Saturday, October 15, 2011

Caesar's Coin


Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
October 16, 2011; 18 Pentecost, Proper 24, Year A, Track 1
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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We have a dramatic story today.  Some of Jesus’ enemies try to trap him.  First they flatter him, then they pull the trigger.  “Tell us what you think.  Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”  If Jesus says, “Yes,” then he falls in the eyes of so many who are drawn to him, who recognize how oppressive it is to pay taxes to fund their occupation by the pagan foreigners, the Romans.  He loses allies.  If he says, “No,” they can arrest him for sedition.

Jesus calls them hypocrites.  “Show me the coin used for the tax.”  A note about location.  The place where rabbis like Jesus would take questions and answer them was the court of the Temple.  It was against the Temple law for anyone to bring a graven image into this sacred ground.  Yet, the questioners produce a coin used for the tax.  “Whose head is this, and whose title?” asks Jesus.  The word for “head” is “eikon.”  It means “image.”  The “eikon” is Caesar.  And on the coin was Caesar’s title:  “Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus and high priest.”  It was a title that claimed divinity.  Tiberius, the son of the god, Augustus.  It was a religious title also – “high priest.”  So Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of these questioners.  They have brought a graven image of blasphemy into the Temple. 

Then Jesus answers them.  “It’s Caesar’s coin.  Give it back to him.”  [Pause.]  “And give to God the things that are God’s.” 

His hearers know the scripture’s claim.  “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.  (Psalms 24:1, NIV)  Everything belongs to God.  Our Psalm in today’s readings speaks of God’s sovereignty:  “God reigns; let the people tremble; God is enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth shake.”  Who is supreme?  Caesar or God?  There is no doubt who is supreme in Jesus’ tradition. 

But note Jesus’ question:  “Whose ‘eikon,’ whose image is on the coin?”  The answer, “Caesar.”  The unasked question might be, “And where is the ‘eikon’ of God?  Where do you find God’s image?”  Jesus listeners know the answer to that question too.  Humanity bears God’s image.  When God created human beings, God created us in the image and likeness of God.  Later Christian tradition will speak of Jesus as the “eikon/icon” of God. 

It is interesting how political Jesus’ language and imagery is.  Jesus sets up alternative jurisdictions, and God’s reign predominates.  Over and over he speaks of the Kingdom of God, the Rule of God, the Reign of God.  He claims that the Kingdom of God breaks into earth in him.  And it was largely on the basis of that claim that he was executed in a political act as an enemy of the state.

Then the early church deliberately chose titles for Jesus that were the same titles that the Emperor claimed – “Divine.  Son of God.  God from God.  Lord.  Savior.  Redeemer.  Liberator.”  All of these were Caesar’s titles, that the church deliberately appropriated for Jesus.  No wonder Rome outlawed Christian practice and occasionally persecuted the church.  In the early years, the church mostly hoped to fly under the radar of the state, but when it did not, martyrs bravely faced arrest, imprisonment, torture and death to proclaim Jesus as Lord.

Now I could stop this sermon there, and simply restate what Jesus has said.  Therefore, “Give to God what is God’s.”  And the implication – everything belongs to God.  All authority is God’s.  That would be enough.

Because Jesus leaves unaddressed the perplexing question, “What is our relationship with Caesar, with the state?”  There is a long, complex history of Christians wrestling with that question.  So, for the record, at this point in this sermon, I’m moving from preaching, to meddling.  Which means, good people can and will disagree with me, and they will have solid arguments for doing so.  I’m not preaching so much as I am thinking out loud, and opinionating.  So I’ll accept the Pharisees and Herodians’ trap:  “Tell us what you think.”

I believe that the teaching of Jesus is essentially corporate and social in its focus.  In my opinion, traditional Christianity is not a religion of individualism.  The New Testament says almost nothing about personal spirituality or personal salvation.  Jesus didn’t come to be my “personal Lord and Savior.”  Jesus came to save the world.

The emphasis of the New Testament in on the Body of Christ, the Kingdom of God, the New Creation and the New Humanity in Christ.  New Testament symbolism is inherently corporate.  The picture that we have of the community of Jesus and of the early church is a vision of a cooperative society, a community of equals.  That requires us as Christians to have a social vision, not merely an individualistic one.  That moves us into social and political realms.

For traditional Christianity, the Church’s work is not only spiritual, it is also materialistic.  Archbishop William Temple famously said that Christianity is the most materialist of all religions.  We value creation and rejoice in the physical.  Through the sacraments we say that matter is a vehicle of the spirit.  Bread and wine, water, hands, oil.  And supremely, Jesus:  the Word made flesh.  God transforms stuff, including us and our money, into instruments of the divine.  God uses the material stuff of creation to transform creation.

How do we know what God wants us to do with our stuff?  When Jesus was taught what bottom line is for corporate judgment, the judgment of the nations, he taught that the criterion is what happens to the poor and vulnerable.  Do you remember the parable of the sheep and the goats?  Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned.  That’s how the nations are to be judged.  That’s a social and political agenda.

The Hebrew Scriptures are full of admonitions about how God cares for the fate of the alien, the orphan, and the widow.  Today’s psalm like so many speaks of God as a “mighty Ruler” who is a “lover of justice.”  In the Hebrew Scriptures, justice is almost always an economic term, as we see in today’s psalm, “O mighty Ruler, lover of justice, you have established equity.”  Equity is an economic as well as a political term.

The Hebrew Scriptures condemn greed and express grave suspicion of wealth and of the wealthy.  We see Jesus pick up that theme in many places, but particularly in the story of Lazarus, the poor beggar living outside the home of a wealthy man.  The wealthy man knows poor Lazarus is there, but he does nothing to help him.  In a story not unlike Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – the wealthy man, writhing in judgment, wants to send word back to his brothers so that they will change their behavior and be generous.

So, for me, when Jesus says “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” I sense a call from Jesus for us to embrace a different political and economic agenda.  Like every other part of the material creation, Caesar’s coin needs to be saved.  Redeemed.  Transformed.  Turned into sacrament.  Caesar’s coin needs to become a vehicle for the spirit, a vehicle for justice.  That’s what I want from my taxes.

I want Caesar’s coin to contribute to God’s desire for the material welfare of the least of these.  I want to see society transformed into liberty and justice for all.  I want the Kingdom of God and the New Humanity of Jesus.  And I pray with the Psalmist, “O mighty Ruler, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness.”  O God, establish equity and execute justice.  And transform our hearts that we may participate in the work of your kingdom.
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Thanks to Kenneth Leech and his book The Eye of the Storm, for some of the ideas and maybe some phrases expressed in the sermon.


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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 its life and mission, please contact us at
P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373
More sermons are posted on our web site: www.stpaulsfay.org
Visit our web partners at www.explorefaith.org




Saturday, October 08, 2011

A Letter from Death Row


Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
October 12, 2011; 17 Pentecost, Proper 23, Year A, Track 1
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Philippians 4:1-9)My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.  I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. 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 on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
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He’s writing from jail.  He’s under the shadow of accusation of a capital offense.  He’s likely to lose the case.  He’ll probably spend the rest of his life incarcerated, and then be executed.  It’s such a corrupt system, too.  If you’ve got money and influence, you can moderate some of the misery.  But in all probability, he knows – his life in the sun is over.  So he writes this:

“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.”

A man condemned, imprisoned.  A man at peace.  Paul of Tarsus.  This church is entrusted to his patronage.  We are known as “St. Paul’s Church.”  And so we are.

Word reaches Paul from outside the prison.  From another one of his favorite congregations, the little church in Philippi.  There is trouble.  A big fight in the church.  It is creating division.  Resentment.  Two of the leaders are estranged.  It is causing serious repercussions throughout the community. 

From his chains, Paul writes them.  “My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord…, my beloved.  I urge Euodia and I urge Synthyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.  …Help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

Paul has been thinking about this “book of life” a lot lately.  Maybe because he sees the approach of the last chapter of his own life. 

He knows that the church is under threat and intimidation from the outside.  Attackers have been able to thwart his mission and place him behind bars.  He also knows that the church is under threat from the inside, from internal strife and division, from Euodia and Synthyche and others. 

Paul offers the same solution to both external intimidation and internal strife. 

Is there external threat?  Nothing outside can intimidate us, he says, if we live with utter confidence in the victory of Jesus.  Christ’s glory is our glory.  “The Lord is near.  Do not worry about anything.”  Even the threat of execution.

No internal strife can touch us either, Paul says, if we identify our lives with the victory of Christ.  His glory is our glory.  “Stand firm in the Lord.”  Because his victory is already accomplished, we need nothing else.  All is accomplished; there is nothing to fight about.

So…  “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 on doing the thing that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Don’t worry.  Focus on the good stuff.

Yes, there is so much that invites us to be worried or anxious, near and far.  Nearby:  We all have personal problems.  Pressures, threats, worries.  But if you put your particular complaints next to Paul’s situation, living on death row as he is, might that put your problems into a different perspective.  Listen to him tell you so robustly from prison, “Rejoice, …and again I say rejoice.  …The Lord is near.  Do not worry about anything.”  If he can say that from prison, can’t we lift our heads up just a bit.

There is also so much to stoke our anxieties in the wider world.  Economic doldrums, perpetual war, a country profoundly divided, climate change, unemployment, deficits, a dearth of leadership.  Yet Paul tells us confidently to “Stand firm in the Lord.”  Don’t be unnerved by these things.  Instead, think about things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable.  If there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  That takes a little discipline.  Discipline of mind and of attention.  It is so easy to forget that “The Lord is near.”

We tend to see what we expect to see.  So much of our experience is influenced by how we interpret it. 

What if we made a conscious choice to think about things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing and commendable?  What if, every time something negative or depressing seeks our attention, we chose instead to look for any excellence, to focus on anything worthy of praise, and to think about these things. 

Paul can do this from death row.  Maybe even harder, he can do this while Euodia and Synthyche are stirring things up.

Is he being false?  Is Paul naïve?  A part of me wants to say, “Maybe so, but so what?”  Is it really better to rail self-righteously against Roman injustice and to stress over family threats and conflicts.  Or to look those same problems in the eye and choose to say, “Rejoice, and again I say rejoice.  The Lord is near.  Do not worry about anything.”

Sometimes when I talk to people this way, as they share their own problems and difficulties with me, somebody will say, “But I don’t even know if I believe ‘The Lord is near.’  I’m not sure if I even believe that there is a God.  How can I be sure?”

For most of us, there is no way to be sure.  How can we know with certainty about things that are essentially mysterious? 

But we will put our trust in something.  Either cynicism or hope.  Our own narrow interests or something greater.

In George MacDonald’s novel Thomas Winfold, Curate, a young priest under duress is trying to decide whether to continue his ministry.  He is living with great external conflict and stress, as he is going through an internal crisis of faith, uncertain whether what he preaches is actually true.  His friend asks him if he is still thinking about giving up his curacy.  Here is the doubting priest’s response:

Even if there be no hereafter, I would live my time believing in a grand thing that ought to be true if it is not.  No facts can take the place of truths, and if these be not truths, then is the loftiest part of our nature a waste.  Let me hold by the better than the actual, and fall into nothingness off the same precipice with Jesus and John and Paul and a thousand more, who were lovely in their lives, and with their death make even the nothingness into which they have passed like the garden of the Lord.  I will go further… and say, I would rather die for evermore believing as Jesus believed, than live for evermore believing as those that deny him.  If there be no God, I feel assured that existence is and could be but a chaos of contradictions, whence can emerge nothing worthy to be called a truth, nothing worth living for. -- No, I will not give up my curacy.  I will teach that which IS good, even if there should be no God to make a fact of it, and I will spend my life on it, in the growing hope, which MAY become assurance, that there is indeed a perfect God, worthy of being the Father of Jesus Christ, and that it was BECAUSE they are true, that these things were lovely to me and to so many men and women, of whom some have died for them, and some would be yet ready to die.[1]

Paul invites us into a way of life that is worth living for, and, he would say to us, worth happily dying for.  Choose to live this way, he tells us.  You can so choose to… rejoice in the Lord always.  The Lord is near.  Do not worry about anything.  Let your gentleness be known.  Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, if there is any excellence or anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.


[1] George MacDonald, Thomas Winfold, Curate, Chapter 75
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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 its life and mission, please contact us at
P.O. Box 1190, Fayetteville, AR 72702, or call 479/442-7373
More sermons are posted on our web site: www.stpaulsfay.org
Visit our web partners at www.explorefaith.org