Give to God What is God's

 Matthew 22: 15-22

October 22, 2023

 

This scripture has been misused a lot.

Sometimes its used as a stewardship sermon

to try and persuade people to give some money

to God, and what we mean is give money to the Church.

Which isn’t awful, but I don’t think that’s what Jesus was

talking about here and trying to incorporate stewardship is hard.

 

I think it has been used in the past mostly,

to justify the separating of the work of religion

and the work of politics and commerce.

 

People used this to say that Jesus was telling the church

not to get involved in any part of politics.

Give to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor – earthly things.

and give to God what belongs to God – spiritual things.

 

This theory says that Jesus was saying that these things are separate – 

the realm of Caesar is money, finances, your business, 

and work life, your voting, your stance on issues.

And the world of God is praying, worship, hymns, spiritual stuff.

 

The belief was God doesn’t get involved in those other places 

A Roman Dinarius Coin

and neither should you.

Church people should worry about spiritual and eternal stuff.

Politics are worldly, always evil, and temporary –

as people of faith, we shouldn’t bother with it.

 

This is actually the stance that the Lutheran Church had taken

for much of its time as a denomination in America.

Political Quietism it was called.

It reflected the feeling that Jesus was only involved

in the spiritual and what happened to the soul after death.

The rest of the stuff that happens in the world is of no consequence,

so religion shouldn’t comment on it.

 

I mean the Lutheran Church, north or south,

didn’t have much of anything to say about the issue of Slavery

until the Southern half of the Lutheran church left the

General Lutheran church in 1863.

By then, the Civil War had been going on for two years.

 

Some people also use this scripture to criticize

the Christian church now, saying that it’s “too political”

which I get in some ways, but it’s actually hard for me to wrap

my head around when I try to think about it.

 

Politics is simply just the way that people in groups make decisions

about how we live together on this planet.

God and Jesus and scripture have a lot to say about that.

Some of those decisions are more controversial and

there are disagreements about them,

but all group decisions are political.

I suspect that when the church is talking about

something that people don’t agree with,

it’s called “too political”.

 

Now I believe in separation of church and state

The state should not mandate any religion,

even ones I agree with and love.

And religions should not mandate that its followers to

follow any political ideal or that it vote for one person or another.

 

And I’ve seen how many Christians have demanded

that they get special treatment under the law,

and they want the law to protect their faith alone.

Or they want their Christian teachings in public schools,

or they want to impose their specific, peculiar spiritual

practices and interpretations on the general public.

And I am here to say that is NOT how we should be

involved in politics as people of faith.

  

But as followers of Jesus we are compelled to

find ourselves in the public sphere

reminding the state what it’s supposed

to be doing with its authority and responsibility.

It means reminding our governments that the political systems

and the economic systems are here to serve the people 

that God has created and loves. In other words, all people.

 

The reality was, it was a very political world that Jesus came into

The time that Jesus was in was deeply steeped in politics.

People couldn’t get away from it even if they wanted to.

And Jesus was a very political person,

He was not a politician, he did not advocate for any politician,

He didn’t want to rule in any kind of political leadership.

He didn’t want his way to be the law of the land.

But he was political.

 

He political in how he advocated for people.

How he talked to them, and  how he talked about them,

He was political in the way that he kept the company

of certain people in public.  He was political in the way

that he talked about God’s forgiveness when

God’s wrath and anger was a way of controlling people.

He was political in the way that brought light to

oppression and human suffering.

He was political in the way he empowered the poor and oppressed.

 

Jesus was killed by the authorities for being too political,

for not staying in, what some people thought, was his lane.

If he had just commented on strictly spiritual stuff,

no one would have cared enough to arrest him.

 

At the time of Jesus, the Israelites were under Roman rule.

They had gone from being under one rule to another for many years.

The Romans were good in some ways, they developed conveniences, 

roads, methods of commerce,  And Romans allowed 

people to worship how they wanted, even the Jewish people.

 

And the Romans invaded and took control and then

required a ‘Tribute’ be paid to it – a tax.

Romans required two things, that you pay the tribute

and that you keep the peace.  

No protesting, no gathering in the street, no organizing,

definitely no telling people not to pay their taxes.

The Romans government required submission.

 

You had to worship Caesar (which was against Jewish practice)

And you had to submit to their rule.

And the Roman government was cruel.

The death penalty was a favorite consequence of the Romans.

 

Being under Roman Rule was an insult to the Jewish people,

like most occupation by foreign rule is.

So the question of paying taxes to it was always a sore spot.

Should we or shouldn’t we?

 

It says that the Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus- to entrap him.

If he said that the Jewish people should not pay the tax to the Romans, 

then Jesus could be arrested by the Romans for sedition.

If Jesus said that they should pay taxes to Rome, then

he would have lost his appeal to his Jewish followers.

 

But Jesus doesn’t answer yes or no.

Rather, he catches the Pharisees in their own trap:

First thing he does is ask the pharisees for a coin used for the tax.

the he asked them for a Roman Coin.

 

As we find out in the story, it has a picture of Caesar on it.

And it had a claim that Caesar was the son of God. It was an idol,

a graven image. Jews, especially Jewish leaders

were not supposed to have these coins.

There was specially minted Jewish money

that was not very valuable outside of Jewish

circles that they could carry. But Jesus asks for a denarius.

And the Jewish leader reaches in his pocket and takes one out.

Jesus catches them.

The religious leaders were telling everyone else to

follow Jewish law, and they were breaking one of the rules.

Even those that fancied themselves the closest to God

could not escape becoming a part of the Roman world.

 

Maybe Jesus could have stopped right there,

and he would have had one up on the people

who were trying to catch him in a trap.

But Jesus goes on.

 

He looks at the coin. It had picture of Caesar on it,

so give it back to him. Give him his taxes.

but remember always give to God what belongs to God.

It was a complex and subtle answer for a complex issue.

 

Jesus was not afraid of difficult questions,

and he was not afraid of getting into the fray of difficulty.

It’s not black and white. Not absolute.

It was complicated, like politics is. Like life is. Like living together is.

Like trying to love and serve all people can be.

I think that the lesson we can learn today from Jesus story 

is not to separate ourselves from the world and shy away from it

but to be involved with all its complexities.

 

Pay your taxes, be a good citizen.

But always make sure that God gets what is God’s.

And what is God’s? Everything.

God created everything in nature and every person.

And our involvement in the political sphere

is to make sure that the systems of the world,

care for all those things equally.

  

So when Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for civil rights

that was political.

When Pope Francis washed the feet of prisoners

on Maundy Thursday, that was political.

When we go to Town Council to advocate for

workforce housing, that is political.

When we strive publicly to love

and accept all people, that is political.

This is how Christ becomes manifest. How God’s love becomes 

incarnational and really present in the world.

 

But the objectives in all of those examples is not to

gain power or notoriety or special rights for our own religions,

it’s not to impose our religious practice or unique ideology or

rules or morality on other people.

It’s always to advocate for the under-served, those that world

and politics don’t always show love and respect to.

 

So we’re not asked, as people of faith, keep out of

the political sphere and the sphere of commerce.

Jesus is actually telling us to go into it.

To give it back to God.

To reform it so that it serves God’s purposes for it.

 

Give to God what belongs to God.

God wants us to specifically watch over

those who are most vulnerable.

It doesn’t matter what government or political party is in charge

we need to keep everyone true to that ideal at all times.

  

We are created in the image of God.

And not just the spiritual side.

We are not just half a coin.

We are not just souls hanging around the earth

waiting for heaven one day.

And God just doesn’t hover around in the ether and

let the rest of the material world go to seed.

God is interested in the whole package

the spirit and the body.

 

God loves us all, and God every part of us.

The neat and tidy parts and the messy parts.

And God wants that love to transform every part of our lives.

Not just one hour on a Sunday morning.

Not just our prayer life and our spiritual life and our home life.

But every part of our life:

Including our budgets, our communities,

our commerce, and our politics,

 

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's.

Give to God what is God’s.

And that is everything.