I want to come and speak among you again, I move away from the pulpit, because the message is, and has to be imbued with faith and hope and love and I want to be here in your midst so that you can see with what faith I approach you, with what hope I live among you, and with what love I bear you as I come and speak, this morning, and next week.

On the 18th of March, Ariana Hernandez, a senior in high school, a member of our youth group, a graduate of our St. Margaret’s School, will be our preacher. She, too, will preach with faith, hope, and love. She will be a visible reminder that we are called to know Christ and make Christ known in this holy place. Because over these weeks of Lent, in the campaign called "Let Your Light Shine," we want to hold before the people gathered here, called by God to be here, hold before you a couple of things.

One, that our church, our beloved St. Margaret’s, does indeed face some pretty serious financial challenges. Those challenges are before us because we have been faithful ministers of God. We have been doing the work God has asked us to do in this place. It’s cost us a little more to do that ministry than we’ve taken in and that’s a serious financial challenge. We want to continue God’s ministry here, we want to be faithful stewards of God’s gifts, God’s grace. This campaign which has been developed over the last couple of years, is meant to address the financial challenges that slow down our ministry efforts. The campaign will call upon our faith, it will call upon our hope and certainly it will call upon the love we bear God and each other as we respond to the financial challenge before us.

The second thing I want to hold before you is that by the power of God working in us, we can meet the challenge. Our trust in God, no matter how big the challenge, no matter how gloomy the outlook, our trust in God is well placed—God has a history of steadfastly loving his people. I will ask you to trust God as we boldly go forward together.

You know, as I was listening to the reading from Genesis, I thought, thanks be to God he called Abraham to leave his family, to leave his homeland, to leave everything that meant anything to him. I’m glad it wasn’t me he called, thanks be to God it was Abraham that was called to do all of that. Thanks be to God that Abraham was faithful and followed what he heard in his heart, what he saw in his vision. I thought, thanks be to God that those who knew Abraham’s story wrote it down so generations to come, so that our generation, could know about Father Abraham; know about his faith, about his trust in God, his willingness to follow God and even as we heard today, his willingness to follow God, when it looked like it was an empty promise. As you heard, Abraham was contesting God’s promise, "Look, I have no offspring, I have no heir; the slave, Eliezer, is going to inherit everything." But God wasn’t deterred. He set Abram straight, and Abraham responded, we heard, with trust, he believed. As he looked into the starry night sky, he believed. And we do know the rest of that story. In fact, God was faithful to His promise to Abraham. A son was born and from that son, another son was born and from Abraham’s grandson, came the 12 tribes of Israel: descendants as numerous as the stars. God was faithful.

We also heard from Paul today in his letter to the Philippians. Do you remember how Paul’s ministry started? He was on his way to Damascus to arrest those who claimed to be followers of Christ, followers of the Way; he was on his way to arrest Christians, put them in jail, maybe even put them to death. On the road of this deadly mission God knocked him on his behind and blinded him. That’s how his ministry started, knocked down literally and figuratively. Rather than persecuting and punishing, Jesus said to the humbled Paul "I choose you to go and tell the world about Me. You, who have been persecuting me, will become my great apostle." Once again, we know the rest of that story—through shipwreck and beatings and imprisonment Paul preached. Most of the letters we read were written while Paul was on his way to Rome to be killed because of his faith. Paul responded, God was faithful, the kingdom was expanded. Paul’s ministry didn’t start like a great ministry—blinded in the dust on the road to Damascus—but it became spectacular by God’s grace working in him.

Well, I think about those two because when Robert retired and I became the Priest-in-Charge, I thought oh, would that it would be Peter Brownlee (the first Vicar and the first Rector of St. Margaret’s) standing before the congregation saying, "Guess what, we have a challenge and I need your help. God needs your help to meet the challenge." Would that it be Brad Hall, (oh he could charm us, he could open those pocket books) saying "We’ve got a challenge to meet and you’ve got to do it." Would that it be Robert Certain (who took the vision that Brad planted in our hearts and minds, a vision that inspired the work of our hands), would that it be Robert standing in front of you saying, "God needs our help to do this."

But guess what, as I said in January, God has called each of us to be at St. Margaret’s in this moment; God has chosen each of us to be here in this moment; God has gifted each of us to be here in this moment; God loves us, even when we contend with him like Abraham. So, it wasn’t any of those men God called to deliver this message this morning. God called to me, chose me, gifted me, and sending me has said to me, "I want you to deliver this message, Dan. I want you to be like Abraham, like Paul, like Margaret, Queen of Scotland, your namesake; I want you to be faithful, I want you to trust me, I want you to deliver this message to the congregation. I need their help; I need their help to put the parish back on a stable financial setting." And, here I am.

I stand before you with my faith and hope and love of God. Too, I stand before you because I liked the approach of the company we have hired to help us. One reason we chose to go with this particular company, RSI, (and you heard Michael Vilardo preaching a couple of weeks ago), was because they said, it’s not just about raising money. This campaign is about opening hearts to all the gifts that God has given them, to all the gifts that are ours in this place, it’s about creating a heart for stewardship year round so that Christ can be known, and Christ can be made known in this holy place—it’s a campaign of the heart sustained in prayer.

When this campaign was conceived, a small group of people were gathered. David Burgdorf, our celebrant today, is among that group, Polly Alidge, Jean Smith and a whole bunch of other people were gathered. They have been praying; they have been praying for us. They have been God’s ministers long before information meetings were held or anything else was happening. They have been praying: praying that those who had to speak would have the words to speak clearly, praying that those who would hear would hear with their hearts, hear how God wants to use us in this place. They have been praying that we will find a way to continue to make His Son, Jesus Christ known. They have been praying that we will continue to gather in order to know His Son Jesus Christ in Word and in Sacrament in this Holy Place. They’ve been praying for us.

Sustained in prayer, I believe. I believe that we will be able to accomplish so much more than what we can ask or imagine because it will be God’s grace working in those who speak and those who hear. In fact, when the time comes for all of us to make a sacrifice, our hearts will be ready, because they have been praying for us – our hearts will be ready because we’ve been listening, we will be ready because we are men and women of faith and hope and love.

One of things you will hear during the coming weeks is that we are going to be looking for sacrificial giving—equal sacrifices not equal gifts. There is a belief in the valley, a belief in the diocese, that we’re a congregation where everybody is a millionaire. We’re just not; although people would like to believe that about us. God, I wish that were true, I would love to be a millionaire—but that’s not the case. We don’t expect everybody can make a huge gift. We do expect that everybody can make some gift, everyone of us called to make a sacrifice and a gift for the good of the whole.

Because of divine providence, a gift was made this week, to the capital campaign—this gift was as magnificent as it was timely. This gift came from one our members in a convalescent home and it came with an apology. Hand written on the envelope were the words, "I’m sorry that this can’t be more." Our member lives on a fixed income and actually has confessed to me that he hopes his money lasts longer than his life; he’s afraid he’ll outlive the money he has been able to save for his "old age." When I opened the envelope there were two five dollar bills in the envelope. Ten Dollars given, sacrificially, for our seven million dollar capital campaign. Equal sacrifices, not equal gifts. That was a huge sacrifice for that man. To me it’s a magnificent lead gift in our capital campaign because it touches the heart of it, it’s about sacrifice, it’s about trust in God, it’s about gratitude to God, it’s not about dollar signs. My hope is that you will be inspired by this lead gift, my hope is that as our prayer team continues to pray, you’ll be moved by the spirit of God.

I would like to finish my comments today with one of the prayers from the devotional guide we handed out in our home meetings. This devotional guide is available in the Narthex if you don’t have one. I will share devotion number three asking God for wisdom and health. As you hear this prayer, I hope you’ll hear Abraham and Paul and Margaret our patron saint praying in this prayer. I hope you will hear the prayers of men and women who have gone before us and who responded to God as I believe we will respond to God.

"Loving God I come to you in thanksgiving knowing that all that I am and all that I have is gift from you." That’s a great starting place for a prayer—all that I am all that I have is gift from you. "In faith and love, help me to do your will. I am listening, Lord God." I am listening like Abraham, I’m listening like Paul, I’m listening like Margaret, I’m listening like the men and women who have helped build this place. I am listening Lord God. "Speak your words into the depths of my soul that I may hear you clearly."

"I offer to you this day all the facets of my life whether it be at home, at work, or at school—to be patient, to be merciful, to be generous, to be holy. Give me the wisdom and insight to understand your will for me, and the fervor to carry it out. I offer my gifts of time, talents and possessions to you as a true act of faith to reflect my love for you and my neighbor. Let your light shine through me as I try to do the work you have given me to do. Amen."

With that kind of spirit, with God’s power working within us, I know we can accomplish great things. I am so glad to be in this journey with you, called at this moment to be with you, we are going to accomplish great things by God’s grace, by God’s power working in us. Amen.