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22 Pentecost
October 16, 2005
Sermon by Rev. Peggy Tuttle, Interim Rector
Readings
Jesus holds up the coin and says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Money talk. What good is money?
It can buy a House but not a Home
It can buy a Bed but not Sleep
It can buy a Clock but not Time
It can buy you a Book but not Knowledge
It can buy you a Position but not Respect
It can buy you Medicine but not Health
It can buy you Blood but not Life
So you see, money isn't everything. And it often causes pain and suffering. I tell you all this because I am your Friend, and a truer friend
you will never have. As your Friend, I want to take away your pain and suffering . . .
So give me all your money and I will suffer for you.
Last week I talked about two very big words, apocalyptic eschatology: The coming of the Kingdom of God. Keeping in mind that Matthew focuses on the end time helps us to better understand some of these parables and stories.
Leading up to now, Matthew has had Jesus on the attack. He has been trying to break open the hearts of the people so they can hear his teachings and embrace the world about them. He is trying to teach them that God’s love is bigger than the rules and laws they have come to hold as sacred.
Now we see the leaders launching their counterattack. They have carefully formulated questions that will get him into trouble. They are trying to trick him, by asking if it is lawful to pay taxes.
Jesus asks to be shown a coin used for taxes. The local coins used at the temple bore no animal or human figures on them. However, Roman coins, the currency used for the exchange of goods and services and for paying Roman taxes, held the Emperor’s likeness, with his name and title. The coin was really Caesar’s and intended to be returned to him. But what they were to render to God was their total being.
Jesus looks at the coin, turns and asks them three critical questions:
1. What Is Caesar’s?
2. What Is God’s?
3. Which Will You Choose?
What is Caesar’s is the coin that bears his likeness.
What belongs to God is our hearts and souls.
The question remains for us: Which will we choose?
A quick glimpse of what the country of Palestine looked like at the time of Jesus may help us to understand the controversy about taxes. In every country occupied by Rome, any resident not a Roman citizen was made to pay several taxes. There was a land tax, a poll tax, civil taxes to support the lavish life style of Herod the Great and various other taxes the publicans wanted to collect. No wonder tax collectors were unpopular!
On top of all those government taxes came the annual temple tax to be paid before Passover. This tax was, of course, to pay for the upkeep of the sanctuary and to pay the priests in its service.
Now, what was the impact of all these taxes? It angered people. It hardened their hearts, not only against the Roman Empire but against God, as well. And that is what I get out of these lessons for today, especially the Gospel lesson. It is about our relationship with God and how we allow other things, money among them, to distract us and misshape our hearts.
This lesson isn’t about paying taxes. This isn’t about stewardship or pledging. This isn’t about money. It’s about who owns our hearts. What is the shape of our hearts?
When we look into the eyes of another, looking deep within, who do we see there? Is there more than meets the eye? Are we looking for God in those eyes and in that heart?
We’ve heard it said, “The eyes are the windows to our souls?” Well, what do people see when they look in our eyes? Do they see dollar signs; or a soul that knows a love so deep, so abiding that it forgives all our sins and misdeeds? What is the shape of our hearts?
Jesus is challenging the church leaders to get to know God in a way that makes them want to obey the rules. It is a way of coming to know that God’s love is beyond material things, beyond the things of this world that threaten to hold our hearts hostage so that we don’t feel compelled to do what is right. We often lose sight of God. We forget what God looks like.
The Pharisees have forgotten what God looks like. In their desire to always be right, always have the correct answers, they have lost sight of the One whom they serve. Their service has become their bondage.
The whole of the Bible is an attempt by God to bring us back into relationship, a relationship with God, a relationship that began when God breathed breath into the first human, a relationship that longs for our participation. It is a relationship between the Creator and the created.
Jesus looks at that coin and says, “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and don’t forget to give God what is God’s”: yourselves, your souls, and your hearts.
Last Thursday on the Today Show, Matt Lauer talked about how his baby daughter sometimes forgets to pray and will fold her hands in the middle of a meal. He said they don’t often say grace and he doesn’t know where she gets the impulse to pray. That reminded me of a story I read several years ago in one of those, Chicken Soup for the Soul, books.
The title of the story was, “Sachi,” and it goes something like this:
The young parents had just brought their infant baby home from the hospital when their older child began begging to be left alone with the baby.
I believe that story is what the whole of the Bible is about; remembering God and who God is in our lives. How have we allowed God to shape our lives, our hearts, and our souls? Having the faith of a child isn’t childish. No, it is a faith without guile, without the influence of the harsh world in which we live, it is a faith that allows us to seek God in the midst of our lives and say, “thank you for all that you have given us.” Thank you for coining us in your image so that we know when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we belong to you, the God who loves us so much that you sent your only son to give us life everlasting.
One of my all time favorite movies is “Hook” with Robin Williams as Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook. Peter is all grown up, a successful businessman; married with two children. Peter and his family go to London for an event honoring Wendy; while at the event Peter’s children are kidnapped. On arriving home Peter, his wife and Wendy find the house in total disarray and the children missing. Of course, Peter wants his children back but it requires Peter to return to “Never, Never Land.” There he is met by the “boys who never grew up.” But they simply cannot believe it is Peter for Peter has grown up. But one boy takes Peter’s face in his hands and looks deeply into Peter’s eyes and has an epiphany. With wonder in his voice this boy says, “There you are, Peter.” This boy sees Peter beneath all the exterior trappings of this man. Deep in Peter’s eyes, the boy found who he was looking for. He found Pan. He saw the reflection of who Peter had been as a boy. He could see Peter’s heart.
What is the shape of our hearts?
God is within each of us. That’s what Jesus is looking for deep within us. Just look. You’ll see.