What would it look like if the presence of God were so manifest here that all of us and more and more people were drawn to this place: "What is going on there? Let’s go and see." What would it look like if more and more people in the City of Houston started saying of us streaming out of here on Sundays, "They are making a big difference in our city. What is it about them?"

Jesus calls us to a complete and full life and gives us the grace we need to live into this calling.

The gospel is not found in an iron will to be a better person. It is found in a broken will that surrenders to the best person, Jesus, our Savior in whom the law – God’s desire for our life – is perfectly manifest.

Jesus gives the kingdom of heaven to the poor in Spirit. Jesus transforms the useless into the useful. Jesus makes us salt and light to fire up his love in the world. Thirsty wicks are saturated with the oil of gladness. Useless salt is made to ignite again. This is all God’s work. That is why when we shine, God is glorified and not us.

This is the way Jesus describes His followers in our Gospel Reading for this Sunday. In those words, Jesus is declaring what already is; and it means believers in Him are to become and manifest what they already are. This is both the good news and the challenge: to believe and become what we already are.

We sometimes read the Gospels through the lens of a classic underdog story where the protagonist (Jesus, or the disciple) rises from a lowly position to become the hero. However, in the Beatitudes we see that Jesus meets us precisely where we are lowly.

To recognize one’s beggarly spiritual condition is not to denigrate oneself. It is to turn to God, to come to the place where we confess: “God, if there is any hope, it is up to you. I cannot do it, try as I might on my own.” And this is where Jesus finds us – where the Kingdom touches down in our midst, in our lives, in our hearts.

Jesus does not call the prepared but the willing to follow and imitate him in teaching, preaching, and healing. 

Jesus calls us to follow him boldly and to go out into our world proclaiming in word and deed the good news.

Following Jesus means attending to these two questions: what do we truly want? And, where is Jesus found?