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Our Debt to God and Caesar

The Rev. Thomas W. Simmons IV

Those of you who listen to NPR know that we are in the midst of pledge season, with its incessant appeals to take just a few moments to support public radio.  You can call this toll free number and make your pledge $25, $60 or $100.  For the $100 pledge you we’ll send you the two-CD set.   Listening to their appeals for money it struck me that NPR’s principal fund raising strategy is to use the high-pressure tactic of perky groveling.  That’s what they do! 

Well, I guess you could say that we are in the midst of our own sort of fund-raising campaign here at St. Peter's.  I don’t like to call it a "fundraising" because Christian stewardship is so much more.  It is primarily about our relationship with God and how we respond to his initiative, call, generosity and guidance.  That’s what we are talking about at a series of desserts around town this month.  Nevertheless, money is an important part of stewardship as we approach Pledge Sunday on November 3. 

Money is also a big part of our Gospel lesson this morning.  Jesus' enemies are going after Jesus on a major pocket book issue.  They try to trap him in to making a politically incorrect statement on one of the hottest questions of the day: paying Roman taxes. 

Israel was part of the Roman Empire, and that was very good for business.  The Empire standardized the currency, improved the infrastructure and brought stable peace to the region. But there was a price to be paid. Roman rule meant Roman troops, Roman religion and Roman taxes. 

This was abhorrent to many Jews who viewed the Romans as unclean pagans who worshipped the Emperor as god.  The Emperor cult was evident everywhere, even on the coins that bore his image and were inscribed with the claims of his deity.  To many Jews these coins, which they were required to use to pay taxes, were idolatrous – like little pocket idols. 

Different people in Israel responded to this provocation differently.  The more conservative Jews, like the Pharisees, stood against Rome and sought ways to evade taxes and participation in the Roman system.  On the other end of the spectrum were the more pragmatic and worldly Herodians.  They went along to get along and benefited from the system. 

Given the differences between them, it’s interesting that both Pharisees and Herodians are together in our Gospel lesson this morning, united their efforts to destroy Jesus, whom they view as their common enemy. 

They want to use the tax issue to catch Jesus on the horns of a dilemma.  It’s typical politics.  If he supports the tax, the Pharisees can discredit him with the conservative populace.  If he rejects the tax, the Herodians can drag him before the Romans for preaching sedition.  Tough choice, huh?  Jesus' enemies are clever and they seem to have him on this one. 

But Jesus is clever, too.  He extricates himself from the dilemma and actually manages to turn it very pointedly against both the Pharisees and Herodians.

First he asks for a tax coin, which one of his questioners immediately produces.  This is a significant gesture because it demonstrates the Pharisees' hypocrisy. On the one hand they reject the Roman imperial system, but in the other hand they carry its currency.   They condemn the system, but tacitly participate in it. 

Jesus then points out Caesar's image and inscription on the coin.  "Who is this?"  I imagine the Pharisees getting nervous.  "Uh…it's Caesar...?"  They can see where this is leading. Jesus says, “The coin is his. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's."  Pretty simple, isn't it? 

Jesus demonstrates to the Pharisees that the Emperor has legitimate jurisdiction over certain things, like taxes and the things that taxes pay for.  And he implies that the people of God have certain responsibilities to the governing authorities, even if they are pagan. 

A few decades later Peter and Paul both argue in their epistles that God ordains civil authority. God appoints rulers to punish criminals and protect the innocent and make a stable, peaceful society that benefits the people of God.  We should therefore support the government.

In our modern democratic context, we can think of this as a call to responsible citizenship.  We “render to Caesar” by voting, obeying the law, paying taxes (which amounts to nearly 50% of our income) and...going to the DMV.  I got to do that on Friday when I spent nearly 2 ½ hours and $100 renewing my driver's license and two vehicle registrations.  Just giving Caesar his due… 

But Jesus says to give God his due as well.  Through the ages it’s become clear that governments have a God-complex.  They tend to elevate themselves in place of God, like Caesar did – and we tend to let them.  So Jesus says that while rendering unto Caesar, we must also render unto God what is HIS. 

Just as the Roman coin carried the image of Caesar, giving him proper rights over it, so every person bears the image of God, giving God proper rights over us. We owe our lives – our selves, our souls and bodies – to God alone.  He is our ultimate allegiance and we are his prized possession. 

Jesus aims this point at the Herodians who often neglected God in their attempts to ingratiate themselves to their Roman masters.  It is aimed to us, too, in the midst of our busy, distracted lives.  As we work to make ends meet, to achieve financial independence, to render unto Caesar and to all the other people to whom we are responsible, we often don’t have much left over for God. 

And that’s a bad place to be. It’s called idolatry, putting other things in the place of God, who should be FIRST in our lives.  Our texts this morning help us get our priorities straight by reminding us just whoGod is. 

Isaiah portrays God as the Ruler of the Kings of the Earth.  He is the puppet Master of Cyrus, ruler of the Persian Empire, who unwittingly does God's bidding on behalf of Israel.  God says, “I am the Lord, there is no other, besides me there is no god.”

And I love our Psalm this morning, which calls us, and the whole world, to reorient our lives around God.  “Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord honor and power.  Ascribe to the Lord the honor due his name, bring offerings and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, let the whole earth tremble before him.” 

This is the God we worship and serve.  Isn’t he grand!  And as we organize our lives and set our priorities and plan for the future, we have the joy of doing it all to “ascribe to the Lord the honor due his name.”  And as we gather here to worship God “in the beauty of holiness,” we have the privilegeto “bring offerings and come into his courts.”  

This is what stewardship is all about.  When we ask you to consider your pledge and we pass the offering plates, it’s not fundraising.  It’s an act of worship.  And when you fill out your pledge card on Pledge Sunday on November 3, you aren’t just paying to keep the lights on and the Rector paid – as important as those things are!  No, you are rendering unto God what is God’s. 

You are God’s and all that you are, and have, and ever will be.  As you put your offering in the plate just imagine taking that offering plate, placing it on the floor and stepping into it. You put yourself in there .  The tithe, check or loose change you drop in the plate represents your life as you “ascribe to the Lord the honor due his name.”

That’s why I say every Sunday, “I urge you brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to offer your lives a living sacrifice…” Each one of you are in those plates and that’s what I offer to God on the altar. 

Can you see how different this is from NPR’s pledge campaign?  We are not doing fundraising to cover our expenses.  We are worshipping God who so richly blesses and sustains us, even in the hard times.  We are simply rendering to God what is God’s.  AMEN.