We at First Presbyterian Church face a challenge financially. We are preparing to ask one another to pledge to the regular mission budget for 2006. At the same time, we are talking among ourselves about the need to repair the exterior of our beloved sanctuary building, now ninety-years old.

Our challenge financially is that we are in an interim period between pastors, and our giving to the regular budget has declined. This year, in response, we made reductions in our staff and we, also, reduced our giving to mission in the wider church through the Presbytery of West Virginia. Further, we made deep cuts in program costs. Even though we have strived conscientiously to be frugal in these ways, the projected budget for the coming year is 7.2 % more than the current year, due to astronomic increases in the cost of gas and electricity, plus a simple cost of living increase for staff, who did not receive any increases in the present year’s budget.

Of course, our challenge is compounded financially, when we consider how we should fund the badly needed repairs on our sanctuary building. Members justifiably are thinking to themselves, "where will I pledge my contributions to the church," and "how will I decide what to pledge for the regular mission budget and what to plan for giving toward the repairs of the building?"

Because of these compounded challenges financially, the officers of the church have been working tirelessly to think through the effort, which requires our attention. The officers are being diligent to do all within their power to plan responsibly. As a part of their work along these lines, they have invited every member to a "town meeting" next Sunday, following the 11:00 o’clock worship service for the purpose of discussing our options. Your input is very important, and we hope that as many of you as can will attend that "town meeting."

The sermon today asks us a simple question, which is timely in light of our present circumstances at First Presbyterian Church, "How can we know the presence of God in the challenges we face?"

God had called Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Moses had undertaken that calling with fear and trepidation, and now he is at point in the wilderness, where he desperately wants to know whether God is going to accompany him in his efforts. We almost find his appeal to God humorous, if not pathetic. He repeatedly asks God, in effect, "Are you going to be with me? Are you going to come with me?" And, Moses does this, even after God has said plainly, "Yes, I will be with you."

God is wonderfully patient with Moses, because Moses persists in his appeal to God. He wanted to be able to know God visually. He said, "Show me your glory." At this point, God tells Moses that Moses is not able to take in the glory of God’s very presence, because if he were to look on the face of God he would die. Mercifully, then, God hides Moses in the cleft of a rock, while God passes by. Moses will be able to see only the back of the Almighty.

How can we know God’s presence in the challenges we face? We can know God’s presence in the way God tells us God will be present to us. God told Moses repeatedly, I will be with you. God caringly hid Moses deep between rocks, so that Moses might see at least God’s backside, but God protected him from seeing the divine face, after which he would surely have died.

No one has ever seen the face of God, but Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God, who is close to the heart of the Father, has made him known to us. Again, we have been privileged by God, like Moses, to know the presence of God, even though we have not been granted to see the face of the Lord completely. Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, but that image has been revealed in a manner that accommodates us. No more than Moses could we expect to know the divine presence face to face, and still live. In Jesus we have been given to see what God wills for us in human history, and we have been given in him all that we need to know the presence of God in the challenges we face. In Jesus, God has revealed as much of God’s very self as we need to be saved from our sin and to be reconciled to God and each other. Paul said that in this life we have seen as through a glass darkly, but in the age to come we will see face to face.

What Moses faced was a challenge of faith. What is more, the challenge we face financially at First Presbyterian Church at this time in our history is not primarily a matter of money. It is that, but the challenge is many times more than money. It is spiritual, like it was for Moses.

We should not immediately judge ourselves in this set of circumstances. It this point we might wish we had begun a maintenance depreciation fund years ago. We could have even studied the infrastructure of the cupola and dome on a regular basis. However, blaming is not a solution to any challenge. Rather we, like our spiritual ancestor Moses, must come to terms with the basic challenge of God’s people in times of difficult choices. It is to trust that God will be present with us, as we engage the very real material challenges with which we are confronted.

Those who sought to test him asked whether it was right for the people of Israel to pay taxes to Caesar. For certain, this was a big test because had Jesus said, "no," then he would have been in trouble with the Roman authorities. On the other hand, had Jesus said, "yes," he would have been in trouble with the people of Israel, who paid taxes to a foreign occupying army only under duress. Jesus was between the proverbial "Devil and the Dark Blue Sea."

It was precisely in this intense interchange that Jesus taught his listeners a lesson about the relation of the material to the spiritual. He asked for a Roman coin. When he was given the coin, he held it up and asked his listeners to tell him whose image was on the coin. All could see what they already knew. Caesar’s image was on the coin.

Jesus simply stated, "Well, if Caesar’s image is on the coin, render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar." His audience, mostly Jews who felt the force of Caesar’s oppression, must surely have been disappointed, if not angered by that answer. But, Jesus did not stop there. He added with exquisite poignancy, "And render unto God the things that belong to God."

At first blush this answer may have seemed enigmatic to Jesus’ listeners. It almost sounded like a non sequitur. After all, Jesus had just said that they should render unto Caesar what belonged to Caesar, and he had held in his hands, as his material illustration, a Roman coin. But, it would not have taken more than an instant for the people of Israel to have heard an astounding reminder from their spiritual heritage, when Jesus said, also, "Render unto God that which belongs to God."

Jewish children learned from the earliest ages the profound truth of the faith of God’s people, as it was sung by the psalmist, "The earth belongs to the Lord, and the fullness thereof, the world and all those who dwell therein." The language may have been subtle to Jesus’ detractors, or certainly to the Roman authorities who were listening, but it was anything but subtle to people of faith in the God, who called Moses to deliver the people out of slavery in Egypt. It was an unabashed assertion that the Lord God of Israel owned everything that exists, even Caesars’ empire.

Jesus teaches those, who have ears to hear and eyes to see, that the real challenges of life are not primarily material. They are spiritual. What the people, suffering under Roman rule, were being asked to remember was that, all appearances to the contrary, God was the ruler of the world, and not Caesar with all of his legions.

We at First Presbyterian Church face material challenges. We are not alone among churches in this. Every church faces similar challenges. As a matter of historical record, we should even be thankful to have the challenges of repairing this fine old sanctuary building. We have used it faithfully for ninety years. Had we not come here weekly for worship for these ninety years; had we not baptized babies and adults Sunday after Sunday; had we not gathered here to marry our couples and to bury our beloved deceased; had we not enjoyed fellowship and Christian education here for these many decades;, then, we might not have to fix the building at all. The wear and tear on our building is testimony to our having used it in the service of Christ for almost a century.

Much more than this, however, is the reminder in today’s Bible lessons. What we face today is far more than the very real challenge of materially repairing and restoring the sanctuary building. The challenge is to our faith. Does all of this belong to God, really? Do we?

Jesus Christ is God’s presence among us. Our challenge is to take hold of him, literally, as well as figuratively. He is the way, the truth and the life. If we are earnest in taking on this spiritual challenge, then the challenges we face financially will not only be placed in their proper perspective, they will be met, as well.

God, your written word has spoken to us again today. It has spoken about the challenges that are most deserving of our attention. Help us, like Moses, and like our Lord Jesus Christ, to come to perceive that our largest challenges in life are first and foremost spiritual, and that when we attend to those challenges faithfully, you will demonstrate among us how all other challenges can be met as well. In Christ’s name. Amen.