Render to Caeser what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.
It’s time to raise money! The Church is not very subtle on that. They put this reading here--and I mean the larger church, not St. James--to prod us to start thinking about financial priorities and the church year to come.
In keeping with that, typically today would have marked the start of our Annual Appeal, our effort to raise money, through pledges, to cover the operating budget for the coming year. These are the day in, day out outlays that keep the lights on, pay salaries, pay for the heat, plow snow from the parking lot, and so on.
This year, in addition to that, we’ve been discussing the need to raise money for capital projects: long delayed, needed improvements to our campus. Over the past month (as most of you know) we’ve held Focus Groups to consider those needs. Last week the vestry received a report summarizing the congregation’s views and opinions. That report will be made available to the congregation on Tuesday. After careful consideration, the vestry voted overwhelmingly to proceed with a Capital Campaign. 93% of those who attended the Focus Groups believed this is the right time to do it. I’m happy to say, too, that you, the congregation, agreed pretty overwhelmingly on what needs to be done and what can wait. That scope will now be refined, but we have a solid starting point.
So, what this means for the Annual Appeal is that instead of starting it today and running it for the next four weeks, as we normally would, we’ll run it alongside the Capital Campaign when that begins. These are two separate things--one is for keeping our lights on, our staff paid, and our programs running. It’s the lifeblood of the parish. We wouldn’t be here without your gifts to the Annual Appeal. It’s always the most important. The other, the Capital Campaign, is for large capital projects that we couldn’t possibly fund with our annual operating donations. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to give for a limited amount of time--over a few years--to those bigger projects that improve and maintain our space for decades to come. And it’s also important.
Research and experience show that both campaigns are stronger when they’re run together, concurrently. I think any time we think more about giving to our church, and what a community like this is worth to us, we give more. And we’ll be thinking and talking more about it this year than most.
But back to our Gospel reading today: Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.
This short passage is so complex, both in its original setting, and in all the ways since then it’s been interpreted in many different contexts. I won’t get into those now. This year I’ll keep it simple, and broad:
You have the things that are Caesar’s. Let’s call that the things we owe our government and our wider community; what we pay taxes for. We have for such things, clarity, and expectations. We may not agree on how much we’re billed in taxes. Or on how many or what public goods we need to support collectively as citizens. But we vote. And then calculate our taxes, and pay them. It’s that, or go to jail.
In the church, what I’ll call God’s realm (even though it’s all God’s realm, but let’s just call it that for here), in the church we don’t get to just send you a bill--though we used to! Until about a hundred years ago, many churches charged annual rent, for pews. Instead of an Annual Fundraising Appeal you’d get a slip of paper with your pew’s rent for the coming year. And you wouldn’t complain. Plus if you lowered your pledge and were bumped back a few pews as a result everyone would notice!
Thankfully we don’t do that anymore (although many of us are still committed to our exact pews). :)
In some old Episcopal churches you can find a historic plaque at the entrance proclaiming “all seats are free” in repudiation of this practice. You can also find churches, like Old North Church in Boston (the Episcopal Church, now a historic site, famous for Paul Revere’s ride), where they preserved some of the really fancy pews that families had customized. Maybe a little velvet padding, latching doors at the end, silk ropes or damask drapes. A good spot near the heating vents. In my first church in Ohio, older than St. James, it happened that the very BACK pew was the most expensive pew. The family wanted to get in and get out. You’d never see that here!
Today, we don’t bill, or rank, or judge, or make a display of our financial pledges. We simply rely on your private and confidential assessment of the value of this place, year in and year out, to you and your family. This challenges us to really stop and think about what St. James adds to our lives, and how much that’s really worth.
I said this last year, I’ve never in 22 years doing this, heard someone say, I give too much to the church. Just like you never hear people say, I spend too much time with my family. We never do enough for the things we say we care about the most: friends, family, God. But if we have people in our lives--our church friends, our priests--who can help keep in alignment what we say matters most and what we actually give to those things, in both time and resources, then we’ll be that much closer to learning how to better render to God what is God’s.
So, we have a big year ahead. We’re doing a Capital Campaign. And we’re doing an Annual Appeal. Together. In the coming months someone will visit with you and walk you through this. You’ll be hearing more from me, and our Campaign and Appeal leaders. In the meantime, please keep giving, as you already do.
And as ever, thank you for your love and support of this parish.