Sermon: Giving ourselves (October 22, 2023)

Pentecost 21A
October 22, 2023 – Children’s Sabbath
Isaiah 45:1-7
Matthew 22:15-22

INTRODUCTION

Religion and politics. The two things you should never talk about in polite company, right? And certainly not together! Yet today the lectionary brings these two together in an undeniable way. In the Isaiah text, the prophet announces that God is using a Gentile, the Persian king Cyrus, to bring about God’s purpose of bringing the Israelites out of Babylonian captivity, out of exile, and back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. It’s a story by which we see how God can use even an unfaithful ruler to bring about God’s justice and plan. 

Then in Matthew, some Jewish leaders try to trick Jesus – again – with a question about taxation, and whether taxes should be paid to the emperor, the king. It doesn’t get much more political than that! And to be sure, this is no idle inquiry – this question about taxation is a particularly hot issue of the day, one of the hottest. As usual, Jesus is not caught in their trap. But the exchange brings to mind how it is that we are called to live as both people of faith, and people who are a part of a political society. 

As you listen today, consider how your identity as a citizen and your identity as a Christian complement or enhance each other – or how they don’t – and what scripture might be saying about how to balance these two identities. Let’s listen.  

[READ]

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

That clever Jesus. I love how he manages to maneuver so deftly out of these traps his opponents keep setting for him. This one is especially impressive: the Herodians (Jews who sympathized with the Romans) and the Pharisees (Jewish teachers of the law) are unlikely bedfellows, but they have teamed up to ask him about the biggest hot button issue of their day: the question of taxation. The oppressive Roman government was taxing the Jewish citizens, and then using that very tax to oppress them. It’s an issue that would, a few decades later, lead to a Jewish uprising and the destruction of the second temple. If Jesus says here that they shouldn’t pay taxes, then the Herodians will brand him a revolutionary, and get him for breaking the law and rising up against the Roman government. On the other hand, if he says yes to paying taxes, he will be a traitor to the Jewish people who are being oppressed by this very tax. Either way, Jesus is toast.

Haha, but not our Jesus! He directs them to the coin with which taxes are paid, asking them whose face is on it. Caesar’s face is on there, so, he says, it’s his. “Give back to the emperor what is the emperor’s,” he says. Easy peasy. But the real climax of this passage, comes in Jesus’ next words: “and [give back] to God what is God’s.” The concept of giving back to Caesar may be controversial, but it is at least straightforward. This statement about God, though, leaves room for question. What is God’s, exactly, that we should give it back? 

You may immediately think, “Well, everything belongs to God!” and you would be right, but Jesus’ words are even more specific than that. The clue is actually back in the first part of Jesus’ statement, as he explains what should go back to Caesar and why. The currency used to pay the emperor his tax is a coin, specifically a coin with the emperor’s head engraved on it. So, when Jesus has them pull out one of the coins and asks, “Whose image is on this coin, and whose likeness?” it is very obvious to whom that coin belongs, to whom it should be returned. 

So, if a coin is the currency by which we give back to the emperor, what is the currency by which we give back to God? If we are to follow the same logic, it is that which bears the image and likeness of God. Hm, what could that be?

 “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness. … So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God, he created them.” It’s right there in the book of Genesis: we are the currency, you see, by which we give back to God. We are – our hearts, our minds, our strength, our voices, all that is in us, all that God first gave to us – we are the means by which we give back to God. From our very creation we have borne the image of God in our very being. In our baptism we were marked again with this image when a cross was traced on our foreheads. Christ is engraved upon us. And so, if we want to give to God, we do it by giving ourselves.

Ok, so… How do we give ourselves?

We often talk about giving money, especially toward a worthwhile cause. St. Paul’s is exceptionally generous, and members are often more than happy to give. That is, in a way, giving of ourselves. But today we are talking about a part of ourselves we can give that goes much deeper than money: today we are talking about giving our voices in a way that serves the most vulnerable among us – children with developmental delays or disabilities. Today is a part of Children’s Interfaith Weekend, organized by The Children’s Agenda, a local organization that advocates for the needs of children. On this Sunday each year, local faith communities commit to writing letters on behalf of vulnerable children. Advocacy for children, in this case writing letters urging the governor to include funding in the budget for early intervention for kids with developmental delays and disabilities, is the perfect example of how our faith and our citizenship coincide. We are driven by our faith to speak up on behalf of the vulnerable in our community, just as Jesus did. You can read more about this issue and sign a letter electronically HERE.

There are lots of ways we can and should use our voices to advocate for others, of course. But political advocacy, as we’re talking about today, is an especially powerful one, because we know that God can use political leaders, even those who are not faithful, to bring about God’s will. That’s just what God did with Cyrus, after all, a Gentile king! God used Cyrus to deliver the Israelites out of Babylonia captivity and so they could return to Jerusalem. And I believe that God can use our political leaders today to bring us closer to God’s kingdom – a place where everyone, even the most vulnerable, youngest children among us, has what they need. Our role in that is to tell them, through letters, phone calls or whatever means necessary, that we believe in a world in which everyone, even these children, have what they need. After all, they, too, are stamped with God’s image. They, too, as our kids will sing for us in a moment, are children of God – no matter what people say!

As surely as Caesar’s image is stamped and engraved on a denarius, the image of God has been stamped upon us, upon our hearts, upon our lives. That image is of a God who is endlessly loving, merciful and compassionate. As Christ gave everything for us, so that we would have life, may we who bear that image bear it also to the world, in what we say, what we do, how we vote, and how we treat one another, and in so doing, may we bring life and light into the world.

Let us pray… Lord of all, you have created us in your image and marked us with the cross of Christ. Help us to live out this image in the church and in the world, and use the voice you gave us, until all your people, children and adults, would have what they need. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Full service (featuring many children, including my own who wrote and read the prayers of intercession!) can be found HERE. The children's choir also sang beautifully!