Inseparable Wealth: Everything Is God's

October 22, 2017 – The 20^th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 24A

Exodus 33:12-23; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22

© 2017 Evan D. Garner

Audio of this sermon can be heard here.

 

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus finds himself in a bit of a verbal trap. For the last three Sundays, he has been telling parables about disobedient sons, wicked tenants, and ungrateful wedding guests, and the religious authorities are tired of it. They’re tired of Jesus telling stories that make them look like self-righteous fools, so they approach him with a question of their own: “Tell us, Rabbi—sincere, faithful, impartial rabbi that you are—is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” In front of almost any audience, that would be a tricky question. Remember that the Jewish people lived under the occupation of the Roman Empire and that they would have struggled each day to find the right balance between worshiping their own God and respecting the authority of the emperor who called himself a god. But Matthew lets us know that this particular situation was even more treacherous than usual.

The Pharisees had gone out of their way to bring some Herodians with them. We know who the Pharisees were—strictly observant Jews who were known and revered for their fastidious faithfulness. The Herodians are a little trickier to pin down. As far as we can tell, they were a group of Jesus’ contemporaries who supported Herod the Great and his successors, which means that they were a political party loyal to Herod’s children and dedicated to the preservation of their power. The Roman Empire had chosen Herod and his descendants to administer the Palestinian territory, to keep peace in the region, and, above all else, to collect taxes and send the revenues back to Rome’s coffers. In other words, the super-religious Pharisees, who resented Roman rule in Judea, brought some Roman sympathizers with them and then, in front of the whole group, asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”

It was a little like being at the Thanksgiving table and having your mother remark, “Son, I think your wife’s cornbread dressing might be even better than mine. What do you think? Is hers better?” Or maybe it was like being a candidate in an Alabama parish’s search for a new rector and having one of a dozen people ask whether you cheer for Auburn or Alabama. As soon as the question was asked, everyone fell silent and leaned forward to hear what sort of answer would be given. For Jesus, there was no right answer. If he had said, “Yes, of course we have to pay our taxes,” the Pharisees would label him as a mealy-mouthed rabbi who cared more about staying out of trouble than standing up for God’s people. If he had said, “I recognize no authority but that of my father in heaven,” the Herodians would brand him a traitor and have him arrested for sedition. But Jesus wasn’t willing to accept the trap that they had laid for him.

“Show me the coin used to pay the tax,” Jesus said to them. When they brought it to him, he asked, “Whose head is this and whose title?” That was easy enough, they thought to themselves. “The emperor’s,” they replied. And Jesus said, “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperors and to God the things that are God’s.” If that sounds like a clever response, it is, but, if you think that it’s clever because Jesus is giving us a helpful, careful way of divvying up what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, you’ve missed the point. Matthew tells us that the people “were amazed,” when they heard Jesus’ response. They weren’t amazed because of how wise the answer was. They were amazed because they didn’t know what to say. The word that is translated for us as “amazed” also means “awestruck” or “dumbfounded.”

Clearly the coin belonged to the emperor. It was his face on it—his graven image that made the coin itself a violation of the second commandment. The coin and the tax that it represented were claimed by Caesar. But just because the emperor claims something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t also belong to God. As soon as the words came out of Jesus mouth, the people knew. That’s why they were amazed. They recognized that Jesus had presented to them the same sort of verbal trap that they had laid out for him. It didn’t matter whose image and title were on the coin. It didn’t matter whose law required that the tax be paid. Even if the emperor wanted the coin for himself and even if the people were willing to give it to him, it still belonged to God.

Everything belongs to God. They knew it, and we know it, too. It doesn’t matter whether we mail it off to Uncle Sam or keep it in our bank account. It doesn’t matter whether we put it in the offering plate or use it to buy lottery tickets, booze, and women. The question for us isn’t to whom it belongs. It all belongs to God. The question is how we will decide use it.

People don’t like it when preachers and lay leaders talk about money, and this is the time of the year when they seem to talk about it a lot. I think the reason that we don’t like it is because people in my position typically ask the same sort of guilt-laden, grace-denied question that the Pharisees and Herodians asked of Jesus. In some form or another, it sounds like, “How much of your money are you supposed to give to God?” But that’s a trap that can’t really be answered. The question implies that we can separate what belongs to us and to the government and to our creditors from what belongs to God. I don’t want to ask that kind of question because I don’t believe that there is any room for “should” or “ought” or “supposed to” in the gospel. Instead, I want to invite you to ask yourself what God is calling you to do with God’s money.

When we remember that it all belongs to God and we stop thinking about stewardship as a tax on the blessings we have been given, we discover what it means to dedicate joyfully our resources to the transformation that God is carrying out in our lives, in this parish, in our community, and around the world. You aren’t being judged on whether you give more to the emperor than you give to God. You are being invited to use God’s money to make God’s kingdom come—in your heart, in this church, and in the world. You don’t get to choose to whom the money belongs. It already belongs to God. But you do get to choose how you will use it, and that choice belongs exclusively to you.

My family and I have found that by giving away more and more of our income we have learned what it means to dedicate our whole lives to God. This year, we gave the first 13% of our income as a pledge to this church in addition to our gifts to the diocese, to other charities, and to the capital campaign. That kind of giving has taught us what it means to trust that God will take care of us. We don’t worry about money or my job or our retirement or even about putting four kids through college. Instead, we’ve found a financial discipline that enables faith to take those worries away. We hear God asking us to dedicate our whole selves to the work of making God’s kingdom a reality here on earth, and our giving is how we begin to make our whole selves available to answer that call. And this year, like every year, we want to grow even more in that part of ourselves that we give back to God.

God isn’t asking you to give a particular amount, and neither am I. Instead, God is asking for your whole life to belong to him, and it’s my job as your priest to invite you to see that. God wants you to experience the transformation that God’s kingdom brings, and your gifts are part of what makes that transformation happen. The money, the time, and the energy at your disposal already belong to God. How much of them you will give is up to you. What portion of God’s blessings is God inviting you to devote to that kingdom’s work? What percentage of your life is God calling you to give back to him? This week, spend some time praying about the coming of God’s kingdom and your part in it. Don’t ask God how much you should give. Instead, ask God to show you how much you can give. Ask him to show you what it means to belong completely to God. Next Sunday during church, we will pass out pledge cards and decide together how much of ourselves we will devote to what God is doing at St. John’s. My hope and prayer is that all of us will know what means to belong completely to God and the freedom and faith that flow from that truth.