Emmanuel Episcopal Church
October 18, 2020
Proper 24, A
Matthew 22:15-22
What Do We Give to God? Everything.
“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.” Well, that shut the Pharisees up as they were trying to get Jesus in trouble. See, being under the authority of Rome, no one in Israel could say they shouldn’t pay their taxes to Rome, to the emperor. That kinda thing could get you in a lot of trouble pretty quick. Then again, as an Israelite, you really couldn’t be boasting about giving money to a country whose leader claimed to be God.
So, the Pharisees’ trap: how could Jesus say to give financial support to a government that claimed divinity of their leader? How could Jesus say to give financial support to a Roman society that ate exceedingly non-kosher and lived exceedingly not according to the ways of Israel? How could Jesus say to give money to a government that kept soldiers garrisoned in Israel to keep Israel in line, no longer as a free nation?
The Pharisees thought they had Jesus pretty well caught in their trap. I dare say, we often think we have each other similarly trapped when we talk about and question how people who say they love Jesus can vote differently that how we, or I, or you vote.
Sometimes the government doesn’t do what we believe is following the ways of God, and sometimes they do. So, how we vote is important. Our faith will likely influence how we vote, and our faith is going to influence some of us to vote one way and some of us to vote another. Yet, in our convictions and in our faith, we often wonder, “How can anyone who claims to be a Christian vote differently than how I vote, as a Christian?” Then, in our hubris, we lay for each other the Pharisees’ trap.
Into that trap, Jesus said, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
Jesus recognized that we live simultaneously in at least two kingdoms. Jesus and all of Israel lived in the Empire of Rome, in the Kingdom of Israel, and in the Kingdom of God. Whether Jesus liked living under Roman control or not, he accepted it as a reality that would not change without bloody, armed revolt, and even then, it probably wouldn’t change. So, Jesus decided, or realized, or knew that he could live simultaneously under the authority of Rome and still live in the Kingdom of God.
We too live in at least two kingdoms. We live in the kingdom of The United State of America, and and we live in the Kingdom of God. How do we live in these two kingdoms as faithful followers of Jesus? Some would say that doing so depends on how you vote and that voting for a candidate who believes in something contrary to a teaching of Jesus is voting against Jesus. I would say, that’s not what Jesus said. Remember that in saying “yes” to paying Roman taxes, Jesus said “yes” to giving financial support to a government that was decidedly anti-Jewish. Jesus said “yes to giving financial support to a government that did things with that money that Israel and Jesus himself really didn’t like. In the difficult situation of paying taxes to the Roman government, Jesus said, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”
Remember also that before answering the Pharisees’ question, Jesus had them show him a coin which had the emperor’s likeness on it. Jesus used the coin as a symbol, and not only a symbol of money. The coin was a symbol of the Roman government and authority under which they lived, like it or not. Notice, however, that he used no such symbol for God’s kingdom and authority under which they lived. By having a symbol for Rome’s kingdom, Jesus showed that their kingdom was limited; God’s was not.
So how do we live in at least two kingdoms, one limited and one not? What do we give to our government, and what do we give to God? Well, we give to the government our votes. We give what we owe for taxes. We give our opinions to our elected officials, and we give our basic obedience to the laws they set forth. Sometimes we also give our civil disobedience to the laws when those laws are unjust. That’s a decent non-exhaustive list of what we give to our government, but what about God?
What do we give to God? Everything. I don’t mean that we should give God everything or we aught to give God everything. I mean, whether intended or not, we give God everything.
The kindnesses we give to the people we know and love, and the kindnesses we give to the people we hardly know are given to God. Similarly, the hurt, contempt, and indifference we give to the people we know and love are given to God, and the hurt, contempt, and indifference we give to the people we hardly know are given to God. Our votes even are given to God, and I daresay most of us are doing are darnedest to vote in a way that honors God’s kingdom, even when we vote differently from each other. So, don’t let anyone tell you that vote goes against God’s kingdom or God’s way just because you vote differently than they do. Do contemplate seriously how your vote does or does not follow the ways of God’s kingdom; realize also that by “God’s Kingdom,” I don’t mean particular religion or religious practice. By God’s kingdom, I mean the beauty, light, and love of everything that is. Everything we do is giving to God’s kingdom.
Realizing that we give everything to God, the point is not to feel shamed or scared of messing up and giving God the wrong thing. The point is to see the beauty of God’s kingdom all around us, to see the light and love of God’s kingdom all around us, and to let that beauty, light, and love transform us continually into beauty, light, and love, and then to live naturally out of that.
Looking at all we have as part of God’s kingdom of beauty, light, and love, we see that everything we do and everything we give, and keep, and take is done in God’s kingdom to enhance or diminish the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom. Again, as to any thoughts of shame or fear, we’re all going to take a lot of actions which diminish the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom. God knows this, and God works to redeem those things. Perfection is not what God asks of us; it never has been. God asks that we work continually to align our motivations and our actions to accord with God’s will and God’s ways so that we make continual progress towards enhancing the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom.
Now I can’t give every specific action of how we are to act to enhance God’s kingdom, but I can say, based on Jesus’ teachings, that the more we act as Lords over others, demanding our will and our way, assuming we know best for them, the more we diminish the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom. On the other hand, the more we act as servants to others, and not as servants who are superior to others, but as true servants, the more we enhance the beauty, light, and love of God’s kingdom.
See, God’s kingdom is in all of creation and through all of creation. God’s kingdom is in and through and beyond all governments and political systems. So yes, how we vote is part of what we give to God. How we spent our money is part of what we give to God. How we spend out time and how treat others is part of what we give to God. What exactly do we give to God? Everything.
