Proper 24 A
Transcribed from a
sermon given
On October 16 2011
By Rev. Valerie Ann
Hart
At St. Barnabas
Episcopal Church
Matthew 22:15-22
Exodus 33:12-23
It’s interesting to see that
issues about paying taxes are not a new concept. Two thousand years ago they
were debating whether it was lawful to pay taxes.
Of course it was a little
different back then. In fact, it was a lot different back then, because the
Romans to whom the taxes were being paid were an occupying force. Now the
Romans, unlike some of the earlier empires, were pretty smart in terms of economics.
Other empires used to conquer a land and take their people into exile. Then
they would burn and destroy everything. The Romans would conquer a land, put up
a puppet king or head of some sort, and then build up the infrastructure. They
would put in roads and build aqueducts (there are still aqueducts from Roman
times in Israel now) to bring in water. They would fix it up so that people
could make money, so that the economy could thrive and so that wealth could be
heavily taxed and sent back to Rome.
The tax was not being paid to a
government that was there to care for the people of Judea; the tax was going to
Rome to pay for soldiers, to pay for Roman wealth, to pay for the people who
would arrest them without any reason - the ones who had complete and total
power over them. So it is understandable that the people did not like the idea
of being taxed by Rome.
But there was an additional
problem with the particular tax that was being considered here. There were lots
of taxes sent to Rome, but for this particular one there was a question of
whether it was lawful or not. It was a tax that was called the temple tax. And
the temple tax was that every male every year had to give a certain amount to
the temple in Jerusalem. It wasn’t optional, there was no sense of percentage
giving or anything like that. It was a tax for every male. Some of it was used
to keep the temple going, but most of it was given to Rome because Rome taxed
the temple.
That made the priests and the Herodians
who were the puppet government for Rome part of sending this money off to Rome.
A very complicated situation. The question was, the problem was, that Caesar
had made himself a god. He declared himself a god and declared that people had
to worship him. You may have heard about this in early Christian history when
the Christians refused to worship the emperor and therefore had to die. That is
why the Christians were so persecuted. They wouldn’t burn incense to the
emperor.
We get kind of a sense of this in
some of the personality cults like in North Korea where whoever happens to be
in charge becomes like a god and is worshipped. But Caesar went so far as to
say he was a god. So, if you were paying money to the temple and some of that
money was going to pay a “god” were you blaspheming? Were you going against the
ten commandments that said you were not to support any other god?
Now this was a trick question
because if Jesus said pay the tax then the people who don’t want to have to pay
the tax would be upset and his critics could say Jesus is saying we should
break the law of Moses. If he said don’t pay the tax they could go to the
Romans and have him arrested for inciting people to not follow the law. It was
a no win situation.
The reason that this is such a
memorable response from Jesus and that it got into the Gospels is because he
took this impossible question and took it to another level. He said, “Give me
one of the coins that you use to pay this tax.” You may have seen pictures of
romans coins. What they are is a piece of metal that has been stamped with the
picture of the emperor on it.
So Jesus took the coin and said, “Whose
picture is this?”
They responded, “The emperors.”
Well there is a problem here, because
these Pharisees who handed him the coin are carrying around a picture of an
idol. You are not supposed to make any kind of idol. No graven images. So he
caught them in their hypocrisy.
Then he said, “Give to the
emperor what is the emperor’s and to God what is God’s.”
This is just money. This is just
a piece of metal with a picture of somebody on it. You can give that to Rome.
It’s not of real value. It has no a deep and true value.
It is a beautiful answer. I have
to tell you, I wish there was some politician who would take all the debates
about taxation and the budget and take it to a higher level that would kind of
be like Jesus here, but I’m not holding my breath for that one.
Jesus took it to another level by
asking what is our duty. You see, he is saying that we need to think about what
is the important thing. Caesar, Rome, the emperor represents all those things
that are contrary to God. All those idols in our lives, all those things to
which we give our love and attention to.
Or is it to God who we heard so
beautifully described in the old testament reading this morning. Moses wants to
see God face to face and God responds you can’t see my face. I’m not a face
that you can see. Then God walks by and he sees his back. Isn’t that the way it
is sometimes. We don’t see God working in our lives until afterwards, and then
we go “Wow, God was in that!” We see the back. God is too great and too
magnificent to be put on a coin, or to made a picture of, or to become a thing
that is worshiped.
Our God is the God of the whole
universe, the creator of everything – everywhere. It is a living God as Paul
said in his letter, “You’ve given up worshiping dead idols and instead are
worshiping the living God.”
Now what are we to give this
living God? God doesn’t need anything. God doesn’t need our money, and even
though it is pledge season, God doesn’t really need our pledges. The church
might, but God doesn’t. God doesn’t need animal sacrifices, God doesn’t need
anything. God is God.
But there is one thing that God
can’t just create by willing it. You see God is also described as love. And
love needs to love and be in relationship. The only thing that we can give God
that God can’t give God's self is love, faithfulness, commitment, relationship,
because we give that out of our free will. Out of our free will we chose whether
to follow God, to do what we can for this God that loves us, or we put our
energies and our faithfulness and our love into something that is dead. Caesar
claimed to be a god, but he is dead. So the choice is, do we put our energies into
that which is dead or into that which is the living God?
Certainly we can give to the
emperor what is the emperor’s. Jesus is saying yes we need to take care of the
things of the world. Yes, you need to go work. You need to make sure you have
enough to live. There are certain responsibilities, things you need to do. No
problem with that. Of course we live in this world. We need to brush our teeth,
we need to feed our bodies, we need to do various things that have to do with
this world, and there is nothing wrong with that.
The problem is when those things become an
idol. I took a course in seminary called Bringing Biblical Humor to Life. It
was a great course and helped me see the Bible in a whole new way. One of the
things that the professor said was that an idol is something you can’t laugh
about. Something that you take so seriously that there is no room for humor. Then
he told us, for the last class we where each supposed to dress up as our
favorite idol. I dressed up as a little girl with a friend dressed up as a
priest who was being inappropriate because I can’t laugh at that. But in the
class I managed to find some humor in it.
What is it in your life that has
become an idol? Is it your work? Is it respect? Is it power? Is it a 401K? Is
it your retirement? Is it your fishing boat? Is it the football team? What in
your life takes away from your commitment to God? What sucks you in and pulls
you away from life and from love?
When Jesus said render unto the
emperor what is the emperor’s and to God was is God’s he meant that at every
point of our lives, at every moment of our lives, we make a choice. We make a
choice to give our energies and our faithfulness and our commitment to God, to
life, to love, or we chose to give our energy and our commitment, our time, to
idols, to death. To that which is not life enhancing.
There is an ancient spiritual practice
of every night before going to bed to reflect upon your day. What did you do
during the day that was life affirming, that was of God, and what did you do
that was life denying, that was not of God? Not to judge them. Not to judge yourself.
But just to notice and become aware and gradually become better at choosing
life instead of death.
God instead of idols.
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