Sermon for October 19, 2014
Proper 24A, 19th
Sunday After Pentecost
The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse
St. Philip’s In The Hills Parish,
Tucson, AZ
For readings click here
I speak to you in the name of one
God
Source of all being, incarnate
Word and Holy Spirit. Amen
Today
is the
National
Observance of Children’s Sabbath.[1]
A day
to join other faith communities
in
commitment to care, to protect and
to advocate
for all children.
A day
to learn from children about God.
Several
years ago, I heard this now familiar
story
of about a three-year-old girl,
firstborn
and only child in her family.
But now
her mother was pregnant again
and the
little girl was very excited
about
having a new sibling.
Within
a few hours of her parents
bringing
a new baby boy home from the hospital,
the girl
made a request:
she
wanted to be alone with her new brother
in his
room / with the door shut.
Her
insistence about being alone
with
the baby / with the door shut
made
her parents a bit uneasy,
but
they had an intercom system
so they
let
their daughter
do this.
They
listened in from another room.
There
they heard their three-year-old daughter
pleading
with her three-day-old brother:
“Tell
me about God – I’ve almost forgotten.”[2]
This
“haunting and evocative” story suggests
that
while we know
we come
from God early in life,
we
somehow, eventually forget.
A psychological
research study reported this
after
asking young people the question
“Have
you at times felt that God is particularly close to you?”
The
results show diminished experience of God,
for in
the 1st grade, 84% said “yes”,
but in
the 5th grade it was 69%,
7th
grade it was 57%,
And by
the 11th grade, 47% - less than half.[3]
This is
not just a modern phenomenon.
For in
today’s Gospel,
Jesus’ response
to the entrapment question
suggests
that
his
opponents might have forgotten about God.
Jesus’
response might imply that
“the
question behind the question”
his opponents
ask
as
something like the 3-year old’s plea,
“Tell
us about God – we’ve almost forgotten.”
= = = =
= = = = =
This is
the first-of-three upcoming “tests”
to
entrap Jesus as he approached Jerusalem.
The Pharisees
took the initiative
and conspired
with the Herodians.
These
strange bedfellows cooperated
only
because of their mutual desire
to see
Jesus removed from the scene.
There,
they asked the now-famous question:
“Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or
not?”
See, the
Pharisees were committed
to
every detail of the Jewish law.
They
resented and resisted
the
“census” or “head” tax.
Rome
had imposed the tax on Judea
when it
became part of the Roman Empire.
The
Pharisees opposed the tax,
not
only for the occupation the tax represented,
but
also because the tax could only be paid
with a
coin minted by Rome.
The
coin itself had this inscription,
“…Tiberius Caesar, august son of
divine Augustus, high priest,”[4]
thus violating
the first and second commandments:
“I AM
the Lord thy God,
thou
shalt have no other gods, and
thou
shalt not have any graven images...”.
The
Herodians overtly supported Herod Antipas,
Roman
ruler of Galilee and Perea.
Herod
had been named “king of the Jews”
by
Rome.
The
Herodians, needless to say,
supported
paying the tax to Caesar.
The
Pharisees hoped Jesus will say yes,
so that
the Jewish community
would
see Jesus as
a Roman
sympathizer and blasphemer.
The
Herodians hope that Jesus will say no,
so that
they can accuse Jesus of treason
or
sedition against Rome.
Jesus’
opponents confronted him
with this
dilemma.
It
seemed he was trapped.
= = = =
= = =
This is
not just a first century challenge.
Our
“opponents,”
whether
society or culture or family,
confront
us with dilemmas all the time,
making
it seem that we are trapped.
What do
we do when allegiance to our
“Caesar”
conflicts
with our allegiance to Christ?
What do
we do when the God we serve and
the
government to which
we have
sworn allegiance
pull us
into divided loyalties?
How can
we Christians respond
in the
face of wars in the Middle East?
How can
we Christians respond
to the
use of torture by government,
even if
it provides information
to help
the war on terror?
How can
we Christians respond
to
immigrant refugees and their families,
now
split up, who wait
while their
asylum case
lingers
in the courts?
What do
we do when the God we serve
and the
family of which we are a part
pull us
into divided loyalties?
If a
family member violates
our
Christian sensibilities,
how do
we respond even while we risk
breaking
the relationship?
What do
we do when we are spiritually inspired
to
support the transformation of lives
through
ministries like ASMP,
Casa
Maria, Interfaith Community Services,
or any
number of others,
but financially
we are on a fixed budget?
We are
faced with these dilemmas all the time.
It
seems our allegiances
are
pitted against each other.
It
seems we are trapped, like Jesus was.
= = = =
= =
And
yet, the solution that Jesus offered
amazed
them.
Jesus reminded
them about God
and God’s
sovereignty –
about
the breadth and depth
of
God’s creative power.
He
opened the trap when he said,
“Give
(more accurately, render) …
to the
emperor the things that are the emperor’s
and to
God the things that are God’s.”
In
Greek, the word for “render” means
“to
give what is due by obligation.”
Thus,
Jesus suggested a dual allegiance –
to give
to both
what is
due by obligation;
the
obligation to live fully
into
the teachings and commands of God
and
the
obligation to live lawfully
with
the government under whose laws
they
live.
Neither
side could be dismissed.
Neither
side could be “right.”
For in
fact, it’s all God’s.
Jesus
reframed the whole issue
With a “both/and,”
not “either/or” solution.
Jesus
reminded them about God,
the
creator of all things,
who
also created Caesar.
Jesus transfigured their perspectives.
= = = =
=
And
Jesus transfigures our perspectives.
Jesus
reminds us, in this text, that
God
is the creator
and
we are the created.
By
living fully AND by living lawfully,
giving
what is “due by obligation,”
we
become citizens of both
an
earthly realm
and
a spiritual realm.
And,
in the midst of those
dilemmas
that contradict,
God,
in Jesus, is right here.
God,
in Jesus, places us in a position
to
dance with these choices.
God,
in Jesus, empowers us
to
choose wisely as we can or
to
sit
and wait
until
an answer arises from the Holy Spirit.
Trappist
Monk Thomas Merton once wrote,
“God
makes us ask ourselves questions
most often
when [God] intends to resolve them.
God
gives us needs that [God] alone can satisfy
and
awakens capacities that [God] means to fulfill.
(go slowly)
Any
perplexity is liable to be
a
spiritual gestation,
leading
to a new birth
and
a mystical regeneration.”[5]
He
juxtaposed the moral and the mystical life
through
the presence of contradiction.
He
said, “When we move ourselves as [humans],
we
end up hanging on one horn of the dilemma and hoping for the best.
But
when we are moved by God, mystically,
we
seem to solve the dilemma
in
ease and mystery,
by
choosing at the same time
both
horns of the dilemma
and
no horn at all and always being
perfectly
right.”[6]
When
we invite Jesus into our dilemmas,
Jesus
transfigures our perspectives
with
the sovereign presence of God.
Today’s
Good News is that
God,
in Jesus, often appears
in
the midst of dilemmas,
in
the midst of trick questions,
in
the midst of a child’s plea,
in
the midst of –
well,
the stuff of life
that
we humans can’t solve
and
can’t make sense of.
God
resolves contradictions,
which
are not just our dilemmas, but God’s too.
It’s
all God’s.
And
in God’s
abundant,
creative and generative love,
solutions
are found.
Joy
is spread.
Hope
is at hand.
Suffering
is transformed.
If
you don’t believe,
Just
find a child and plea to her:
“tell
me about God, I’ve almost forgot!”
Amen
[2] Story excerpt from Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a
Life of Faith (San Francisco, HarperCollins, 2003) p.113, note 21. Borg
gives additional credit to a couple who first shared the story with him and to
Parker Palmer who tells a similar story in one of his many, fine books.
[3]
Borg, ibid., p. 114, note 22: K. Tamminen, “Religious Experiences in Childhood
and Adolescence,” in International Journey for the Psychology of Religion
4.61-85 (1994), 61-85. This study is reported in Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
and Michael Argyle, Religious Behavior, Belief and Experience (New York: Routledge,
1997), pp.149-150.
[4]
Richard E. Spalding, “Pastoral Perspective,: Feasting on the Word: Year A, (Louisville, Westminster John Knox
Press, 2011), p.190
[5]
Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas: The Day
by Day Experiences and Meditations of a Trappist Monk, (Garden City, Image
Books Edition/Doubleday, 1956), p. 186
[6]
Merton, ibid. p. 273
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