Oct. 22, 2023
I speak to you in the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Some of you will know that my last career was in public policy research. For most of that time, I was a number-cruncher – digging deep into the data and trying to interpret it in ways that provided understanding and perspective. My colleague was the “vision guy”. Among other things, he pulled me out of the comfortable rabbit holes I’d go down, where numbers offer the illusion of straight answers. It’s frustrating to be forced to grapple with the greys of the world.
I think that’s part of why our Gospel passage gets under my skin. Because if there’s one thing Jesus is really good at, it’s not giving a straight answer. Answering a black-and-white question with another question, or a riddle, or some mysterious parable that makes you think all about the greys. And so what I want us to be thinking about today is: what is Caesar’s, and what is God’s?
In our story, Jesus is teaching at the Temple, and the Pharisees have come to try to trap him. They ask whether Jews should pay a certain tax that was charged to each person who lived in the Roman Empire. If Jesus says “no”, then he risks arrest and execution by challenging the Empire’s authority. But if he says “yes”, he takes a pro-Roman position that undermines his preaching of the kingdom of heaven. Either way, Jesus’ opponents must be thinking, we’ve got him this time.
Jesus’ answer, though, shatters the Pharisees’ black-and-white thinking by giving them a dose of the greys that color society. In response to their question, he demands to see the coin used to pay the tax. And one of the questioners pulls out a Roman coin with the image of Emperor Tiberius.
This detail might not seem important. After all, if we dig coins out of our pockets or purses, we find our own leaders on them. Presidents and such. But having the emperor on the coin is the key detail in today’s story. Those Roman coins weren’t used in the Temple, because they bore the inscription “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” – an affront to the God of Israel. Instead, Temple-goers used special coins decorated with Jewish symbols for donations or to purchase animals for sacrifice.
At one level, Jesus’ response to the question is simple. We use the Roman coins to pay the emperor, and we use God’s currency to give back to God. But what Jesus is also doing is pointing out the bigger issue. Even you, Jesus says, who strictly follow all the Jewish laws, carry the coins of the Empire – coins which insist that Caesar Augustus is a god. In trying to trap Jesus in their question, all the questioners have done is to reveal the bigger truth – that God and the world are fundamentally intertwined. That there are multiple allegiances competing for our hearts.
So we come back to the question – what is Caesar’s, and what is God’s? We can understand Jesus’ words in one of two ways. Jesus might be affirming that Christians submit to authority. Or. Jesus affirms that the world has authority, but that God’s ownership of all creation puts all other authorities in their place. In other words, the coin might belong to Caesar, but our lives belong to God.
So what does this mean for our lives of faith? Today is Stewardship Sunday. It’s that time of year when today’s question – what is Caesar’s and what is God’s – come right before us. Because the fact of the matter is that Christ Church requires financial support to do what we do. And once again Jesus is at it – making us think things through since, unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to what we might give to God. Some families can tithe, and for others, a dollar a week is a stretch. Our circumstances and our resources are all different. We all have to discern how the Spirit is calling us to navigate the greys of giving.
But if we realize that everything is God’s, then our stewardship – of time, and talent, and yes, of treasure – becomes a commitment to human flourishing in all its forms. Our giving becomes an opportunity to participate in the alternative economy Jesus talked about time and again in the Gospels. An economy called “the kingdom of heaven”, where resources are used to repair and restore broken relationships of every kind.
I’ve only been here a few short months, and yet I’m staggered to see how alive Jesus’ alternative economy is at Christ Church. There are so many amazing ministries – from our Coat Shed to our Recovery Worship to our First Sundays to our Prayer Wall – and so many more – that all have one thing in common. Wellness for ourselves – mind, body, and spirit, and wellness for the world around us. Our giving helps support all these ministries – that so many of us participate in – that power this alternative economy based on reconciliation, justice, and peace.
By now, all of us will have received a pledge card in the mail. There are two ways you can return it: you can put in the self addressed, stamped envelope we provided. Or, you bring it back to church and put it in the plate between now and November 12, when we’ll bless and give thanks for the pledges that we’ve made.
The Good News for us this morning is that our giving isn’t simply about supporting the institutional church. As we navigate the competing claims of the world, our discernment about what is Caesar’s and what is God’s gives us the opportunity to participate in an alternative economy that promotes flourishing in all its forms. It gives us an opportunity to offer praise and gratitude as we live in whole-hearted allegiance to the wonderous God who yearns to draw us closer together in love each and every day. Amen.