God is At Work

 

Based on Isaiah 64:1-9

            Have you ever wished God would just rip open the sky, come down and fix things? I have. This has been a year. The pandemic, the social unrest, the fires and hurricanes, the economic turmoil, the ugliness of our politics. And it’s not just this year. Honestly, the past several years has been full of upheaval. And it’s not just in our community, or even in America. The whole world is in an upheaval. There is so much going on in the world that is out of whack. We are living in a time where it would be great if God would just come on down here and clean up this mess.

            Of course, it wasn’t the exact same issues when the prophet wrote these words that were read this morning, beginning with that cry, “Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down!” The mess Israel found themselves in was what they found when they returned home from exile in Babylon. They were back home, Jerusalem, to rebuild the city and the temple and do the hard work of bringing Israel back to its glory days of old. But when they got back, they discovered that their rebuilding plans were not going to be easy. There were other gods being worshiped in the land. Other peoples were living there, had established villages and towns, and had their own way of doing things. Israel’s God was not a god recognized by the people living in Palestine when the Israelites returned from exile. It was a different world. And so, the prophet spoke the longings of his people for God to show up and let these people who had moved in who the real god of this land was. The prophet wanted God to shake some mountains, to shake things up, to make a big splash, so that the nations would know that the God of Israel was back.

            They knew what God had done in the past. They remembered the ancient stories that had passed down from generation to generation, of how God came down on Mt. Sinai to give Moses the Ten Commandments, and how the mountain shook in God’s presence. They knew the story of how God sent those plagues against the Egyptians, divided the Red Sea in two so that their ancestors could escape from slavery, and led them through the wilderness as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. They remembered how God drove out the peoples that lived in Canaan, the land God chose to provide for Israel, the land that they were seeking to reclaim after their exile. They carried with them the stories of what God was capable of. It was this God that the prophet wanted to see active again.

            This is not our history. But as Christians we believe that God acted 2000 years ago by becoming a human being, working miracles, healing people, teaching the way that leads to life, and then suffering and dying as a common criminal, executed by the state, only to rise on the third day promising to send the Holy Spirit on all people, promising to be with us always, even to the end of the age, promising that we will also experience resurrection and live with God forever.

            We have heard stories of how the Spirit of God has acted in the world. We have heard how the Spirit has changed the hearts of people, transforming individuals, families, communities, even nations. The church of twelve located in Jerusalem is now the church of billions spread across the globe. God did that. This church exists by the action of God. God has acted in your life and in mine, in small and in big ways. In fact, your very existence is something that God had a hand in. All around us we see the activity of our Creator.

            But it doesn’t seem enough. The world is broken. And we long for God to come and fix this broken world. We want to be hopeful, that it isn’t too late for God to act, to make things right, to bring the nations together, to have a world where there is peace, where every person and community can thrive, where nature is rebalanced and healthy. We want to hope that things can be better than they are, and that God can and will make sure this renewal happens.

            But will God actually rip open the sky and come down? Will we get to the point where God says, “That’s it! I can’t take it anymore! I’m taking matters into my own hands!” How bad does it have to get until God gets to the breaking point and comes down and fixes things?

            This leads to another question. We have been waiting for Jesus to come back for 2,000 years. How bad does it have to get for Jesus to come back? I wonder what people were thinking during the Black Plague when between 1346 and 1353 it is estimated that anywhere from 75 million to 200 million people died throughout Europe and Asia. Monty Python spoofed this by having someone pushing a cart through the village crying out, “Bring out your dead!” But it was no laughing matter. Death was everywhere. Christians in those days were convinced they were living in the end times. It could not have gotten any worse than those years of the Plague. Yet, we are still here. Most, if not all of you who are listening to this message have wished at least once that God would come down here and fix things. It is part of our tradition as Christians to look for that time when Jesus will come in final victory and we will feast at that heavenly banquet. And yet, here we are in the mess.

            When the prophet wrote these words, a few hundred years before Jesus was born, he confronted the issue of why God had not shown up. The prophet said that the sins of the people had prompted God to hide God’s face from them. He said all of the people were unclean. Even their good deeds were like filthy rags. The prophet acknowledged that the messy world they were enduring was the consequence of their own actions.

            The same is true for us. As we look at the mess our world is in, it is impossible to assign blame. We are all complicit. We are all entangled in the mess. The chicken nuggets we buy at McDonalds are the remnants of chickens packed tight in sterile facilities. The cheap clothes we buy at Kohl’s are made by people in Malaysia and Bangladesh who barely make a living wage. The cell phones we carry around have precious metals inside that were mined in questionable safety conditions. So much of what we buy and consume, the conveniences we enjoy, are on the backs of people who suffer indignities and inflict damage to the earth in unsustainable ways. We are all entwined in the mess. As the prophet said all those years ago, we are all unclean. We are all like dried up leaves blown around by the wind.

            Where’s your holiday spirit, Pastor Kevin? We are all under a lot of stress these days and I don’t mean to add to it by reminding us of our complicity in the brokenness of the world. All I’m trying to say is that none of us our pure. We are all compromised. We are all complicit. We are all in need of forgiveness. We are all in this together and bear some responsibility for the mess.

            Here’s the good news. We still belong to God. That’s the other thing the prophet said. “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter…We are your people.” This is our situation: we have all become like one who is unclean and we are the work of God’s hands. What God makes is precious. You and I are precious. But our actions and the consequences of those actions have knocked everything out of kilter. God is still working on us. God is still attempting to reshape us, as a potter works the clay. God is active, not by ripping open the skies and coming down, but in a quieter and mysterious way, within the secret chambers of our hearts.

            This reshaping is helped along when we are honest with ourselves. This season of Advent which we are now entering in to is a good time to take stock of our lives, confess what we need to confess, and turn back to God. We are all so ready to leave 2020 behind. What else do we need to leave behind? As we begin this annual journey of preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we find ourselves longing for God to act in the world, to renew and restore and heal. Let us begin this journey by inviting God to act in our own hearts, to renew and restore and heal us as we move toward the celebration of Christmas.

 

Love Without Limit

 

Based on Matthew 25:31-46

             This is a transition Sunday for us. For about six months, since we celebrated Pentecost, our Sundays have been identified by the number of Sundays since Pentecost. For example, last Sunday was the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost. On this Sunday, we stop keeping track of how many Sundays it has been since Pentecost. We call this Sunday “Christ the King” Sunday. This is a day where we affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord and that one day King Jesus will return and finally establish the reign of God on earth. As Americans, who do not know what it is like to live under the rule of a king, I admit it is a bit difficult to really get what it means to call Jesus our king and our lord. But it is the language that has been handed down to us through the generations, so we try to relate to it the best we can.

            Today’s scripture from Matthew’s gospel was chosen for this Sunday because in it, Jesus is portrayed as the king sitting on his throne with all the nations of the world gathered around him. It fits with the theme of the day. It is also a good passage for today because the way Matthew has laid out his gospel, this passage is the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching ministry. From this point on, Matthew gives the account of Jesus’s passion. So, this scripture marks a transition in Jesus’ ministry on earth, as he moves from being the teacher and the healer into being the one who offers himself for our salvation.

            Often, when preachers or lecturers are getting to the end of their talk, they will say things like “in closing” or “in summary.” They then make that last point or say something that attempts to pull the message or lecture together, tie up the loose ends so that the talk feels complete. Of course, you may still have questions about what was shared. But at least a good summary demonstrates how all the points of the message or lecture fit together. You see how the speaker got from point a, to point b, to point c.

            In the same way, this teaching that Jesus presents in today’s scripture reading serves as a summary. It attempts to communicate the main gist of all of Jesus’ teachings, beginning at the sermon on the mount, to instructions on how members of the community are to relate with each other, to teachings about the authority of Jesus, to what we are supposed to be doing while we wait for the Lord’s return, to now this summary teaching. What Jesus gives us is not a parable. It’s not like a story about a farmer planting seeds or a widow looking for a lost coin. It’s not really an allegory like we have seen where the master represents Jesus and the servants represent disciples. Instead, Jesus gives us a description of a future event. He describes an experience in which, as I said, he is sitting on a throne, all the nations of the world are gathered around him, and he separates all the people in front of him into two groups which are called the sheep and the goats.

            It is easy to get lost in the details of this description and wonder exactly how this will unfold, the whens and the wheres. One part of this story I find particularly baffling is the image of all the nations of the world gathered around him. That must be billions and billions of people, right? Who exactly are they? I also wonder where exactly this judgment scene is taking place. Is it on earth? Is it in the heavens somewhere? I grant you, for a summary statement of Jesus’ teachings this is not exactly the clearest. Jesus doesn’t say, “In summary, point one, point two, point three.” This account of a future judgment does evoke our imagination. It draws us in with its imagery. And I think to spend a lot of time trying to figure out exactly how this goes, the practicalities of exactly how this judgment works, misses the point of what Jesus is trying to say to us. Instead, I believe we need to approach this story allowing Jesus his artistic license as he describes this future event.

            As we reflect on this judgment story it seems the clear point is that how people respond to the least of these, whoever that represents, has ramifications for their future. Specifically, those who tended to the physical and emotional needs of the typically overlooked and neglected in society will inherit the kingdom of God while those who did not care for the needs of the overlooked and marginalized are thrown into the eternal flames with the devil and his angels. It is what people did or did not do that impacts their eternal future.

            For a lot of us, this sounds like works righteousness. We are taught that we are saved by faith and not by works. Jesus died on the cross for our salvation. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins you will be saved. It is a question of belief that determines our salvation. But in this teaching Jesus gives us, there is nothing about belief. On the face of it, our future judgment is not based on what we believe but what we do or do not do. How do we make sense of this? Do we receive eternal life because we confess Jesus as Lord or because we have cared for the least of these?

            I want to get at this issue by focusing on the question that each group, the sheep and the goats, asked after Jesus rendered his judgment. Both groups responded to Jesus’ judgment by asking the same question: “When was it?” Everyone was surprised that they did or did not feed Jesus, clothe Jesus, welcome Jesus and visit Jesus. The sheep were just taking care of people, no matter who they were. The goats imposed a limit on who they cared for. None of them realized that the least of these, whoever that is, Jesus doesn’t say explicitly, was actually Jesus. Or, better, Jesus so completely identified with the least of these that it was as if they were caring for him. I know, it’s a little ambiguous here. Artistic license, remember? The main point is that none of them knew they were ministering to Jesus or neglecting Jesus.

            And that is a good thing that steers clear from works righteousness thinking. See, if they knew that caring for the least of these was like caring for Jesus and doing so would grant them entrance into the kingdom of heaven or disposal into the eternal flames, the temptation would have been to care for the needs of others as a means to an end. To say it in a crass way, they would have cared for the least of these, used them, as a means to inherit the kingdom. If the motive to care for the least of these is so you can get into heaven, that diminishes the integrity of the act. It’s no longer about love. The least of these are treated as objects, as a means to earn a seat at the great banquet. So, it is best that none of them knew. This is such an important part of this story.

            We know what is at the heart of the will of God. You remember when someone asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment and Jesus answered by giving two: love for God and love for neighbor as love for self. Jesus said on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. If you want to boil it down to the essence of God’s will for us it is truly one word…love.

            This judgment scene between the sheep and the goats leads us to this question: where do we set the limit of our love? Apparently, the goats had a limit. It’s not that they didn’t help people. I’m sure that they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and those in prison. But there were some people they overlooked. There were some people whose needs they chose not to respond to. Who are those neglected ones? We don’t know. But Jesus knows them. He knows them so intimately that Jesus identifies himself as them. But when the goats saw these people in need, assuming they even noticed the least of these, they chose not to respond. They turned aside. There was a limit to the expression of their love.

            The sheep had no limits to the expression of their love. If they saw someone in need, it didn’t matter who they were. No labels. They just saw someone in need, they had the capacity to respond, so they did. Their expression of love was limitless. They wasted no energy trying to decide if they should help someone or not. If they had the capacity to respond they did because that’s what love requires. For the sheep, they demonstrated that love was at the core of who they are. The sheep embodied love. It’s that simple.

            What is the summation of Jesus’ teaching? Whatever Jesus taught, it had to be consistent with the will of God. The heart of God’s will is love. This is the heart of Jesus’ teaching. From the sermon on the mount to this description of future judgment, every teaching Jesus gave at its core is about love, love for God, and love for neighbor as love for self. It really is that simple.

            We are in a transitional time of year. We are transitioning into Advent, our four week preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We are transitioning into winter as the nights get longer and the air gets colder. We are transitioning into potentially the worst part of the pandemic when, God forbid, our hospitals could get filled up, elective surgeries put off, thousands more get sick, and perhaps thousands die. We are transitioning into a season that combines longing and hope, grief and joy, sadness and delight, loss and wonder.

            Our challenge as we transition into these next several weeks is to love others without limit. Not so we can get to heaven. Not so at the last judgment we get to be sheep and not goats. We strive to love without limit because love is the essence of who we are as creatures made in the image and likeness of God. We are made for love. By the grace of God, let us be the ones who love without limit as we move through this present darkness.

 

What Motivates You?

 

Based on Matthew 25:14-30

            The parable of the talents is a fascinating story. It is the second of three stories Jesus tells in this section of Matthew that have a focus on the time between when Jesus leaves the earth and when Jesus returns to establish the reign of God on the earth. Last week’s story was the parable of the ten bridesmaids. We considered what it means to be prudent during this long delay of Jesus’ return. We spend our time now getting ready by living righteous lives. The third story in this series, which we will look at next week, is about the final judgment, that well known scene where people are separated like sheep and goats and what you have done for the least of these you have done to Jesus.

            This week’s story is on the parable of the talents in which three servants are given different amounts of money to manage while the master is away for a long time. Often this story is turned into an allegory. The master is Jesus. His being gone a long time reflects the delayed return of Jesus. The servants are disciples. The talents could be spiritual gifts or skills. It is unclear exactly what the talents are supposed to represent. At the end of the story, the master, Jesus, returns and holds the servants, his disciples, to account for what they have done with what the master has given them. This perhaps symbolizes the final judgement. What the servants did or did not do is either rewarded or punished. The moral of the story is that we need to use the gifts and abilities God has given us to serve God in the world. If we hide those abilities and not serve God with them, we will lose those abilities and be held accountable. That’s basically how this story is usually talked about in sermons. This is often a go to passage for Stewardship Sunday, as you can imagine.

            As we look at this story again, I want to focus on the motivation and actions of the three servants. I believe this is the heart of this story. I want to set aside what this story may be trying to say about Jesus and his role as a judge. I also want to get away from wondering why one of the servants got five talents and why the last servant only got one talent. We are going to avoid trying to figure out exactly what the talents are supposed to represent or what trading money in the marketplace has to do with being a disciple. I want us to instead look at what really separated the first two servants from the last servant. What separated them was not the amount of money they were given to manage but what motivated them and the actions that followed their motivation. If we focus on that, I find this story has something important to say to us in these times we find ourselves.

            The first two servants were motivated by faithfulness. The master was going away for a long time. He had confidence in his servants to manage his money while he was gone. He gives them a lot of money to manage. As you may recall, one talent is equivalent to what a common day laborer would make over fifteen years. So, five talents are equivalent to seventy-five years of labor. Most people would never earn five talents in their whole lives. So that is a substantial amount of money. Two talents are a lot of money. Even one talent is a significant amount. The first two servants receive that money and are motivated by faithfulness. They are motivated to honor the faith that the master has put in them.

            Now, notice this. The master does not give any instructions on what the servants are supposed to do with the money. He just gives them the money and hits the road. Each servant has to make a decision about what they will do with the money they have been given. The first two servants, motivated by their faithfulness, wanting to honor the faith their master placed in them, take the initiative and follow the example of their master. See, the reason why their master has all this money in the first place is because, as we see in verse 24, he reaps where he does not sow and gathers where he did not scatter seed. In other words, he is an investor. He provides the capital the farmers need to grow their crops and expects to get his cut from what they produce. That’s how he grew his wealth. His servants watched and learned what their master did, how he handles his business. So, the first two servants take the initiative to do what their master would do. They put the money to work, exposing it to potential risk, with the goal of doubling that money. That’s how they honored the faith their master had put in them. They did what their master would do. Motivated by faithfulness, the servants took the initiative, took on the potential risk, with the hope that they would make their master proud, so they could demonstrate to their master that he was right to put his faith in them.

            The third servant, however, was motivated by fear. He was afraid of what might happen if he put that money to work and he lost it all. What if he let his master down? What if the faith the master had put in him was misplaced? He was paralyzed by fear. So, what he decided to do was to protect that money. He decided to bury it in the ground where it would be safe. That way, when the master came back, the servant could give him the money back. Safe and secure. Motivated by fear, fear of the master, the servant’s fear of his own lack of ability, he took the route of burying the money for safe keeping. Risk free.

            That’s the thing about fear. When we are motivated by fear, we seek to minimize risk. For anyone who has experience with investing, especially if you are working with an investment advisor, one of the first questions asked is about what your risk tolerance is. An investment advisor might say to you, “OK, you have this money that you are not going to need for ten years and you want to invest it in the market. With a range from very aggressive to very conservative, where would you be willing to place your investments and still be able to sleep at night?” It is a question about how much risk you are willing to take. If you take on more risk than you are comfortable with, that gets into fear mode. You would be so afraid that you won’t sleep well at night. That’s just one example. Fear as a motivation tends to get us acting in ways that conserve, that circles the wagons, that closes in and seals off. Motivated by fear, the third servant acted accordingly by avoiding risk and, frankly, not doing anything except bury the money and then go on with his life.

            Of course, when the master gets back and finds out what the third servant has done he is furious. It’s not even so much that the servant didn’t make him any money. I think the master was mostly disappointed because that servant did not follow his example. All this time the servant had been watching how the master worked with his money. He watched the master go about his business. The master gave this servant an opportunity to do what he did, to follow the example he had set, to take the initiative with the associated risks. I can imagine that if the third servant had followed his master’s example and ended up losing all the money, that the master would have been disappointed but, hey, it goes with the territory. At least the servant tried. He followed the example of his master. He did the right things. We don’t control the results, especially when it comes to investing. Fear did this servant in. The master was not sympathetic.

            Were the first two servants fearful? Were they afraid of what might happen if they lost the money through their investments? Apparently not. Or at least whatever fear they may have had was overridden by their gratitude that their master had placed his confidence in them to do what he would do. They were honored by what the master had entrusted to them and they wanted to do their master proud by following his example and doing what he did, in spite of whatever anxiety they were likely feeling. They were on their own, after all. They had to take the initiative. They had to put in the work. They had to do the things and take on the risk. But their faithfulness to their master was the overriding motivation that got them out there to do what their master taught them to do. If fear motivates us to turn inward, conserve and protect, faithfulness motivates us to be engaged, get out there and do what we need to do.

            What is your motivation these days? If you had to choose your main motivation in your day to day living between faithfulness and fear, which would you choose? Motivational speakers sometimes get a bad rap. They can be the butt of jokes. Many years ago, on Saturday Night Live there used to be that bit where the fictional character Stuart Smalley would give these daily affirmations. He would start his bit looking in the mirror saying, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog gone it, people like me.” But even though they are being spoofed, the truth is that what motivates us does matter. Fear is a powerful motivation. But so is love. You are loved. You are precious to God. God has given you your life. God has faith in you, that you can live your life after the example that Jesus has set for us. Yes, it takes initiative. Yes, there is risk. But you can live your life in a way that honors the faith that God has placed in you. You can live a life that is faithful to God. Even with the anxiety and stress that you are carrying in these anxious and stressful times, you can and are being faithful.

            I want to encourage you today to keep at it. Keep striving, every day, to live your life motivated by faithfulness, faithful to the way of Jesus, confident in God’s faithfulness. Keep living a faith filled life with confidence that the day will come when you will hear spoken into your life, “Enter into the joy of your master.”

 

Are You Prepared?

 

Based on Matthew 25:1-13

            The Boy Scout Motto is “be prepared.” That is a good motto to live by. Although we don’t always know when things will happen, we do know what can or will happen. We will get sick or have significant health issues at some point in our lives. We will retire. We will die. The stock market will go up and down. There is always a possibility that there will be a blizzard, or a fire that could destroy your house, or an auto accident. The prudent thing to do before any of these events occur is to be prepared to deal with them when and if they happen.

            Boards of election across the nation have been preparing for an historic voter turn-out, especially when it came to early voting and mail-in voting. For months they have been getting staffed up, building up the needed infrastructure, to handle all those ballots in the most efficient way possible to get out an accurate vote count so that the will of the American people could be heard. It has been frustrating for many of us who were hoping to know by Tuesday night who was going to be the next president. Imagine if those boards of elections, especially in the states where the vote is so close, had not been prepared to deal with all those mail-in ballots. I think we should be grateful that they were prepared and are getting the job done. Preparing for all those mail-in ballots was definitely the prudent thing to do.

            Above my desk at home is a cork board where I have different things pinned with thumb tacks. One of those things is a piece of paper that is a Disaster Preparedness Calendar from the Red Cross. It provides a 24 week plan. For each week there is a list of things for you to buy at the grocery store or the hardware store and a few action steps. If you follow the calendar, your family will be prepared for any kind of natural disaster that could happen. That calendar has been pinned to that cork board for years. I glance up at it from time to time and say to myself, “I need to do this, get started on this.” But I haven’t started. I think to myself that I’m going to regret not having followed this calendar if we have a big blizzard or something else happens and we will have to shelter in place at the house for a week. I’m not taking the time I have now to get ready for the potential disaster. I’m being foolish because I am wasting this time and not getting prepared.

            The parable of the ten bridesmaids is about being prepared. Prepared for what? In the story they are waiting for the bridegroom to come, so that they can escort him to the house of the bride, where the wedding and the party will take place. Their job is to light the way. But they don’t know when the bridegroom will make his appearance. The prudent thing is to be prepared with extra oil so that they will have functioning lamps when the bridegroom shows up so they can do their job.

            Of course, this story is an allegory that points to something else. For us, this story is about our being prepared for the return of Jesus and the establishment of the reign of God. This is part of our tradition, the belief that Jesus will come back some day. Every time we have communion, we declare the mystery of our faith, “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” We don’t know when Christ will return. But we do know that he will. Our task is to be ready, to be prepared for his return. How do we get prepared? This story of the ten bridesmaids gives us some clues.

            In this story, we are told that five were foolish and five were wise, or better prudent. We are told right up front why half of them were foolish and the other half were prudent. The foolish ones did not bring flasks of oil to refill their lamps if needed. The prudent ones were prepared. They brought extra oil with them just in case the bridegroom was delayed. They knew that was a possibility so they wanted to make sure they could do their job and escort the bridegroom into the house where the wedding would take place. Whether or not the foolish bridesmaids considered this possibility or not, they were not prepared.

            The question for us is, what does the oil represent? We get a clue at the end of the story. In the middle of the night, while the bridesmaids were asleep, they hear the shout that the bridegroom has arrived. The bridesmaids trim their lamps but the foolish ones have run out of oil and there isn’t enough extra that the prudent bridesmaids can share. So, the foolish ones are told to go buy some real fast. Good luck with that since it’s the middle of the night. But, in desperation, the foolish ones run off to go see if they can maybe find someone they can buy oil from. While they are off hunting in vain, the prudent bridesmaids escort the bridegroom to the house and they all go in to enjoy the wedding and the party after. The foolish bridesmaids, likely still without any oil, stumble in the dark to the house where the wedding is taking place. They knock on the door and say, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.”

            We have heard this before. If we go back to Matthew 7:22-23 we read this:

 

On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you.”

 

Why did Jesus not know these people who called him Lord and did all kinds of miraculous healings and spoke prophecies? It would seem that since they are doing these powerful things in Jesus’ name that they would be known by Jesus, right? But Jesus says in vs. 21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Jesus knows only those who do God’s will. You may be wondering how is it possible that Jesus only knows those who do God’s will since Jesus died for everyone. How is it that Jesus doesn’t know somebody? Still, the point that is trying to be made here is that doing God’s will is necessary to enter into the kingdom of God. This is what Jesus is teaching. Those who fail to do God’s will are left out. That may sound harsh. But there are consequences for not doing God’s will and that’s what Jesus is trying to stress here.

            So, going back to that question about what the oil stands for. The foolish bridesmaids lacked oil and they were left out of the wedding. There are a few other stories in Matthew where a wedding is a symbol of the kingdom of God. So, by being left out of the wedding, the bridesmaids are being symbolically left out of the kingdom of God. They are being left out because, based on Matthew 7, they did not do the will of God. That’s why the Lord did not know them. Their failure to do God’s will is symbolized by their lack of oil. The prudent bridesmaids who brought oil with them are those who did God’s will. The oil represents doing God’s will, doing the right thing, being righteous.

            One more thing I want to say about this story. It is likely that Matthew’s church struggled with the question of why Jesus had not come back yet. This was a big question for the earliest Christians. They thought that Jesus would be coming back soon to establish God’s reign on the earth. But the first generation of Christians were starting to die off. They were wondering what the delay was. This story helped address that question. Yes, the bridegroom Jesus is delayed. We thought Jesus would be coming back soon but that does not appear to be the case. What should we be doing while we wait? Get ready. Be prepared. That’s the message to Matthew’s church. The last line of the story is, “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” By keep awake is meant be ready, be prepared. We look back at the story and see that all the bridesmaids fell asleep. So, by saying “keep awake” that does not mean we can’t go to sleep, obviously. The point is that the followers of Jesus need to be prepared and ready to welcome Jesus on his return. And the way to be ready, to be prepared, is to have extra oil. And that oil is the doing of God’s will. To be prepared is to be about doing the will of God.

            Two-thousand years later, we are still waiting. Our task is the same as those first and second generation Christians who really believed they would see Jesus again in their lifetimes. We don’t know the reason for the delay. We would be forgiven if we drew the conclusion that maybe Jesus isn’t coming back, or not coming back in the way we thought he was coming back. Still, our tradition teaches us that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. We believe that the Lord will return some day and will finally establish the reign of God on the earth. In the meantime, we wait. And we use the time we have to get ready, to be prepared for the Lord’s return. As the first Christians a few thousand years ago, so we strive to live our lives guided by the will of God. If you are wondering what that is, Jesus revealed it in his sermon on the mount. That sermon in Matthew 5-7 is what we need to know and live to be prepared.

            It is prudent for those of us who are working to save and invest for our future retirement. It is prudent to have homeowners insurance in case your house catches fire. It is prudent to have supplies on hand and a backup generator if you are out of power for a few days or stuck inside because there’s six feet of snow blocking your front door. But most of all it is prudent to be prepared for the return of the Lord by doing the Lord’s will in your daily life. It’s not about working miracles, healing people, speaking prophecies, any of that. It’s not about looking for signs and trying to predict when the Lord will arrive. It’s about living your life as Jesus taught us to live.

            Somebody once was visiting a monastery and walked past a monk who was working a garden plot with his hoe. The man asked the monk, “If you knew for sure that Jesus was coming back today, what would you be doing right now?” And the monk replied, “I would be hoeing this garden.” He was prepared. He was doing God’s will. He knew Jesus and was assured that Jesus knew him. Are you prepared?

 

How Fortunate We Are

 

Based on Matthew 5:1-12

            All Saints Day is our version of Memorial Day. It is the one day a year when we as a community of faith remember, not just those who have passed away since last All Saints Day, but all who have passed away since the church began. But not only that. All Saints Day invites us to call to mind all throughout time who have passed into the fullness of God’s presence. If we go back and look at Hebrews 11, the author speaks of the faith of Abraham, of Moses, of Rahab, Samson, David, of men and women whose names are known only to God. This great assembly that stretches back thousands of years are called in Hebrews 12:1 a great cloud of witnesses. These are the saints, the untold millions, billions, countless number of witnesses who surround us. It is these saints, our ancestors in the faith, that we memorialize today.

            All Saints Day is the day we memorialize all the saints, the community of saints, the great cloud of witnesses, who have gone before us. As I think about this image of the great cloud of witnesses, I am reminded of a story I once heard of this man who went to visit a well known Russian Orthodox Church somewhere. The building was massive. For those that are familiar with what the sanctuary of an Orthodox church looks like, this sanctuary was other-worldly. The icons, the ornate tile work, the candelabra. But as the man entered the sanctuary for worship in this famous, well known church, there were a few elderly women in the pews, the priest and a deacon. The sanctuary was virtually empty. After the service was over, the man introduced himself to the priest and expressed his gratitude for the beautiful service. Then he asked, “How does it feel to be offering up the liturgy in such a large space with so few people in attendance?” The priest laughed and said, “What do you mean, just a few people?” We are surrounded by a mighty cloud of witnesses. When we gather for worship, we are joined by the angels and archangels and the mighty throng of the church triumphant.” I know that for some they look at the Orthodox church a bit askance because when you enter the sanctuary you see icons everywhere. In the front, along the sides, on the ceiling. You are literally surrounded by the icons, images of saints, of Mary, of Jesus. Perhaps this is off putting to some. But especially on All Saints Day, it makes sense to be in a space surrounded by icons. It is a visual reminder that when we gather for worship, whether the gathered space is filled with icons, bare walls, or even in a living room or out in the woods, we are surrounded by a mighty cloud of witnesses, the saints who have gone before us. This is the day to remind ourselves of this truth.

            As we remember all those who have gone before us, our ancestors in the faith, we also recognize today that we too are part of that community of saints. I know that in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox churches there is a process in which a person is vetted and, in time, may be officially declared a saint. As an aside, you may have heard that a few weeks ago, the Roman Catholic Church beatified Carlo Acutis, who died at the age of 15 in 2006. Beatification is the first step toward sainthood, making Carlo the first of the millennial generation to potentially become a saint. I understand why this is done. Those who are declared saints serve as role models for the rest of us. They are looked to as those who embodied the best of what it means to be a Christian. In this light, saints are like Christian heroes.

            But the truth is that all of us who have responded to the invitation to follow Jesus and be a disciple are saints. You and I, right now, are saints and we belong to the community of saints. Belonging to the community of saints is not reserved for after you are dead. We belong to that community now.

            What is a saint, anyway? We find a definition in Rom. 1:6-7, where Paul speaks of those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, God’s beloved and called to be saints. These phrases are all synonymous and point to our calling to be distinct from those who do not belong to Jesus, that is, those who do not follow the way of Jesus. A saint is someone who follows Jesus. A saint is another word for disciple. We often think of saints as great, holy figures. But in the broadest meaning of the term, a saint is a follower of Jesus Christ. If you understand yourself to be a follower of Jesus, that makes you a saint…warts and all. The community of Jesus followers is the community of saints. That’s our community.

            What does the community of saints look like? What are its characteristics? This is where today’s scripture reading comes in. The beatitudes of Matthew 5 give us a glimpse of what the community of saints looks like, both in this world and in the world to come. The beatitudes name current reality and then describe a future promise that can be trusted because the one who speaks these beatitudes is Jesus, the very Word of God. These beatitudes cover the community of saints of this current time and of the future promise that we expect to experience fully when we die and enter into what is sometimes called the church triumphant, that mighty cloud of witnesses that currently surround us and are now experiencing the promise we find in the beatitudes.

            There are two quick points I want to make about the beatitudes. One is that these beatitudes describe a community, not individual disciples. What I mean is, we should not read the beatitudes as a description of an individual disciple. In any given moment, you are not all at once poor in spirit, mourning, peacemaking, meek, and merciful 24/7. You are sometimes expressing some of these characteristics. But no one person is all these things at the same time, all the time. But, if we look at the community of saints as a whole throughout the earth, we will absolutely see these characteristics expressed. The beatitudes describe a community, not individual disciples.

            The second point is that the beatitudes are gospel. They are good news, an expression of hope. When you look at them, they tend to move from struggle to relief. For example, there is movement from being poor in spirit to possessing the reign of God, from mourning to being comforted, from hungering and thirsting for righteousness to being filled. It’s this movement from a tough current reality to a future promise of comfort, fulfillment, salvation. The beatitudes are an expression of a hopeful future. And it is this hopeful future that allows us to proclaim our current blessedness. This phrase “blessed are” could also be “fortunate are.” Fortunate are the peacekeepers because they will be called children of God. It is the future promise that makes our current position one of being fortunate, in spite of the current suffering that we from time to time have to endure.

            And this gets me to the next thing I want to say. As I look over these beatitudes, I am particularly drawn to two of them. In these times in which we live, two of these beatitudes really resonate with me and I think they resonate with you as well.

            The first one is, blessed are those who mourn. We have a lot to mourn over these days. Today we mourn over those family and friends who have died this past year. We mourn over the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to Covid. We mourn over the continuing divisions and polarization in our society, how some of us have lost friendships or seen family ties strained over this political divide. We mourn the loss of civility. We mourn over the lives cut short due to gun violence or drug overdose. There is so much these days that we can mourn about. And we are fortunate that we can mourn. Fortunate are those who mourn. We are fortunate to belong to a community that values mourning, lamenting, grieving. I know what it’s like to be surrounded by my church family when I was grieving the loss of my mother. I had the space I needed to be sad and to take my time to process my grief. And often I thought to myself, how do people get through their grief without the church? We are fortunate to have a community where we can mourn. We are fortunate, because Jesus has declared that we will be comforted. We experience a taste of that comfort in this life and can be assured of our comfort in the life to come.

             The second beatitude that resonates with me is this one: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Righteousness means doing the right thing. Another word for that is justice. That really speaks to me in these days. Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for justice. This year has revealed so much injustice. One example: when we moved into shut down mode earlier this year as the pandemic erupted, we discovered who are the essential workers and who are non-essential. And as it turns out, a lot of those non-essential workers are quite well compensated while quite a few essential workers barely make ends meet from paycheck to paycheck. The officer that shot and killed Breonna Taylor as she lay in her bed will face one charge, reckless endangerment, because some of the bullets he shot hit another apartment. He will not be held accountable for killing Breonna Taylor. For many of us, this appears to be unjust. We hunger for a just society free of racism, sexism, all the -isms, where every child has equal opportunity to thrive regardless of what zip code they live in, where people are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. We hunger and thirst for justice. And it is fortunate that we do. We are fortunate because that hunger and thirst for justice is what motivates us to be engaged, to speak up, to demand more. And we are fortunate because Jesus has promised that we will be filled. We will experience a taste of justice in this life even as we are promised to experience the fullness of justice in the life to come.

            Fortunate are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, for they will be filled. Our current reality is marked by mourning and by longing for justice, for people and institutions to do the right thing. We are a global community of saints in which many of us are mourning and longing for justice. These are the times we are living in.

            And we are fortunate to be living in these times. We are fortunate that we live in these times as a community of saints. As we mourn, we comfort each other. As we long for justice, we practice justice together as a community. But above all else, we have the promise of God spoken through Jesus. In these days and in the days to come, both in this life and the next, we will be comforted, we will be filled. We are fortunate because we have hope for a better future. Of this future hope we can be certain because God has spoken it into existence. And there is a great cloud of witnesses that can vouch for that promise because they are currently experiencing it.

 

Have the Conversation

 

Based on Matthew 22:34-46

            It’s a strange question to ask. Today’s scripture reading marks the end of a section in Matthew’s gospel where Jesus and the religious leaders have a public confrontation. Starting off by questioning Jesus’ authority, they go back and forth. The chief priests and Pharisees try to trap Jesus in questions to make him look bad and diminish him. But Jesus turns it around by asking them questions and telling them stories that forces them to condemn themselves by their own words. We get to the end of the confrontation. Jesus has come out on top in every argument. I guess we would suspect that they are going to ask one last zinger they have been saving up to finish Jesus off. So, what question do they ask? A lawyer among the Pharisees steps forward and asks Jesus, “Which commandment is the greatest?”

            Of all the questions Jesus was asked in this series of confrontations, this one is a softball. How is this a trick question? It is obvious what is the greatest commandment. Everyone knows this. It is the commandment that every pious Jew recites at least once a day. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Here in Matthew’s gospel, for some reason, the word “might” is exchanged for “mind.” Maybe that is done to suggest that this is a commandment that calls for the whole person, heart, mind, and soul, is to be engaged in love for God. Everyone knows this is the first and greatest commandment.

            It makes you wonder. Did they think Jesus was going to give some kind of off-the-wall response to such a simple and straightforward question? It makes me wonder if at this point they have just given up. They just throw a question out just to ask one. It’s just a strange question to ask when they are trying to undermine Jesus’ authority.

            But Jesus doesn’t let this easy question go to waste. He gives the answer that everyone already knows. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with all our being. Then Jesus goes further. He says that there is another commandment that is like the first in importance. We are to also love our neighbor as ourselves. Scholars have looked and looked and have yet to find anywhere in Jewish writings where love of God and love of neighbor are connected the way Jesus does it here. What we have in Matthew 22:37-40 is a new teaching that the Pharisees and the crowd had not considered before. They knew the command to love God. They knew the command to love the neighbor as you love yourself. That’s in Leviticus 19:18. But never before had these two commands been connected in this way.

            Specifically, Jesus says that the second commandment of loving your neighbor is like the first commandment of loving God. By “like” is to mean “equivalent to.” The two commands are equal in importance. They are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. To do one, you do the other. To love God, you love your neighbor. To love your neighbor, you love God. They go hand in hand. This is the new teaching that Jesus gives here. This, by the way, is a teaching that gets further development in 1 John 4:20-21:

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from Jesus is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

           As followers of the way of Jesus, central to that way is to live out this teaching: we love God by loving our neighbor. We love our neighbor by loving God.

            Speaking of love, we affirm that Jesus lived a perfect life of love. Everything he did when he walked the earth was motivated by love for God and love for the world. Jesus is love in the flesh. The way of Jesus is the way of love. I think we all would agree with that.

            Yet, Jesus had rivals. Just because Jesus lived a perfect life of love did not mean that everyone loved him back. As we have seen over the past few weeks, his way of life was seen as a threat to the authority of the chief priests and the Pharisees. Not everyone chose to believe in and follow Jesus. There were those who resisted Jesus and wanted no part of him. The one who is love incarnate had enemies that saw to it that he suffered and died on a cross. Just by observing how people responded to the way of love that Jesus walked, we see that this way of life can be perceived as a threat by some. Not everyone gets it. And the resistance can be extreme.

            So, if Jesus is love incarnate, the one who perfectly loves God and his neighbor, how did Jesus respond to his accusers, the chief priests and Pharisees? He had to respond motivated by love. Jesus loved the chief priests and Pharisees. We must not overlook this. The crowd needed to recognize this. Matthew’s church needed to recognize this. Hopefully the chief priests and Pharisees were able to recognize this. Jesus did not hate anyone. He did not hate them. He loved them. He loved those who publicly called him out and sought to undermine him, and eventually have him killed.

            How did Jesus express love to those chief priests and Pharisees? He did not say, “Hey, let’s agree to disagree” to avoid the confrontation. He didn’t blow them off by saying, “I don’t have time for this. You do you and I’ll do me.” Obviously, he didn’t get his disciples together to wait until the chief priests or the Pharisees were alone so they could beat them up and threaten them. When Jesus was confronted by those chief priests and Pharisees, people whom Jesus loved perfectly, he engaged by asking questions and telling stories that got to the deeper issue. Last week was a great example. The question about paying taxes to Caesar was not really about taxes. The deeper issue was, what is owed to Caesar and what is owed to God. Through his questions and little stories, Jesus was trying to get the chief priests and Pharisees to realize on their own where they were getting things wrong. I will grant you, Jesus called them hypocrites. That goes to show that you can love someone and also call them out. But Jesus was not about trying to humiliate them or to best them in some debate to boost his ego or make him look better before the crowd like this was some kind of blood sport. Jesus responded to his opponents in a way that could potentially convert them, to come to an understanding that Jesus really was the messiah. Jesus was trying to get them to see who he really was so that they too would believe in him and follow his way of life, to become his disciples.

            What can we learn from this when we find ourselves in confrontations with others? We all have people in our lives we have issues with. None of us can get along with everybody. There are various reasons for this. Personalities clash. Jealousy or envy can get in the way. Stereotypes or bad first impressions can set up a roadblock in a relationship. Deeply held beliefs sometimes create what we call irreconcilable differences. There are all kinds of reasons why, as we go along in life, we have confrontations with people and maybe even pick up an enemy or two.

            It’s unrealistic to expect when we find ourselves in a heated discussion or argument that we will be able to come up with the perfect question or have a great story like Jesus could. How many times after an argument with someone and you are replaying the argument in your head and you think to yourself, “Ah! I should have said…” We come up with all kinds of great come-back lines long after the fight is over. Some people have a knack for debate and making good arguments on the fly. But to be able to ask great questions or tell probing stories like Jesus could? We should not expect to be able to do that.

            But what we can do is to engage in the argument. Easier said than done. I for one am wired to avoid conflict. I’m the kind of person who wants to rush to agreement or fall into the “agree to disagree” move that avoids deeper engagement with the issue at hand. Is that always what love requires? This is the issue when we find ourselves in a situation where there is a disagreement or some kind of personal conflict. Love for the person you have the conflict with challenges us to find ways to engage with that person so that there can be some kind of back and forth conversation. Not rushing to agree to disagree. Not blowing it off and saying, “you do you and I’ll do me.” Not calling names or getting verbally or even physically aggressive, obviously. Love challenges us to engage in an attempt to go to the deeper issue.

            Even though we can’t ask great questions in the heat of the argument like Jesus could or tell amazingly rich little stories that leaves everyone pondering the deeper issue, we do have for us a guide on how to engage with those who are against us, whatever that means in the situation. But before getting into that, we need to go back to those commandments: love God, love neighbor. To engage with opponents as Jesus did, the prerequisite is love. Can you honestly say that you love the person you are having a problem with? And, again, love is not a feeling or emotion. Love is an act of the will. Love is to desire the well-being of the other and the willingness to contribute to that well-being. It seems to me that before any of us can engage with our opponents the way Jesus did there has to be a commitment to love. If it’s not there, it becomes too easy to tell each other off or use any other method to avoid the conflict. And even then, it’s hard. Hardly anyone enjoys conflict and most of us try to avoid it by any means necessary, especially toward those we love. The point is that Jesus was committed to loving God and neighbor. Love for God and neighbor was the central motivation of his life. For us to follow the way of Jesus, that commitment to love God and neighbor needs to be there.

            When you are engaged in some kind of confrontation, ask questions. Be curious. I know it had to be so annoying to Jesus’ opponents but almost every time they asked him a question, he would throw it back at them with another question. But that’s how conversations get going. When you get into an argument, try to respond first by asking a question.

            Keep the conversation going by telling stories. Again, they probably won’t be deep and profound like the stories Jesus told. But tell stories about your own life experiences. Tell stories about how you came to hold the opinion you have. Tell your story. Make it personal. Try to get your opponent to tell their story. Telling each other stories, sharing from personal experiences, can take a confrontation to a much deeper level that can draw out something good, even transformative.

            But don’t forget this: even Jesus couldn’t convince the chief priests and Pharisees that he was the messiah. So, it is foolish to think that we can “win” our opponents over to our side or way of seeing things or whatever. It could happen. But don’t feel bad if the two of you walk away still not seeing eye to eye or even still on bad terms. Let’s face it. There are some people we just don’t want to be around. And asking questions of each other and telling our stories isn’t going to change that. There is truth in the old saying that strong fences make good neighbors. That’s just part of the human experience. At some point you and your opponent will have to settle with agreeing to disagree.

            The main thing though is having the conversation. If you get to the point of agreeing to disagree after the conversation; after asking questions and telling stories, then that’s fine. You were engaging from a place of love for your opponent, someone who is loved by God. You honored that person’s dignity as one who bears the image of God. The engagement in conversation motivated by love for God and the person you are having the conversation with, that’s what love requires.

 

What Does God Require?

 

Based on Matthew 22:15-22

            For most of us, the subject of taxes stirs up some emotion. We understand that taxes are necessary to pay for public services that we all need and enjoy. The military who protect us have expenses that need covered. Police and fire fighters and school teachers need paid. Roads aren’t constructed for free. We all get that. But it’s still taxes. It’s a necessary obligation, not something most of us pay with excitement. And when we hear of people or businesses that use current tax laws to get out of paying what we think is their fair share that can tik a lot of us off. What I’m trying to say is, when it comes to taxes, none of us are joyful or excited about the subject. When you get a letter from the IRS, the response is likely that of your stomach getting tied in knots and your blood pressure spiking. More often than not, we find the subject of taxes to be annoying, stressful or sometimes a topic that makes us angry.

            In the days of Jesus and of Matthew’s church, taxes brought a different kind of burden. Judea was a land occupied by Rome. The taxes in those days didn’t just fund public works. It helped to fund the infrastructure of their oppression. When Caesar imposed his power on Judea, any expenses incurred would not come from Caesar’s treasury. It came from the oppressed population. You can imagine how the people disdained the tax because they knew what it was being used for. They despised that symbol of oppression that funded their oppression. As a matter of fact, the uprising that led to the destruction of Jerusalem was sparked in part by the shared disdain for that tax, in the same vein as the Boston Tea Party tax revolt in our own nation’s history.

            It is this hot button issue about paying taxes that the Pharisees present to Jesus. They know that by asking Jesus this question about whether it is lawful or not to pay taxes that it’s going to get the crowd’s attention and that the crowd already shares an opinion about this tax. But the question they ask is particularly tricky. They did not ask, “Is the tax we pay to Caesar fair.” They did not ask, “Is the tax we pay to Caesar right and just.” Instead, they ask, “Is paying the tax to Caesar lawful.” Which law? Roman Law? God’s Law? They don’t specify. That’s part of the trap question.

            To make it more interesting, the Pharisees bring along with them a group of Herodians. Why did they bring them and where did they come from? This is the only time they show up in the gospel of Matthew. The Herodians were a political group that represented the house of Herod to the Roman government. Herod, while not technically a king, was a royal figure that had been placed on that throne by Caesar. Herod’s rule, if you can call it that, was dependent on Caesar. Thus, the Herodians were supportive of the Roman occupation and, by extension, of the Caesar’s tax on the population.

            It wouldn’t take a genius to know this is a trap when the Pharisees bring along the Herodians to ask Jesus a question about taxes. It’s also one of the reasons why Jesus calls out the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. See, the Pharisees as a whole shared the common resentment toward that tax. By no means were they boosters of the Roman occupation. Yet, in this attempt to make Jesus look bad, they bring along with them representatives of a political group that are strong supporters of that very tax they despise. Not only did Jesus see the hypocrisy, surely the crowd did as well. It causes the Pharisees to come across as desperate and even pathetic, trying to use the Herodians to get Jesus to say openly what the Pharisees would not dare to say but actually believed, that this tax representing their oppression is illegitimate.

            We are all amazed at the answer Jesus gives to their question. As usual, when Jesus is asked a question he turns it around and asks the accusers a question. But first he has one of them, or maybe one of the Herodians are carrying one around, the coin that has to be offered once a year by every person in Judea to cover that tax. The coin, worth one denarius, has the engraved image of the Caesar on it. Inscribed on the coin was the phrase “Tiberius Caesar, the divine and august son of Augustus.” For a pious Jew, this coin reeked of blasphemy. If one of the Pharisees was carrying one of those coins around it only heighten the level of their hypocrisy.

            Of course, Jesus doesn’t give a simple “yes” or “no” answer. He never does. Instead, he gives an answer that forces everyone to reflect, ponder and consider the deeper issue involved. However, he indirectly affirms paying the tax. The coin is Caesar’s property. He is entitled to possess his coins. The despised Herodians were certainly satisfied with Jesus’ response. But Jesus also says that we are to give to God what belongs to God. That is a response that the Pharisees would certainly agree with. So, in the end, both groups get a response they could affirm. That’s partly why the Pharisees were amazed at his answer. And disappointed. They surely were hoping that Jesus would say something that would give the impression that paying the tax was wrong, which the Herodians could then take back to their superiors and have Jesus arrested for sedition. Or he could say something that gives the impression that paying the tax is lawful and that would cause the crowd to think a bit less of Jesus. Instead, Jesus responds in a way that forces everyone to ponder their own response. What is owed Caesar? What is owed God?

            Or, better, what belongs to God? The quick response would be that in fact everything belongs to God. God the creator and source of life is the source of all that exists. God’s dominion is over all the heavens and the earth. I can imagine that this is one of the lines of argument that the Pharisees used when they were privately railing against paying that tax. But I wonder if Jesus has something more specific in mind. Caesar had his coin with his image impressed on it. That coin belonged to him. You and I have an image impressed on our souls. That image is God, for as we read in Genesis 1, we are made in the image and likeness of God. Each of us bears the image of God. So, if the coin that carries Caesar’s image belongs to Caesar, then each person who bears the image of God belongs to God. How could a Pharisee argue against that logic? They walk away amazed. And we are left wondering how we go about giving ourselves to God.

            This is the point where we can try to apply this passage to our own context. Again, we don’t pay taxes like Matthew’s church did. We are not under foreign occupation. Although we aren’t excited about paying taxes, we know that our taxes are funding legitimate public services run by a legitimate government ultimately answerable to us through the power of the vote. But also this passage for us is really not about paying taxes. Jesus takes it to a deeper level. Jesus is asking us to reflect on what we give to God. Another way to say it is, in any given moment in our life what does the Lord require from us?

            Our oldest son, Micah, was named after the prophet Micah, who gave an answer to that question. In Micah 6:8 we read, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” In any given situation, what is the just thing to do? What does kindness call for? How am I to express humility before God in this situation? There’s no direct, easy answer. There could be many ways to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly in any given situation.

            Or maybe this teaching that we are to give to God the things that are God’s is pointing to our lives as a whole, our very being as creatures made in the image of God. In any given moment, how can we give ourselves to God in that moment? Consider the present situation we are all dealing with right now with this pandemic. As we live with and cope with this pandemic, how can we give ourselves to God in this pandemic? Could wearing masks, maintaining physical distance, and living our lives without fear of the virus, all ways we can give our lives over to God?

            Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and give to God the things that are God’s. What are those things and how do we give them, how do we give ourselves, to God? That is a discipleship question. And in every given situation we find ourselves in there is no simple yes or no answer. The answer is not always clear or simple. It is a question that requires discernment. And by discernment I mean taking the time to pray, to mull over, to think about, to seek advice, to listen to one’s heart, and even one’s gut, when trying to discern what God is asking, what God is requiring of us in any given moment.

            The good news is that God has given us the Spirit to guide us in these discipleship questions. The other good news is that there is not just one right answer. There are multiple ways we can respond in any situation that is a faithful response to what God requires of us. And even if we goof up in our response, it’s not the end of the world. God is also working with us. God takes our humble efforts and blesses them. In the words of that great songwriter from a few years ago, Keith Green, let’s just keep doing our best and pray that it’s blessed. Jesus takes care of the rest.

            That’s my encouragement for you. As you make your way through life and you find yourself in a situation, sit with the question of what it is God is requiring from you. Pray, reflect, perhaps seek advice. Then make a decision and act on that decision. And as you leave that situation and move on, perhaps you will be amazed at the outcome.