Sermon; 20 Pentecost/Proper 24A; Matthew 22:15-22
After several parables of landowners treating latecomers the same as the early risers, tax collectors and prostitutes entering the kingdom of heaven, tenants being evicted and replaced, and a king destroying a city only to invite all the survivors to the banquet, the Pharisees have had enough. They call a secret meeting to figure out how to trap Jesus and get rid of him – not unlike a parking lot Vestry meeting trying to get rid of the priest. And on top of that, they invite their arch-enemies, the Herodians, to join them – because nothing brings enemies together like someone they perceive as being worse.
“Tell us,” they ask, “is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”
When and how do we talk about God? I'm going to guess that the majority of people here only talk about God on Sundays. And even that could be debatable since we really don't talk about God – you listen to me talk about God and we recite ancient words; but talk . . . not so much.
There are, of course, the various Sunday school classes that take place. My wife and Paul Mackey have the teens in J2A talking about God on a regular basis. And a few adults have been talking about God, the Devil, and Bob during the adult forum. For everyone else, when do you talk about God?
When we talk about God we are engaging in the act of theology. When we talk about God we become theologians. You don't need a PhD or a seminary degree to do this; all you need is to have a conversation. Unfortunately our conversations tend to be limited to Sundays.
Almost every week I receive a rules test, along with everyone else in my officiating association. Questions like . . . It's 3rd and 7 for A on the A-33. Running back A24 takes a hand off on his 27 and runs to the A40 where he is grabbed by the facemask by a B player and fumbles the ball and B41 recovers at the A42. During the run, A67 blocks a B player below the waist at the A34. After the play the B coach comes onto the field to inform the covering official that he missed seeing an A player grab the facemask of a B player. Whose ball is it and where?
That is football theology, and we officials practice it every week. What if we Christians practiced our theology like that on a daily basis? Not necessarily to get it right, but to simply talk about God and maybe see where God is working on a daily basis. And not designed to trap people in “gotcha” scenarios, but to expand our vision and understanding of who and how God might want us to handle situations or behave in our daily lives.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not? This was a way to do theology. This was a way to challenge our ideas of God, ask questions, and see where God was on a daily basis.
Unfortunately it was also designed as a “gotcha” question. It was a question to which the Pharisees already knew the correct answer and was only being asked to prove how right they were and how wrong Jesus was. We need to avoid “gotcha” questions if we are really interested in discussing God and learning how we and God are active participants in each others lives.
And when we discuss God, when we become theologians, one of the most important topics we can discuss isn't some contrived gotcha question, or some pithy, “If God can do anything, can God make a rock so big he can't lift it?” question. One of the most important questions we can ask has to do with the interconnectedness between us and God. How do we relate to God? How is God manifested in our lives? And a good place to start is in the beginning.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”
What does it mean to be made in the image of God? In his letters, John says several times, “God is love – if we do not love our neighbors whom we see, how can we love God whom we don't see?” Love God. Love our neighbors. This is the image of God. God shows perfect love in the union of the Trinity. Jesus showed what it looked like to live in perfect relationship and harmony with God.
We were created through the power of love by God in his image. We are the Lord's possession. We are the imagio dei, the image of God on this earth. And because we are the Lord's possession, because we have been stamped with his image, everything we have – our selves, souls, and bodies, belong to God.
Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?
Whose image is on the coin?
The emperor's.
Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperors and to God the things that are God's.
In the Toy Story trilogy Andy wrote his name on all of his toys, in particular Buzz and Woody. That name let them know who they belonged to; and in the end, it was that name that called them back home, and it was that name to whom they gave themselves.
The emperor had coins stamped with his image. That image let the people of the empire know who they were subject to and that their financial transactions eventually went to support the emperor.
We, however, are more than financial transactions. We have been stamped with the image of God on our selves, souls, and bodies. Like Buzz and Woody belonged to Andy, we are the Lord's possession.
This question about paying taxes goes much deeper than simply participating in the financial transactions of the state. This question requires us to answer whether we belong to the state or whether we belong to God.
Do we place the state first, or do we place God first? Whose image is stamped upon us?
How we answer that question will ultimately determine the shape of the world to come.
Amen.