“Which Life”

16 October 2011 “Which Life” Matthew 22:15-22

It has been a tough past few weeks and months in the world. Disasters natural and man-made alike have filled our newspaper front pages and television and radio airwaves with acts of terror, shootings at work, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, draughts, and wildfires. People have lost their homes, their jobs, their communities and in some cases, their lives.

Ten years ago it was 9/11. Following 9/11, there was war. War still rages on. These past few weeks and months people have been killing one another with bombs and guns. There is great fear in the hearts of many this very moment.
Closer to home, when the hurricanes and the earthquakes and the fires stopped their carnage people turned first to one another for help and then to their governments. Largely the cry to the government was filled with judgment and criticism. In comparison, when we see what our fellow citizens have done, it is not hard to be overcome by their sincere generosity and, in many cases, self sacrifice as they have reached out and offered the only help they could, themselves.
When we hear about the human cost in those places of man made violence, we can only turn to the government for help. The armies are the first to respond during times of war or when insurgents strike innocent people or criminals take matters into their own hands.

In perhaps less obvious ways, we find we respond in similar ways in our day-to-day living. Be it our business at work, our business or interest in the community or our business when at leisure, we turn to the power systems in place for guidance, for help, or influence. How else do we get things done? How else do we know what to do to function safely in this world? There are simply a myriad of systems and processes in place that we must know about and know how to navigate in order to get things done.

If we doubt this, we need look no further than the recent wildfires to see how quickly many lives came to a dangerous stand still when these systems were slow to respond. Those first hours and days in some cases there were no safe shelters, there was no food, no water, people did not have access to medical care, to basic sanitation systems, and when night came all were left vulnerable to the forces that surrounded them.

These truths are real and very, very, frightening. Our sense of absolute vulnerability should be evident. We live on the edge of chaos and don’t realize it until our comfort is shaken by events like these past few weeks and months. Our safety is shaken and all too often we find our sadness is too close to home.
Quickly we recover though, we remember, at our birth we needed help at every level and we received it. But as adults we come to believe we actually have real power and security. It seems that once we have reached a certain age and status we think we can take care of ourselves. If this is our belief, Jesus warns us to be permanently uneasy.

Jesus, we find, was on to something life changing in this morning’s gospel story. After the Pharisees plotted once again to entrap him they asking him, ‘is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not’, Jesus’ answer surprised them, ‘show me the coin used for the tax.’ Being the master at these games of entrapment, Jesus asks, “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.’

Oh how wise and clear. Jesus points to the obvious. Give only to the emperor what the emperor is due. It is implicit in this command that the emperor has been receiving more than the emperor is due. That is still true today.

Give to God the things that are God’s. It is implicit in this command that God has been receiving less than what God is due. Sadly, this too is still the case.
How can this be, that we could possibly be giving more to our real world power sources than they are due and less to what our God is due? There must be a permanent uneasiness in our lives.

We do live in the here and now and our decisions about how we live do affect our lives and the lives of those around us and perhaps even the entire world. We do care, we know there are problems, and we are concerned when people lose so much. It could be us next time, we know that is true. The question then becomes, from where does our help come? Do we turn to Caesar or to God?

Since I have become a pastor it is not uncommon for me to see folk react differently when they discover my vocation. Often one of the first things they will say is, “I grew up going to church and I know I should be better about going now, but I have several really good excuses.” Questioning how they live their lives is the farthest thing from my mind, but implicit in their response is an unspoken feeling of guilt. The other frequent response is silence. I’m not sure which is more unsettling.

You may have heard it yourself when you invite someone to church. “I’m afraid we don’t have time for church,’ they say, ‘we’ve committed to soccer and cheerleading for our kids, we travel a lot, Bob loves his golf and then there is the hunting season. We have a full plate. Maybe in a few years we will find time for church. Right now it’s the kids and our family time.”

We hear in this response that not only have choices been made, they have been justified. Our priority is with the kids and our family time. Choices are made that all too often give to Caesar what rightfully belongs to God.

Jesus’ admonition to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s is a clever response, perhaps one that is appropriate for those of us who have trouble deciding what goes to Caesar and what to God. And we can have that trouble, the lines are not always clear. It is so easy to get caught up in living and the next thing we know life is all about this world and ultimately ourselves.

If we look again at the coin in this story it is clear, the coin was stamped with the image of Caesar. You and I, we often forget, are not created in any human image; we are created in the image of God. It is no simple matter, is it; to yield to God the things that are God’s. Not simple, nor is the price we pay insignificant. Jesus makes it clear, it is our very selves he is asking for, and we are the ones God expects to be rendered.

As Christians we must never forget, we are accountable solely to God for all the gifts we have received. The greatest of course being the gift of love. It is ours and it has come to us from God and we are accountable to God for it. Not so much for how we live in love, but for the way we use the love that has been given to us.
Our permanent uneasiness is real. It is not easy to balance church activities, living the life of Christ day and night, with everything else. We want to do it all. We do not want to sacrifice ‘alone time’, family time, travel time or shopping time. I couldn’t just pick on golfers and hunters without remembering shoppers too!
All too often we give God the balance left over when everything else has been done. God does not deserve the balance left over. God deserves to take first place in our lives.

A few years back I attended a conference on “God in the Workplace.” One of the stated purposes of the conference was to challenge us to not let our Monday-Friday work be at odds with our Sunday call to life-long ministry. In the course of the discussion, there were several important points that stayed with me.

The best being this, a business leader was sharing his frustration with a noted business expert that he found it impossible to organize, let alone accomplish, the multiplicity of priorities in his life. The expert stopped him immediately and challenged his notion of having priorities in life. His message was clear; life is not about having priorities, plural, it is about having a priority, singular. And that priority should be God.

How would that change your Monday-Friday? If your work and home and play life were not about priorities but about priority. If God were your single priority, how then would you give to God what is Gods? Would God then take first place in your life?

Thomas R. Kelly was a Quaker missionary, educator, speaker, writer and scholar. In A Testament of Devotion, he wrote: “We are trying to be several selves at once, without all our selves being organized by a single, mastering Life within us. Each of us tends to be, not a single self, but a whole committee of selves…. And each of our selves is in turn a rank individualist, not cooperative but shouting out his vote loudly for himself when the voting time comes….It is as if we have a chairman of our committee of many selves within us who does not integrate the many into one but who merely counts the votes at each decision, and leaves disgruntled minorities….We are not integrated. We are distraught. We feel honestly the pull of many obligations and try to fulfill them all….Life is meant to be lived from a Center, a divine Center….Most of us, I fear, haven not surrendered all else, in order to attend to the Holy within.”

I am the first to admit, it is not easy to surrender all, to give to God what is God’s. So often we find ourselves consumed by our perceived importance’s. How can we possibly have time for anything else?
Perhaps the worst sin is not to give to Caesar that which ought only to be given to God after all. Perhaps the greatest sin is not to recognize the difference. To fool ourselves into thinking all our busy work is somehow God’s work. Clearly there is a difference. Give to Caesar only what is Caesars, give to God only what is God’s.
I cannot tell you exactly where that line lies. I cannot in every case tell you what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. But God can, if we will only pay attention, God can. Powerfully, lovingly, with grace and a life long commitment, God is revealed to us by God. Especially these past few weeks and months when things have been so tough.

When rescuers came, God was there.
When shelters were opened. God was there.
When volunteers showed up with food, water, clothing and a helping hand and a kind word, God was there.

Wherever there are people who show up during tough times, God has shown up.
When their words are of comfort, and promise and healing, it is God who is speaking.
That is where the line is for those of us who believe. God brings it, God defines it and God reveals it to us, and often as not, through us. Through each of us God reveals God’s love to the world.

And because of this amazing truth, God deserves all we have in return, every bit of us, not just the balance left over.

What in the world is God doing with us here at Genesis Presbyterian Church? God is showing us that line between Caesar and between God. When we step out in ministry to our community, when we bring forth our resources for mission and outreach, when we gather for worship, and especially when we hold one another in our tears, God is here with us.

Let us give to God what is God’s, this church, and us with it.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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