I've been up here before. The last time I gave a homily was four years ago, and things were very different around here. We were in an interim period, and had been for an unusually long time, which is always challenging for a parish. Our people numbers had been shrinking for a few years, and with them, our income. Our energy was dropping.

We had, in our desperation, fallen behind in our commitments to the larger church, and as a result, the diocese was seriously questioning whether we should have a new rector at all, since we were starting to look to them like a hundred-year-old mission church.

And yet, for those of us on the vestry that year, this time of crisis was also a very moving time, a bonding time, even a sweet time. There is something about the lean years (and those of you who have had lean years in any part of your lives will recognize what I'm saying…) There is something about the lean years that opens your eyes to the miracles around you.

Now, I have to say, it's really wonderful to be in the position we're in now. Not only are we not broke, but our momentum is better than it ever has been in the nearly 20 years I've been here. We've got a Rector who knocks herself out taking care of the larger vision and many of the smaller details of this church, and perhaps more importantly, we've got lay people embracing both new and long-standing ministries, taking up challenges with love and a heart of service that just blows me away.

There was never a theater company here before. There was never a youth group in my time. There was never Godly Play for children. (For several years, there weren't even any children, and there weren't going to be any without a program for them. Just try to break out of that cycle!)

So, on one hand, I'm tempted to just walk up to this pulpit, say "Keep up the good work!" and sit back down again. You might prefer that. And that really is a lot of my message.

But the deeper truth is, the memory of those lean years is very valuable to me as I look around at our relative prosperity. I remember that we got through those times by enormous acts of the grace of God, and by God's people saying "Yes."

The gospel lesson today gets around to this very point, I think. It's only a couple of paragraphs long, but it's a very loaded story.

The Pharisees send their cronies to Jesus, along with the Herodians; the agents of Herod, who led the local collaborationist government on behalf of the Roman empire.  So imagine someone coming to you with a team of undercover FBI agents for a nice, polite chat about overthrowing the government.

Then they ask Jesus a question that will either undercut his standing with his support base, or it will get him arrested and probably killed. Either way would be progress.

It really helps, in these situations, to have divine insight.

First, Jesus calls them on their stuff, makes no bones about their hypocrisy. Then he asks for a coin, and gives them his now-famous answer. With the "render unto Caesar" part of his response, he seems to be saying, on one level, "Look, you're a citizen in a society, so do whatever you need to do to get along there." That was just the sort of level-headed moderation the Pharisees did NOT want to hear.

But it's the second part of his answer that really gets me. Because if the coin is made in the emperor's image, what is it that's made in God's image? You are. Each one of you. So when he says, give to God the things that are God's, he's not waving his hand into the ether with some abstract reference to divine things that are not of this earth. I think he's talking about us. Give yourselves to God. Completely. Utterly. Without reservation. Let Caesar choke on his money. We've got more important things to deal with. And that is not a moderate statement at all.

Is money part of this? Of course it is. I don't know anyone in this culture whose life has nothing to do with money, if only the lack of it. So here in stewardship season, we're talking about money, but only as part of a larger picture. We're talking about saying Yes to God with our whole lives, with ALL of the gifts we've been given.

Four years ago, we learned not to take this precious place for granted, and we survived because people said Yes to the grace of God with their lives. And all of you here, whether you were here then, or you came since then, Thank you for continuing to say Yes with your lives. Believe me, it makes all the difference.

I will confess to you that the experience of the lean years doesn't always help me. I find myself thinking in terms of scarcity. And I further will confess that when I first heard of plans to renovate the church, I thought, Great, we're paying all our bills, so it's time to remodel? What are we, Saint Martha Stewart's?

But when I heard some of the specific ideas of the plan (bringing our handicapped access ramp up to code, creating an accessible restroom for the first time, creating a true, permanent baptismal font, more room for all the activities that are happening now with our growth, a more flexible worship space to truly reflect our identity to a community that's hungry for it), I realized that the hard times had done something to my head. I'd put these important things into a lock box labeled "Sure would be nice" and put it away while we tried to survive. Scarcity thinking can do that to you.

But now, we're not just trying to survive. We're ready to do things right. This house is in a wonderful, exciting time. And the work we have in front of us is very, very important.

This world needs so much love. It doesn't just need the easy, pleasant kind of love that happens almost automatically between friends. It needs the huge, radical, world-embracing kind of love that requires a religion to support it.

And that kind of love needs a place for renewal. Welcome to that place.

From the moment I first set foot in here, this church has been Home. I know I'm not alone in that feeling. And I've found that when I share all the gifts of my life with this place, my life becomes much more satisfying.

We have an impact on the world, whether we are making room and time for more people to come inside and share these gifts, or we are sending our people into the world to love God's children more than they ever could otherwise.

So, good job. Keep up the good work. Keep saying Yes, in new ways and in old ways. And enjoy the blessings of God, who loves you through every kind of time, every day of your life.

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