23 PENTECOST, PROPER 24, YEAR A

SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORWAY, MAINE

THE REV. ANNE G. STANLEY

19 OCTOBER 2008

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

No wonder they were amazed and went away. And Jesus was left without them.

“They,” of course, were the Pharisees and Herodians. Two rival groups of people, two parties, who, oddly, combined their efforts one day to trick Jesus, to trap him in his own words.  Sound familiar? Here we are today, with reporters and pundits hanging on the candidates’ every word, ready to pounce at the slightest mis-step.

For the people in today’s gospel reading, the issue was taxes. As with us, and so our ears prick up; although in this story, the people weren’t getting ready for an election at the same time, as we are. For them, it was just taxes.

The Pharisees were Jewish religious leaders. Many of them were poor. They were observant Jews. Leaders in their time. They hated the head tax that the Romans inflicted on every Jewish citizen, people who struggled to pay this unfair tax, from which they received no benefit.  The Pharisees weren’t anti-tax. They just hated the Roman occupiers who oppressed them and beat them down and over-taxed the people of Israel for Rome’s sake, not Israel’s.

The Herodians, on the other hand, were Jews who sided with the Romans. Loyal to Herod, the puppet of Rome, Herod, the tyrant king who worked for the Romans, the Herodian party liked the tax as much as the Pharisees hated it.

So on that day, the pro tax and against tax reps got together and went to Jesus. And we hear the story, told by Matthew, the gospel writer who himself is said to have once been a hated tax-collector. “Which is it, Jesus?” they asked. “What’s your opinion about this tax? Should the Jews be expected to pay it or not”  And Jesus, in his inimitable way, tosses the question right back to them. Jesus gives them a choice: on the one hand, he says, look at the coin of the day, with the emperor’s head printed on it, the coin representing the one to whom the tax is paid. And on the other hand, there’s God, the one who should receive what rightfully belongs to God.  “You decide,” said Jesus. “You figure it out.”

If Jesus had landed on one side or the other, he’d have angered one party over the other. Instead he angered both of them. “Do we pay the emperor or do we pay God?”  “Yes,” answered Jesus.

Helpful.

But dig a little deeper and we realize that Jesus is telling us something more.

 “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and give to God the things that are God’s.”  And of course, what we really know and what Jesus is saying is that everything belongs to God. There is nothing that is separate, distinct, unrelated to God. Is that not right?  There is nothing that God has not made. Nothing at all. There is no such thing as earthly things separate from heavenly things. The line between the secular and the sacred is a fine one indeed. In fact, does it exist at all?

Everything belongs to God, even taxes.

The trick for us, of course, is to make sure that the systems and structures that define and use the taxes are just, that the taxes serve God, even as everything else in our lives, must serve God’s holy purposes. That the portion of God’s wealth that we have managed to accumulate and that we return to the public domain is used for the common good. You’d think from hearing all the talk about taxes nowadays that taxes are evil. The concept of taxes is not evil. It’s just that, like birth and death, taxes come at inconvenient times (I’ve forgotten who said that).  Taxes themselves are not evil; they are designed to serve the community. They are our contribution to the health of the community to which we ourselves belong. 

Our on going struggle is to make sure that we and our leaders use the gifts we have been given, including our country’s tax revenues, in ways that benefit others. That is hard, it will always be hard and it requires our vigilance.

We have to figure it out as we go. Jesus said as much. This fall, we’re having to try to use the precious gift of our right to vote in ways that serve God and our neighbors in love. Which candidates will most likely do that? We and others all across the country will also be trying to serve God through sustaining our houses of worship, keeping our religious communities open and strong. God calls us into community; Christianity is not a private religion, and we need our churches as centers of worship and faith formation and to find the assurance of God’s comfort and forgiveness. More and more, too, this fall and beyond, we will be trying to allocate whatever money and gifts and resources we have in ways that are not selfish or frivolous. This is tough stuff! Especially now!

One of our most precious gifts is the gift of faith. This is a gift straight from God. We cannot manufacture it ourselves. And we can sustain it only with God’s help.

Beginning today, we are hearing from eight fellow parishioners—four at the 8:00 A.M. service and another four at the 10:00 o’clock service. These folks are speaking their own truth, their own journey, their own pilgrimage, in their own words. It takes the gift of courage to do that. But, as we have been talking in our Growing Christians sessions preparing for the bishop’s visit, proclaiming the gospel is one of the vows we make at our baptism. We are not to keep our faith hidden.  The stories these eight people will tell are their own, not vetted or controlled by me or anyone else. Bob Dann will talk to us today, at the Peace. Next week it’ll be somebody else.

How do we use what we have? How do we return everything we have to God—through the way we use the money we end up with, through our talents and skills, our time, and the gift of faith, even if it’s tiny? That’s our challenge. And that, says Jesus, is up to us to figure out, with the help of God who consistently and constantly abides with us along the way.