Proper 24 year A RCL

October 19, 2008

Matthew 22:15-22

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable on your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” This is kind of a King James Version paraphrase. I like the “render unto” part.

I just got my property tax bill this past week. I know what it means to ‘render’. It is short for ‘surrender’—as in surrender all my money to Curry County. Being self-employed as a commercial fisherman I don’t have taxes withheld out of my paycheck. I pay my taxes to the IRS in a lump sum. Sometimes the lump is more like a large mound. But when that happens it usually means that we had a good year, so the money is there (or at least it would have been had I not spent it).

It is quite clear in my mind what it means to “render unto Caesar.” But it has not always been very clear to me what it means to “render unto God.” When I was a schoolboy here at St. Tim’s I didn’t have any money to render. I suppose that I did seeing as how I had a summer job. But I claimed an exemption because I was a kid.

When I was a young adult I didn’t go to church, so I didn’t worry at all about rendering unto God. That first time I worried about what it meant to render unto God was when I started to accompany Paige to Trinity Lutheran when we were in our mid-twenties. The collection plate would come around in the middle of the service after the sermon. I would slouch down in the pew and sheepishly peer into the recesses of my wallet. It was a time of hard choices. If I had a $20 a $10 and a $5 and the sermon was especially good, then I’d opt for the $10 instead of the $5. If I didn’t groove with the sermon, then the $5 would come out. Only on a rare occasion, if a $20 were all I had, would I pry that precious bill out of my wallet.

Pledging never occurred to me. To have a set amount that I gave each week or each month didn’t seem like an option. My income was unsteady. My house needed to be remodeled. We had a baby. And I was uncommitted to the Church. That is Church with a capital “C”, not just Trinity Lutheran. I was a Christian without a doubt. But I was uncommitted to the Church.

Then I came back to St. Timothy’s. Something changed within me and I wanted to be committed to this place. Paige and I talked about pledging. And the first big question was, “how much?” Ten percent seemed absurd. Besides, and this is the big question, “ten percent of what?” We have income only part of the year and continuing business expenses all year round. We don’t know how much we have netted each year until tax time. And the amount varies wildly each year.

So I looked at the annual budget for St. Tim’s. At the time, the pledge income for the church was about $39,000 and the number of pledges was about 39. I figured that if the average was $1000 a year then we would commit to that amount and at least pull our own weight. Paige agreed. But she noticed that what we needed was a household budget so that she could adjust our spending accordingly. I’m sure that Paige remembers the whole process of developing a budget better than I do because we split our duties. I went fishing and earned money the best I could. She created spreadsheets that would prevent us from starving on the small amounts that I brought home.

The important thing about our budget was that the church was at the top of the list for expenditures. Our check to St. Tim’s was the first check that Paige wrote each month. If things got tight, then something else would have to give. Our pledge to St. Timothy’s always came first. It was our way of honoring God in our lives and in our home. For the first time the words, “all things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee” made sense to me. I had always transposed the word “mine” for “thine” in my head somehow.

I’m not superstitious. But Paige and I became financially blessed not long after we started to pledge. As our monthly household budget increased we adjusted our pledge to match 10% of that monthly amount. We started to gain a sense of ownership and belonging that I had never felt while slumping in the pews at Trinity. It is cliché, but I started to realize that where my money went, there my heart went also.

Through pledging to the Church I have begun to render unto God what is God’s. It started with my money and it lead to me living more fully a life dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe the order is reversed for some people. But, for me the two are tied together. I used to fear for lack of money. Now I rejoice in God’s abundance. The change was primarily in my attitude, because once God was a priority in my budget I began to take my budget more seriously. When money did come my way I tried the best I could to invest it in a way that is glorifying to Him. And that is really point of “Rendering unto God what is God’s.”

==AMEN==