Matthew 22:15-22
Fridays are my day off, so this week, I went about my usual day off business: yoga class, visiting my mother, and stopping by the grocery and the library. I also looked over two bids I have on some house projects. I talked to my brother about whether we will pay for some extra services for our mom. A typical day off.
When I sat down to write my sermon, I remembered my activities. And I realized that for each thing I did, there was a price tag: the membership at the gym, the taxes paid to the city to provide for services like the library, the cost of ongoing things like groceries and caregiving, and planned investments like home renovation, not to mention the unseen costs of housing, insurance, and utilities we pay for that we utilize each day. I had thought that when I sat down to write my sermon on “Give to God the things that are God’s” that I would start thinking about money—it is stewardship season, after all. But I realized I had been thinking about money in some way or form all day long.
I guess I was surprised because it’s so easy to compartmentalize when it comes to faith and money. It’s as if the faith questions live on one side of our brain: things like the golden rule and trusting in God, and the practical questions like buying a cup of coffee or paying the electric bill are on the other. Sometimes it seems like the two sides of the brain don’t talk to one another.
In our Gospel lesson today, the Pharisees ask a question about faith and money. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were faithful people, and they tried very hard to make every aspect of their lives conform to God’s commands. They wanted to know whether it was right to pay taxes to Rome: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
The background on this was that the Jews resented the tax, for it reminded them of the fact that their land was occupied by a foreign power whose people worshipped false gods. To make matters worse, they had to pay the tax with coins that were actually pieces of state propaganda, with Caesar’s image on it and an inscription proclaiming him to be divine.
On the other hand, even the most pious Jews used these coins for commerce, and their own religious tradition supported the notion that an occupying power could at times be an instrument of God’s will. It was a tough question: How should a good Jew use their money?
I’m sure it was a real question for many. But in the case of this story, it was a trap set for Jesus. By the time we get to this place in the Gospel of Matthew, the religious leadership are so threatened by Jesus’ teachings and ministry that they are looking for ways to get rid of him. So they ask him this loaded question, figuring they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. If Jesus said “yes, pay the tax,” he would enrage the people, who hated the tax. If Jesus said “no, don’t pay the tax,” the Romans could try him for sedition.
The Pharisees had hoped to force Jesus to take sides, the Romans or the Jews. But Jesus succeeded in taking this money question out of partisan politics and putting it into a spiritual context. You see, the Pharisees had a teaching about the emperor’s picture on the coin. It was a sign of the limited rule of Caesar, who could only mint coins. God, on other hand, minted people, whose multitude of faces reflected the infinite nature of God. “Give… to the emperor the things that are the emperors,” he said. “Give to God the things that are God.” The Pharisees knew that they were made in the image of God. Perhaps they owed a few coins to the emperor for taxes, but they owed their whole life to God.
The same thinking could apply to us. We have financial obligations we can’t avoid, basic needs like housing and medical care. We have things we value like education or travel, sports or the arts. And of course we value our faith and support the ministries here as well as other charitable causes close to our hearts. We use our money to support what we believe in.
But what if we actually lived like our whole life belongs to God? It really broadens the discussion. What if we put into action the idea that our time, talent, and treasure is actually on loan to us from God? That would mean that we are stewards, or managers, of God’s possessions. This is what we acknowledge in the offertory prayer: “God of power, God of plenty, all things belong to you.”
It’s like all along we were thinking that faith and money were like a Venn diagram with two circles—one for faith and one for money—and we were looking for the space where they overlap. But Jesus’ teaching points to a diagram in which faith in God is a big circle, and inside, totally within, is money. Because our considerations around money are actually subset of our faith life where our trust is in God.
But what does this kind of life look like? Do you know someone who lives in a way that shows their life is on loan from God?
I want to tell you about a person who I saw as this type of manager of God’s gifts. His name was Paul. Paul grew up in the 1930s and attended the German Lutheran Church. He suffered from polio as a child, and though he recovered, always walked with a limp. He never let that disability stop him, though—he was a leader in Luther League and church council; scoutmaster boy scouts; he was the treasurer of the Conference of Lutheran churches and representative at many synod church meetings. He and his wife Ruth could be counted on to support for civic causes, helping to fund the building of a playground, creating a college scholarship, and supporting the church. He was awarded “Volunteer of the year” in his town. Paul lived as if his life were a gift to share.
Paul and Ruth also raised three sons, and this is where his legacy was most visible. Paul’s sense of stewardship could be seen in the members of his family, now three generations strong, who serve on local town and charitable boards, who are teachers, local politicians, and firefighters, give generously of their time and talent as church members, and of course, carry on the mentoring of young men in the boy scouts. Through his family, Paul’s generosity is the gift that keeps on giving.
It’s probably no surprise that Paul was example of financial giving—intentionally giving a portion of his income to his congregation and making a planned gift to be disbursed upon his death. His financial giving was both an outgrowth of his generous life and also a tool that helped him grow in his spiritual life.
We have folks like this in our church, too—people who live in service to others through their work and volunteer efforts, who serve their families and neighbors and are generous with their time and money. We are indeed blessed as we give, not just because it changes lives for the better as we heard from Steve but also because giving is a spiritual act that helps us to grow.
“Give the Emperor the things that are the emperor’s. Give to God the things that are God’s.” We all have obligations and responsibilities, but Jesus points us to the reality that all of our life is lived within God’s loving care for us and the world. Our lives are a gift to be shared with others. We live encompassed in the circle of God’s graceful provision so we can trust with confidence our lives and our living to God.