Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God, what is God’s… Sunday 18th October 2020

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God, what is God’s…

What does this really mean? I have to confess that until I started writing this sermon, it didn’t seem that complicated….

On the face of it, this is about paying taxes. Jesus seems to say we should pay taxes. And he has good reason for this. To encourage the people not to pay taxes would be to subject them to punishment from Rome, which could mean death. As we know, Jesus did not come to incite a violent uprising or encourage people to be killed.

However, the question about paying taxes was not just a political question. It was also a moral and theological question.  What is legal is not necessarily moral. What is lawful from Rome’s perspective might not be acceptable to God.

Author Tom Holland has recently written a book called Dominion, about the influence of Christianity on the Western World. In it, he argues that our moral worldview and values in the West, have been profoundly shaped by Christianity, even though we hardly acknowledge it anymore, as it seems so inherent to who we are.

However, because we have this Christian inheritance, our legal system is based on more Christian morals, than in Roman times, when the two were vastly different.

In Rome, ownership of slaves, and subjugation, even rape, of women, was completely acceptable. Killing people for entertainment was not a problem. Torture was common place. There was no such thing as human rights, equality or a welfare state. As such, what was legal, was not what we might consider to be moral. Many things that were legal, were totally unacceptable to God, as Jesus shows. He demonstrates a radically different approach to people and to life.

So paying taxes acknowledges Rome’s political power but not its moral authority to rule. That moral authority belongs to God. Which is why Jesus quickly adds that one must pay to God the things that are due to God.

And what God is asking for is of a radically different nature to that of Caesar. Which is why people must pay to both God and Caesar, not only for different reasons – the legal and the moral – but also in entirely different currencies. The whole nature and trajectory of God’s kingdom that Jesus has inaugurated, and is inviting people to, is fundamentally at odds with Caesar’s.

Paying to God what is God’s, is about us participating in God’s kingdom – and this in itself was entirely subversive in Roman times where Caesar was considered a type of God.

It is about following Jesus in the way we live – showing love and compassion to the poor and the weak, healing the sick, working for justice. It is about repenting of the ways we have been complicit with the empire.

Not paying taxes, won’t bring the empire down, but what will? Perhaps, it is whatever brings wholeness, transformation and healing to communities – this in itself is a form of resistance to the imperial worldview and ethos – to the power structures that protect the rich and prevent a more equal sharing of wealth.

When interviewed, Tom Holland said that in writing Dominion, it struck him that so much of history, is just an ongoing power grab! When Christians became powerful, they liked it – and then went on to behave in ways which went totally against God’s kingdom and the call to be servant leaders, and to protect and care for all.

We have political leaders who profess to be Christian, but introduce policies which do nothing for the most poor and vulnerable, because they are worried about losing their position, worried that the voters won’t support them.

Going back to taxes, we see this with many Christians objecting to taxes – looking to find ways to pay less tax – to protect their own wealth and power. Many people will call this sensible tax planning – but at what point are we actually falling into the trap of trying to retain our own wealth and power?

Even within our own Anglican church – there are power struggles, different facets of the church vying with each other to gain more influence and grow stronger.

We are an established church – we have the right to put bishops into the house of Lords –is this also a way of holding onto power? - is it what Jesus would have advocated?

And so all this has left me wondering – how do we make sure that we give to God, what is God’s?

In fact – what is God’s?

The image on the service sheet is of a coin in a human hand – when Jesus looks at the coin and points out Caesar’s face – he says give to Caesar what is Caesars, but what do we give to God? As Debie Thomas writes:

“From the opening chapters of Genesis, we know that as human beings created by God, we bear God’s image.  God’s likeness is stamped into us and upon us.  God’s signature is written across our very beings.  Which means — if we keep the analogy going — that we owe God everything.  Our whole and entire selves.  Any fantasy we might harbour of dividing up the secular and the sacred is simply that.  A fantasy.  We cannot separate Caesar's realm from God's realm when everything — everything — belongs to God.”

So maybe what this means is that following Jesus is not something we can do half-heartedly – it involves a recognition that all that we have and all that we are belongs to God – and then it involves the willingness to offer everything to God.

Now in some ways, this can feel incredibly daunting. Offer our whole selves to God – really? Everything? It might sound rather hard work, and we may not be sure we really want to. But maybe we need to think about this another way.

If we are created in God’s image – made by God – then everyone of us is an incredible individual, who is made for relationship. Being made in the image of a Trinitarian God, is being made to be unique at the same time as being lovingly related to the people and the world around us.

In short, being who God made us to be, is being the very best version of ourselves, truly expressing who we are, and doing that in relationship to others.

But to become…..become our true selves, this may involve letting go of some of our behaviours and other stuff that gets in the way. What do we need to put down or walk away from? Are there areas of our lives which we sense blocking our calling to be better, more compassionate, more loving?

Now this will look different for each of us and involves not only questions about money, but also how we use what power we have, how willing we are to let go of that power, how we vote, how we spend our time, even how we use our voices…..in short – this is about our entire lives. There is nothing that we are, and nothing that we own, which isn’t from God.

So how can we give to God, what is God’s? We do it by opening ourselves to his unending love and compassion, and then following where he leads.