Like the others who have spoken in this year’s round of these presentations, I give to St. Thomas because I have found a home here and because I want to support our ministries, including those in which I am not involved in some other way. My need for encouraging worship is met here, and my desire to extend my reach beyond my own efforts is satisfied here.

Beyond those reasons, however, I want to add another one for your consideration. I give because I have been taught to consider the offering a duty rooted in gratitude. I was raised with a model that taught me to take church membership seriously also for its financial obligations.

When I was a boy the annual congregational meeting included voting on a budget. In the proposed budget, under the grand totals for projected expenses and income, there was a bottom line, a per-family number – the fair share that each member family was expected to contribute. It was very simple: We have 150 families, the annual budget is $90,000; each family is expected to contribute $12/week to the General Fund.

I thought about this method a few weeks ago. There is a Jewish congregation that rents the facilities at Luther Place Church, where I work, so that they have a large enough space to hold the services for the High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They set up a finance table in the entrance hallway. Families and individuals stop at that table first, to pay their annual obligations and to pick up their ticket to attend the services. Maybe the old English practice of pew rental was not all bad.

However, some things about my upbringing were narrow-minded and mistaken. My home church missed the important biblical principle of planned percentage giving – that our contribution is not first of all driven by calculating a fair share assessment to cover expenses, rather, it is rooted in reflecting on what we have, and setting aside a generous portion for the church: Duty shaped by Gratitude! The central institution of our lives, where our faith is both formed and expressed, demands our investment and support. If people gave to the church in proportion to their earnings and assets, there would be more money than what it takes to cover expenses; there would be enough for expansive and creative mission.

In some groups the offering functions as a pep-talk fundraising exercise. The assumption is that we are sitting with money in our pocket and that we will decide on the spot if we liked the service or the announced cause, and that consideration will drive how much we give. The biblical notion, however, is that we decided long before we got to the worship service what we would contribute. The offering is simply the “collection,” the time to turn it in, with songs and prayers of dedication and praise to God. I like that no-nonsense approach – consider prayerfully what I have and what I ought to do, and then get it ready for the collection.

For your consideration, today I add this to the list of reasons to give: Grateful Duty! I give, because it is our pleasant duty to support the church. The church is different from the various causes we support. I have every right; I have an obligation, in fact, to discern among the dozens of causes vying for my attention which ones extend the reach of my arms, which associations address the needs I most focus on and in a way closest to my own values. The church is different. Once I settle my church membership - my active affiliation with a church - whether by birth or accident of history or new adult choice – that affiliation includes a duty to put my money where my mouth is. To support the church where I confess my faith, where I am fed by Scripture and sacrament. This is a large part of why I give.