God's Eikons

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
October 18, 2008; 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 24, Year A
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Matthew 22:15-22) -- The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
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A man suffered a serious heart attack and had an open heart bypass surgery. He woke up from the surgery to find himself in the care of nuns at a Catholic Hospital. As he was recovering, a nun asked him questions regarding how he was going to pay for his treatment. “Do you have health insurance?”
"No,” the man croaked. “No health insurance."
“Do you have any money in the bank?”
"No money in the bank."
"Do you have a relative who could help you?" asked the nun.
"I only have a spinster sister. She is a nun."
The nun bristled. "Nuns are not spinsters! Nuns are married to God."
“Alright, already!” croaked the patient. "Send the bill to my brother-in-law."


"Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's"

Jesus has been teaching in the Temple. It is a politically charged setting. Two competing parties bring a dispute before Jesus. The Herodians are Jewish collaborators with the Roman Empire. They enjoy a degree of power and wealth because they cooperate with Rome and help administer its occupation. The Pharisees are a party devoted to a strict following of the Torah laws of scripture. To them, everything about the Roman occupation is unclean, and an affront to God. Among their party are some who might be tax resisters and maybe even some Zealots who plot revolution. The Herodians and Pharisees, strange bedfellows, ask Jesus a politically loaded question, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"

If he says "yes," he is compromised in the opinion of the Pharisees and many others who regard Roman taxation as oppressive and unjust. If he says "no," he risks arrest from the Herodians as an enemy of the state.

"Show me the money?" Jesus says. Someone brings him a coin, a Roman denarius. Whoever did that has been outed. This is the Temple. Jesus began this section of teaching in Matthew's Gospel by overturning the tables of the money changers. The money changers convert the unclean Roman coinage into Tyrian shekels which do not have offensive images on them. This is an illegal coin inside the Temple.

Jesus looks at the coin. "Whose head is this and whose title?" The word he uses in Greek is "eikon." Whose "eikon" is this? I like the King James Version for this verse: "Whose is this image and superscription? Most likely it is an image of the emperor Tiberius, whose full name was Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus. The superscription on the side of the coin that bears his image would have proclaimed his deity: "son of the divine August." "Son of God" in other words. The other side of the coin would have declared him as "Pontifex Maximus," or "High Priest." Divine Caesar is Lord of the civil and religious realm. That is the meaning inscribed on the denarius.

Jesus' response is profound and enigmatic: "Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but give to God the things that are God's."

And what is God's? Everything. "The earth is God's and all that is in it," declares the Psalmist (Ps. 24:1). The scriptures proclaim that we are created in the image of God. Every human being is an "eikon" of God. As the coin bear's Caesar's image, so we bear God's image. We may give the coin that bear's his image to Caesar, but we are also to give ourselves to the God whose image we bear. Our primary identity is as God's children and our primary commitment is to God. Everything we do in Caesar's world must be shaped by our primary identity as the children of God created in God's image and by our primary allegiance to the reign of God that Jesus called the Kingdom of God.

The early Christians were called "athiests" because they refused to participate in the civil cult of Emperor worship. They were regarded as outlaws and rebels because they proclaimed "Jesus is Lord" and named Jesus "Son of God" rather than Caesar.

I think that primary identity must inform our self-identity as well, especially in a political season. We are not primarily Americans or Republicans or Democrats or even Razorbacks. Beware of the "eikons" that will claim our exclusive allegiance. We are God's people. Everything we do in our worldly spheres must be shaped by an exclusive and primary allegiance to God. To speak of "God and country" as mutually compatible allegiances is to risk entering the territory of blasphemy.

When we do "give to Caesar" we do that best by defending the values and ideals that inspired this nation – liberty and justice; equality for all – values and ideals that are compatible with the Gospel of Jesus. I like to pay taxes because it is the best way we have to promote liberty and justice; equality for all. I always hope our political discourse will hold our nation accountable to those virtues.

Nobel prize laureate Paul Krugman said last February that the U.S. economy is suffering from a "crisis of faith." He described a growing lack of trust in our economic institutions and the securities that have backed much of our debt. At the center of the problem, he said, is the extension of credit.

This is religious language. Faith and trust; doubt and debt. The word "credit" comes from the Latin "credere" – to believe or to trust. The Apostles' Creed begins "Credo" – "I believe." Our current economic crisis is in part about misplaced trust or faith between debtors and lenders. There is a steep price to pay for misplaced trust. Many of you may find yourselves in economic stress. We already know that St. Paul's will start our budget planning with $20,000 less than last year because of the decreased value of our endowment. Some of you are friends of a talented young man who took his life about three weeks ago when he lost faith in his ability to crawl out of a financial catastrophe.

Jesus tells us not to put our trust in Caesar or Caesar's money. He tells us not to be afraid or anxious. He fed the multitudes; he will surely feed us. He clothes the lilies of the field; he will surely clothe us. He was born in a stable; he will surely shelter us. He liberated the Hebrews from slavery; he will surely free us. He knows his sheep by name. He invites us into the alternative kingdom and the alternative economics of people created in the image of God.

So, if our truest nature is to be like God, and if we want to be happy, we should be who we are and do what God does. What does God do? God loves. God gives. God loves and gives extravagantly. Then God receives. God receives our love and our faith and our trust. For us to live into our true nature, we are to live fearlessly and generously, trusting and loving God, neighbor and self.

We've seen what that looks like recently. This week I signed a check for over $32,000 from St. Paul's discretionary fund to help little Eleanor Suttle's therapy for eye cancer. Much more than that has come through the wider community. Those acts of loving generosity feel good. They feel like acts of God. But all of it was given by people – simple human beings, living as the "eikons" of God.

God has stamped us with God's image. We are God's coins. God doesn't want our money. God wants us. God want us to spend ourselves in the service of God's compassion and love. That is who we are. That is the path to true freedom and happiness.

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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

A Hard Parable

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
October 11, 2008; 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 23, Year A
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Matthew 22:1-14) – Once more Jesus spoke to the people in parables, saying: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.' But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, `Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, `Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."
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I've been at St. Paul's for over eleven years. I've never preached on the week when this gospel reading was assigned by the lectionary. Some of that is the luck of the draw, but I believe at least once I looked ahead and saw it coming and managed to pass it off to one of my colleagues. If I had exercised a little foresight this year, I probably would have done just that. But I wasn't paying attention. So this week, when I realized it was this parable and it was my turn to preach, I thought, "Oh, no. Can't it were someone else's weekend. No."

This parable is a tough one. The commentators all have trouble with it. So do the preachers. Sometimes people will try to allegorize the story with God as the king, but the violent behavior of this king bears little resemblance to the God Jesus points us toward, whom Jesus calls "Abba."

I do not know what this parable means. So you're not going to get something definitive, maybe not even something very helpful from me this morning. I'm flummoxed.

But I do know that one of the things Jesus used parables for, was to shake people out of their complacent attitudes and world views. Jesus' parables are often very subversive. They are like verbal hand grenades that Jesus tosses out to unnerve and destabilize us. It's like Jesus says, "You think you know something about reality? Think again. The Kingdom of God is like..." and then he tosses his grenade. When he's finished, everybody looks perplexed. He gives no easy answers. He just challenges us. "What are you going to do with that?" Fair warning. That's where we're going today. I don't know what this parable is saying, so here we go.

I'm guessing that when Jesus started this story, saying: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son..." his listeners thought immediately of the Emperor. They were familiar with kings. And in Roman times, there was really only one: Caesar. Jesus speaks of a king, and his listeners think of Caesar.

There is to be a royal wedding. Caesar's retainers invite the elites to the wedding. In Israel, that would be those Jews who were collaborators with the Roman occupation – those who had become powerful and wealthy through their cooperation with the Empire. The High Priests and the Sadducees; wealthy landowners, multinational businessmen and governmental officials. "Everything is ready," says Caesar, "come to the wedding banquet."

But the unimaginable happens. The elites say "No." They diss the Emperor. Can you imagine the buzz among the peasants hearing this story? "Good. At last. Someone is standing up to the hated Romans, like Judas Maccabeus did nearly two-hundred years ago." This is the kind of story they've been waiting for. When Messiah comes, he will lead the rebellion to throw off the oppressors and defeat them forever.

But that's not the way the story goes. The king is enraged. His army comes and massacres the rebels and burns their city. The people remember that story. That's happened before. The fall of Jerusalem; 587 BCE. And it's not the last time either.

So the Emperor sends the Legions into the streets. They "invite" everyone, both good and bad. They've seen what happened. They go to the wedding hall. At sword-point or voluntarily out of fear. Nobody turns the invitation down this time.

"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe." Who do you think that man might be? I think there is a clue. Look at the description of that unclothed man. When he's asked to explain himself, the man is speechless, silent. So the king binds him hand and foot and throws him into the outer darkness." I think this is Jesus. "Like a lamb that before its shearers is mute, so he uttered not a word." He was bound hand and foot upon the cross and crucified into the utter darkness.

While everyone else is cowed in fear before the oppressor, coming to the wedding banquet, wearing the dress the tyrant expects, Jesus simply refuses to cooperate. He will not wear the clothing of injustice. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't accuse or attack. He doesn't meet power with power; he doesn't return violence for violence. He simply stands there in his integrity and refuses to acknowledge or cooperate with the misuse of power. He accepts the predictable consequences of his defiance. He is crucified.

Not many people have the courage to do that, do they? "Many are called, but few are chosen." Few so choose. There's Rosa Parks who just sat there, refusing to cooperate when she was told to give up her seat and get back to her place in the back of the bus. She was bound in handcuffs and thrown into the utter darkness of jail. There's Abraham Lincoln who resisted the demands to punish the rebellious South, saying, "With malice toward none and charity for all." There's Gandhi, who marched 240 miles to lead hundreds of Indians to pick up a handful of salt and walk non-violently into British clubs and batons, some to their deaths.

When brave people refuse to cooperate with power exercised as injustice, they expose tyranny to the light of day. They force the ugly violence, which so often remains hidden under the camouflage of threat, to do it's repugnant work openly, to be revealed as the evil it is. Ultimately, darkness cannot overcome its exposure to the light.

Sometimes it is something simple. An employee tells a boss, "I'm not going to do that." A spouse tells a beloved, "I won't cover for you anymore. I'm letting others know about this." The consequences are often powerful and costly. It is the price of freedom.

And maybe there is a connection here with the words we have from Paul. Paul has weighed in to a conflict and brought it to the light. "I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord." There has been a fight, a disagreement, maybe an injustice. Paul offers a context for standing up in the presence of unpleasantness.

As I read these words of Paul, imagine these words being in the mind of the mysterious wedding guest who refuses to wear the king's garment and will not cooperate with the violence and oppression that the king wields. Or let these words be in Rosa Parks' thoughts or in Gandhi's heart as they place themselves peacefully before injustice. Or hear these words in the soul of the employee or the spouse who is standing up to wrong.

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

"Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you."

One more thing. Did you notice who was missing from the parable? There's no bride and no groom.

After Jesus was bound hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness, God raised him from the dead. Jesus became the bridegroom for his bride, the church. And the real King, the Sovereign of the Universe, prepared a wedding banquet. To this wedding banquet all are invited, without coercion or violence, but with love and acceptance. It is the banquet of the Lamb. It is the light that comes into the world, and the darkness cannot overcome it. We are participants in this banquet, welcomed regardless of raiment. We are fed and empowered, made one with God and with one another, so that we can share in God's work of reconciliation which overcomes all injustice and oppression.

Welcome to the wedding banquet. Keep doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in Christ, and the God of peace will be with you.
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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.

For information about St. Paul's Episcopal Church and it's life and mission, please contact us at
P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373
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