Morning Prayer Choral Amen Hymn of Gratitude *For Each Day of Life We Thank You* Witness of Scripture: Matthew 22: 15-22 Anthem *Sing Praise to God* George F. Handel. Chancel Choir Sermon *Stewardship: Why, How, Who?* David Spain
Recorded on October 22, 2023
“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s,” is how the sentence reads in the King James Version, and even if people have no familiarity with the Bible, they may still know this quote. The question is, what does it mean; what is Jesus saying and what is Jesus not saying?
Jesus is in the temple again, a day or two after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.Since his heralded arrival into the city as people waved palm branches, he has turned over the tables in the temple, had his authority questioned, told 3 parables each one turning up the heat a bit in a simmering conflict now starting to boil. What happens next is revealing, as those with concerns about Jesus join forces in a surprising but telling coalition. Matthew’s gospel says the Pharisees and the Herodians join forces.The Pharisees as we know were an influential group of religious leaders who sought to interpret Jewish faith and offer practical advice for ethical living. They have been too easily maligned over the centuries, revealing a deadly antisemitism too readily practiced and too much still present.That Jesus and some of the Pharisees clashed on occasion is obvious, but there were also times when they aligned.Of the Herodians we know almost nothing.Perhaps they were a political faction whose loyalties are clearly indicated in their name —they are supporters of Herod’s regime. In the gospel’s telling of this confrontation in the temple, the Pharisees and the Herodians have united. To riff on an old saying, “politics and religion make for strange bedfellows,” as both history and current events confirm that such a marriage is ill suited and death dealing, for any kind of religious nationalism always gnashes and gnarls gospel truth for partisan causes. When religion and politics become concentric circles, the carpenters contracted to construct crosses work double shifts.
Given that cruel certainty evidenced by Golgotha a few days later and countless other hills ever since, we nonetheless know to hear this story as something much larger than a treatise on the separation of church and state, that wise but not completely settled and sometimes vexatious tension woven into the fabric of this country’s founding documents. Jesus’ response that day in the temple goes much deeper than constitutional conundrums, important as these are.
This unholy alliance of a small group of Pharisees and Herodians approaches Jesus with a wily, serpent in the grass angle, opening with ingratiating and insincere flattery. It is the classic “we like you but…” set up meant to entrap Jesus as Matthew forewarns us.It is a curious question because nowhere has Jesus said anything about taxes. He has said little about Caesar or Roman occupation although he certainly felt the trampling boot of Rome’s power ever ready if challenged. “Should we pay taxes or not?” One perspective sees the tax as a heretical compromise to an occupying force; the other perspective interprets the failure to pay taxes as rebellion, as sedition. If Jesus answers this yes/no question, he will lose either way.
We have come to know, travelling along the way with Jesus, that he rarely answers the question he is asked. Instead, he asks his own questions and in so doing unmasks insincerity and re-shapes the conversation to something foundational. “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?” which is certainly not a term of endearment, but neither is it a term of definition. It simply means being two-faced. If his first question reveals their insincerity, his second question invites their consideration. “Whose head is on the coin and whose title?” The answer is obvious, so now Jesus replies—“Give to the Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.”Matthew says Jesus’ answer amazed them and silenced them.
Jesus does not prohibit rendering to Caesar. This however, is not of central concern to Jesus. The question of taxes is ours, not his. We notice in responding, Jesus does not define what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. Poor Caesar has stamped his image on the coin, but that is not the stamp that interests Jesus. No tinpot dictator nor even any great empire endures forever and therefore neither has the power to lay claim on us. When Jesus says render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and render to God what belongs to God, he brilliantly shifts to a much different conversation. He invites the listeners to ask a core question—to whom do we belong? In that temple that day and in this sanctuary this day, Jesus’ question stirs to mind both the Psalmist great poetry and the Creator’s great claim. The Psalmist writes, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is therein, the world and those who live in it.” Jesus takes an entrapping political inquiry and reframes it into an engaging theological question. Psalm 24 stakes a claim. Everything that is belongs to God—this world, our lives are gifts to us, on loan to us for our use. With that perspective, we realize when our pronouns become singular possessive—my or mine —we have moved away from the 24th Psalm. Jesus’ response might also call to mind the story from Genesis—that we are made in God’s image. It is God who has stamped us. What belongs to Caesar; what belongs to God? Jesus invites people to ponder allegiance and loyalty as he proclaims the good news to whom we belong and who claims us.
Joseph Donders poetically writes, “God coined us in God’s image…we are God’s money, and we should be spent…money should circulate, we should circulate; money should go from hand to hand, we should go from hand to hand…money is going to be worn, we should be going to be worn. We should be spent, we are coins…Let us risk being used, and we will be increased, and the end will be glory…” (Jesus the Stranger: Reflections on the Gospel) If we embrace Donder’s poem and Jesus’ response, we see our lives as gifts from God, stamped by God’s image to circulate in this world on behalf of the One whose image we bear. How do we use this powerful image in whom we are made? This is the stewardship question, for as the Genesis story reminds us and as the Psalmist implies, we are God’s stewards, God’s caring people of all God has made, of all that belongs to God entrusted for our use.
As we think of who we are and whose we are, our thoughts are guided by a straightforward invitation—“Stewardship: Why, How, Who?” Why do we support the mission of First Christian Church of Norman? Why is this a value? Why is this meaningful? Before we answer that question as it relates to this church, we remember Jesus stands in the temple and reminds us that as children of God we are expressions of God’s presence wherever we are. Implanted into how we are made is the impulse to care for another, the encouragement to live in community, the yearning to align this world more closely to God’s ways of justice and mercy, kindness and compassion, restoration and healing. This is foundational to how we are made and whose we are. God’s foundational claim is to be tangibly expressed wherever we are.The work of the church is one of those ways we live this claim. What do we value, what is meaningful about this body of Christ called First Christian Church of Norman? Is it beautiful music and a reverent spirit that raises our vision; is it prayerful words and thoughtful faith that encourages hard questions rather than settling for convenient answers; is it a Table whose spirit is ever inviting and whose leaves are ever expanding; is it a deep and abiding concern to lift those who are struggling and to encourage those who are downhearted, a ministry expressed to our neighbors on the street and our neighbors across the globe? Why is this a value, why is this meaningful in our lives? That question is never confined only in the context of this church; we ask that question of our lives as we consider the good work of so many who address issues of impoverishment, instability, endangerment. Why is that a value? Jesus reminds us we are coined by God and we belong to God. If we are looking for meaning to our living, is there anything better than this?
Stewardship – How? Perhaps in one sense this is a technical question—check or cash, card or
draft, Venmo or whatever else awaits the exchange of currency. It is dizzying, but also inviting. There is another consideration, more theological than mechanical. How do we decide how much and how it works in our lives?Some may know of an old biblical standard of 10%, also referred to as a tithe to the church or any expression of God’s work in the world. For some that may be too much to start, but more of a goal toward which to move; for others it is not enough and so more is shared. At its core, the how question is an orientation question. How do we decide to share…as first fruits on the one hand or from leftovers on the other hand. It is always a dynamic question tied to the ongoing conversation of allegiance, priority, value.
Stewardship – Who? It is the question of benefit. Who benefits from our stewarding? Perhaps this is an odd perspective, but God benefits as in God’s work is completed in the work we do as an expression of God’s love. Might our lives be a prayer God offers to the world, with our response the Amen to God’s prayerful creation of each of our lives? Who benefits—the world benefits as we strive to do as God has so charged us to do as stewards, to have dominion in this world which is not to dominate but is to use power as God uses power—to enliven, to encourage, to help all that is thrive and grow and become fully what God intends. Who benefits—those in need which certainly is the one uncertain about the next meal for her child but also our own children who are learning to sing and say the stories of our faith. Who benefits—we do, as we live out the paradoxical truth that love does not grow if hoarded but only grows as it is given away, enhancing recipient and giver alike. Confident that every single penny given to this church is accounted for and accountable to you, everyone benefits.
Jesus calls us to remember who and whose we are. ‘Stewardship: Why, How, Who’ keeps us faithfully oriented, profoundly liberated, and courageously circulating.