poor for being lazy, people also attack the rich through their virtue signaling. We need to be mindful that money is not really the problem. The problems arise when generosity is not a high value, or when people do not share their resources, or when societies lose their economic equilibrium, with the rich amassing tremendous wealth at the expense of the middle and lower classes. We can see these problems in our modern society clearly.

But the way of Jesus is the way of generosity. His love on the cross for us was generous, and that love is to inspire us to be generous with others as well. Christians seek to help others with their resources, whether individually as citizens of the larger society, or whether collectively as members of the Church.

One of the aspects I appreciate the most about St. Mark's is that the culture of our parish is not afraid to talk about money. For many years now, you have worked deliberately to speak honestly about money in regard to the faith. Sometimes outsiders and newcomers are shocked by our candor, but they quickly discover such candor about money is healthy. Jesus spoke about money, and so the Church must also speak about money. Thankfully our talk regarding money is not like the televangelists, but rather it is rooted in a generous Christian discipleship.

Every October we have our Stewardship Campaign at the parish. The portal for pledging online is now open on the parish website. We already have an incredibly strong start to our pledge campaign, for which the Vestry is grateful. The generosity of the people of St. Mark's is always inspiring.

Father Paul Lillie +