I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO

Transcription

1 I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO October 9, 2011, The 28 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Matthew 22:15-22 Douglas T. King, The Brick Presbyterian Church in the City of New York There is a reason why courtroom dramas have ruled the television airwaves from the days of Perry Mason on through the endless permutations of Law and Order. We love a showdown. We love to see two sides engaged in conflict. We love to see who wins and who loses, especially if there is much at stake. Well, my friends, have I got the Biblical text for you. Our passage from the gospel of Matthew is a classic showdown. Jesus has made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem with crowds cheering him as if he was a conquering hero. He has overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. Jesus has had his authority to teach questioned and has told parables that challenge who is truly in God s favor. His opponents, the Pharisees, have already planned to destroy him. As he teaches in the temple this day, the tension is as high as if all concerned were part of a capital murder trial. The Pharisees show up with the Herodians who were loyal to the Roman Empire. They obsequiously open the debate talking about what a fine teacher Jesus is and how he does not regard people with partiality. And then they spring their trap. Tell us then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not? Although there is a tradition of theological debate and scuffle in the temple, the question posited to Jesus is far from abstract. The annual tax of which they speak had to be paid with a denarius, which was imprinted with the inscription, Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus and high priest. Many faithful Jews, who had been taught to eschew all idolatry, were incensed by the forced participation of using an item with an image of a Roman ruler proclaimed as God. The imposition of the Roman head tax in Judea caused a revolt

2 Politically Jesus finds himself in a bit of a pickle with this question. An answer in the affirmative puts Jesus in the pockets of the Romans and dismissed by many faithful Jews. An answer in the negative makes him a common revolutionary to be arrested by the empire. What is telling to me is that his inquisitors do not ask him under whose law the act of paying this tax should be judged, Rome s or Yahweh s. After calling his opponents hypocrites, Jesus asks to see one of the coins in question. It is interesting to note that he did not have one of the coins on his person but the Pharisees and the Herodians had no trouble producing the coin from one of their pockets. Jesus is not a part of the system in question, while they clearly are. In getting them to name the image on the coin in their pockets, the emperor he gets them to name whose system under which they are working. Jesus finally gives his response to their question designed to entrap him. Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor s and to God what is God s. It is a brilliant rhetorical move. If this were a courtroom drama his client would have just won their case. But is that all it is? Is it just Jesus wriggling out of sticky political situation? Let s hope not, because it would not leave me much to say. Of course this is not the case. For many years this passage was interpreted as a case for separation of church and state. It was argued that Jesus was delineating between the loyalties we have in the world, like paying taxes to our government, and the loyalty we have to God, like going to church on Sunday. But this does not exactly jibe with the rest of Matthew s Gospel in which Jesus is constantly raising the bar of expectations about what faithfulness entails. In chapter six he says No one can serve two masters I don t think Jesus would now start carving up our loyalties so neatly. Jesus says that we are to give to God what is God s. Of course the question we must ask is what is God s? Do we define what belongs to God as the five percent of our income we pledge to the church? Do we define what is God s as the hour we spend in worship each week? I wish it was that easy but it sounds a little chintzy to me. If we believe that God created the whole world and created each of us, the better question may be What - 2 -

3 does not belong to God? The appropriate response to that is, there is not one thing in existence that does not ultimately belong to God. The opponents of Jesus have asked him a question to trap him but he has brought us a response that is deeper and wider than any historical political debate or courtroom drama. What at first hearing may sound like a statement calling us to compartmentalize our loyalties, upon a second hearing takes us to a very different place. All that we have and all that we are comes from the divine. If we are called to give everything that is God s to God, you guessed it, that is everything. It would sure make for one heck of a stewardship campaign, wouldn t it? Of course this text is not really about giving all of our money to the church or even about the tax at all. This is a text that challenges us to recognize where our ultimate allegiance lies. We have many allegiances in our lives, to our family and friends, to our employers, to our country. Frankly we live in a tangle of allegiances every day. And some days these allegiances compete for our time, talent, and attention. In this text we are challenged to recognize that we are called to have a single ultimate allegiance, to the one in whose image we were created, God. When Jesus opponents compliment him at the start of this interaction they say to him, Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. A closer translation of the Greek in the final phrase, for you do not regard people with partiality, would be you do not look to the faces of humans. In fact, Jesus does look to the face of humans and he looks upon the imprint of the face on that coin, and in all of them he sees the image of God reflected in creation. What he does not see is anyone or anything worthy of our ultimate allegiance. In the fifth chapter, Matthew s Jesus tells us not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Matthew s original audience, which was Jewish, would immediately be reminded of the injunction You shall not make for yourself any idol from the Ten Commandments given to Moses. They would hear Jesus words and know that none of their ultimate - 3 -

4 allegiance belonged to Caesar or any human system, even the temple. Upon the completion of Jesus exchange with the Pharisees and the Herodians, they were amazed. We all should be amazed at what Jesus teaches us in this text. Giving the totality of ourselves and our allegiance to the divine is a very tall order. I am not even sure what that would look like. I am not sure any of us do. We are so used to doling out our allegiance to human institutions and constructs. And honestly we are used to being a little disappointed in what we place our allegiance. All human institutions, from companies to nations to churches are all imperfect because we are the ones on the levers and we are certainly imperfect. This leads us to believe that allegiance is always a conditional and partial endeavor. In this text, Jesus proclaims to us that yes we are correct in not placing our ultimate allegiance in Caesar and Rome, or whatever human institutions to which we relate. Fanatic devotion to human institutions has led to many horrific things in this world. But that is not as much of a challenge for us today. We live in a time of skepticism that does not encourage us to place our unwavering allegiance anywhere. The way in which this text speaks to us today is to teach us that there is something worthy of that ultimate allegiance. Render unto God what is God s. Be reminded of the creator of all that is and all we are. We are told to place our ultimate trust, our deepest devotion in the one in whose image we were created. I am not sure what that exactly looks like, but I challenge all of us to give thought to how we do it. I believe the answer lies around that baptismal font where we baptized those babies this morning. We certainly cannot get there on our own. But in infant baptism we are reminded that God claims us before we can offer anything to God. We are reminded that God s loving grace is brought to bear in our hearts. We are taught that by joining Christ in being baptized we are joining him on a journey of faithfulness. As the prayer we prayed says of baptism, in it we are buried with Christ in his death. From it we are raised to share in his resurrection. That water splashed upon those babies heads this morning, and all of our heads at one time or another in our lives, is a tangible reminder of who we are and whose we are in all - 4 -

5 times and all places. We are indeed the children of God. And God s ultimate and unwavering allegiance to us will lead us to our ultimate allegiance to God. What we give our allegiance to and how deeply we offer our allegiance will shape who we are each and every day. And who should shape us more than the one who creates, redeems, and sustains us on each new day? Thanks be to God. Amen