Sermon

October 16, 2011 is Laity Sunday. I volunteered to preach.

Matthew 22:15-22is the gospel lesson for that day.  Here's the summary:

Three players:

Pharisees - religious group, oppose Roman rule, strict followers of the Jewish laws

Herodians - political group that supports Herod Antipas, the local Roman ruler under the Roman Emperor Caesar.

             - - -  usually enemies, but united against Jesus. 

Pharisees sent their students along with Herodians to test and trap Jesus.  First, they flatter him.  Then, they ask Jesus, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?"

Why is this a trap?   It's a YES/NO question.

If Jesus said "YES, it’s lawful," the common people would reject him, because they hated paying taxes.  The Pharisees would say that paying Rome meant recognizing Roman authority and rejecting God’s authority.

If Jesus said "NO, it’s not lawful," the Herodians would take him to be arrested for treason.

He outsmarted them both saying, "Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s."  He makes them both look foolish by exposing their crooked intentions.

Lessons for us:

1. People in power, like the Pharisees and Herodians, often rise to power as a result of hard work, talent and vision. They start out trying to do good things (like providing interpretation of God’s law or governmental stability to a region), but after a while they start to care more about their own position of power than the original ideals that got them there.

2. Why did Jesus say we should render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s? Does he give authority to Caesar? Was he simply trying to save his own skin?  He is eventually arrested, so maybe he's just stalling for time. I think he is teaching a bigger lesson.  By asking to see the coin, he seems to be limiting Caesar’s authority to the coin and payment of tax. Government does not rule our life or our heart. Money and taxes are of the earth and taxes go to the government. What do we give to God?

3. We live in a complex society under the rule of law and the church, just as Jesus, the disciples and new Christians did. We are subject to the laws of Pennsylvania and the United States of America. As Christians, we are also subject to God’s law.

It is tempting to avoid this tension between flesh and spirit, Earth and Heaven, the Secular and Christian world. We could choose one or the other, to avoid the tension. Guilt and fear of God’s wrath can make us push God away, rejecting his rules and living for today, choosing Earth over Heaven. Taking our free will and rejecting authority, relying on ourselves, our logic and cunning.

The opposite choice is complete rejection of the secular world, choosing Heaven over Earth through isolation, closed communities, avoiding the world of sin. We might be tempted to remove ourselves from society, to avoid people we fear might tempt us into sinful behavior, to cloister ourselves. We could spend our days at home in prayer, visiting only those Christians we judge pure enough and shunning all others.

Are we able to identify sinless Christians?  Can we judge, at least, who is less sinful than we are? Even if we could, if we separate ourselves from the world, who will save the world?  If we surround ourselves with people of great faith and discipline at the exclusion of all others, how will we do God’s work? 

We must be like the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1-10). We must resist the temptations of a corrupt society and our own sinful nature.  We are called to live by our faith, perform works of faith, labors of love and to be patient, hanging on through hope and the power of the Holy Spirit.  In the world, not of it.