The text you see below is close to what I preached at 730am. To make the corrections I made with a pen is too cumbersome, so you get the draft version. The picture you see above is what I preached from at 10am. 730 felt like it had no energy, like I was avoiding what I was trying to say, 10am felt good. I am grateful for the Holy Spirit.
I have been critical of the lectionary people in the past for various reasons, and I suppose when I find that they've done something helpful I should mention it. So today, I am grateful to the lectionary people for making it possible to spend some time unpacking the sabbath life or the kingdom life. It is a whole-life model of Christian discipleship that Jesus calls for in today's gospel lesson.
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned or not, but the gospel lessons from Proper 21 (Sept 28th) through the end of Year A on Nov 23rd are all from Matthew's account of Jesus' last week. As we come to the end of the Church year we find ourselves in the midst of Holy Week which is a bit of context that we should not forget to think about as we hear the lessons Sunday after Sunday. The confrontation between Jesus and his opponents is rapidly escalating. They overtly questioned his authority and he responded with three parables that question their devotion to the Father's kingdom. In today's lesson it is his opponent's turn to be on the offensive.
The Pharisees, a group based on strict religious rule following, and the Herodians, a group of Jews who were intimately tied up in Roman law put aside their huge differences to trap Jesus in his own words. They begin with flattery, which only serves as an opportunity to catch them in their own words. They say literally, "you do not look upon the face of people."(1) Offering us a wonderful pun that gets lost in the NRSV version's " you do not regard people with partiality." In the very next verse Jesus calls his questioners “hypocrites.” A hypocrite, as Jesus used the word here, was an actor, and in the Greek and Roman world of that time, actors wore masks to cover their faces when on stage. A hypocrite is someone who hides his true face behind a mask —a hypocrite grins at you and butters you up with words of flattery but is secretly sneering at you. So Jesus’ opponents say that they know Jesus does not look upon the “face of people,” and if by that they meant the public face people show, they were right. But Jesus does look upon the true face of people, that which they hid behind the mask of flattery.
Anyway, they eventually ask their question, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" Again the setting gives us some inkling as to why this question is such a good one. First, they are standing in the courtyard of the temple; mere feet from the holy of holies where God resides. Secondly, it is Passover week so the temple is teeming with Jews in town for the high holiday which remembers the Israelites' exodus from slavery in Egypt. As a result, Jerusalem is overflowing with Roman soldiers on high alert for anyone who might be looking to start a new exodus by over throwing the Roman occupation. So, if Jesus says, "yes, it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar" then the Pharisees could easily whip the whole crowd of Jews against him and all credibility for his message is lost - paying taxes to Caesar is the constant reminder that their promised land was once again under the authority of someone other than their God. If Jesus answers, "no, it is not lawful to pay taxes to Caesar" then the Herodins could use their influence with the Roman authorities to have him arrested and crucified for treason, which will happen in just a couple of days, but the time is not yet right.
Knowing the true face that lies under the mask of his hypocritical questioners, Jesus responds by once again turning their question back on them. "Show me the coin used for the tax," he says, apparently not having one of his own. They produce a denarius, worth about a days wage, the annual per head tax paid by every man between 16 and 65 and every woman between 14 and 65. Let me repeat the punch line, THEY PRODUCE A DENARIUS. There, in the midst of the Temple complex, the Pharisees have allowed a ROMAN coin carrying a GRAVEN IMAGE (see Commandment #1). Argument over, Jesus wins. There were two types of coinage running around Jerusalem at that time. One, the Roman coins, carried the image of the Caesar Tiberius with an inscription that read something like, "Tiberius Caesar, son of the god Augustus." Obviously this currency was a bit offensive to the graven image averse monotheistic followers of YAHWEH. So in an attempt to show deference to the Jews, the Romans allowed the region of Palestine to have a second coinage; one that carried no image or inscription. Roman taxes were to be paid in Roman coinage and Temple taxes were to be paid in Jewish coinage, and the Pharisees of all people should have thought that perhaps a Roman coin in the midst of the temple might be in bad taste. Jesus tripped them up beyond any hope of recovery by showing that they were bearing proclamations of Caesar's lordship into the very Temple of the God they claimed to be serving with such single-mindedness.
Having won the argument, hands down, Jesus still goes on to answer the question. Expanding a bit on the rhetorical device I think Jesus used in his answer, it comes across as something like, "If the coin you carry has Caesar's image and title on it, then it must belong to Caesar - you should probably give it back. And those things that carry the image and inscription of God - well they should be given back to God."
I can't be sure, but all this talk of image makes me wonder if Jesus was intentionally referring to Genesis 1.26 "Then God said, "let us make humankind in our own image..." It is good to remember here that each of us carries the image and inscription of God, and so Jesus' instruction to Pharisee's and the Herodians is his instruction to us, give yourself to God. Practice with your whole life imitating the Lord, giving your life back to God as an offering of thanksgiving; living the sabbath life of thanksgiving and praise that Keith challenged us to strive for last week.
I have been accused, and rightfully so, of being sloppy with my words. I often use words interchangeably that shouldn't be used that way; words like faith, belief, and trust - religious and spiritual - holy and divine. There is one word, at least, that I use on a regular basis that I know is safe. There is one word, at least, that's usage I have given a lot of thought. The word is practice. You have, over the last 16 months heard me use the word practice on numerous occasions. I use it to a fault. I use it on purpose. I firmly believe that all of the things we do to grow in this life of faith are practices. I call them practices because I don't believe we ever get it quite perfect, so we practice and practice and practice. The practices of the faith life are things like prayer, hospitality, meditation, discernment, stewardship, worship, and peacemaking. Each of these things individually require daily practice in order to develop the skills required to produce fruit.
As we practice these things they begin develop and play off each other; prayer deepens into meditation which leads to discernment; hospitality to a stranger leads to a better ability to make peace in our daily lives with those we love. Over time the individual actions of the faith life infuse all aspects of our lives and our whole lives are devoted to the practice of talking to, listening for, and following God.It requires all of the practices I mentioned earlier, especially discernment. In the busy-ness and messiness of life it is often difficult to remember what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. We often give ourselves over to our work or our play or our 401(k) without stopping for a moment to think, "am I rendering unto God that which is God's?" The kingdom life is one of practice and practices. Our relationship with God is strengthened through prayer, discernment, worship, and stewardship. Together they lead to a life lived offering back to God our whole self; all that is marked with his image, so that we might bring him honor and glory by having only his will on our minds. May each of us be given the motivation to practice so that all that we do might be giving back to God that which is His. Amen.
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