Go With Us

originally preached on Sunday, October 16, 2011

Go with Us
Exodus 33:12-23
Matthew 22:15-22

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.

In the Gospel this morning, there is a trap set for Jesus.  The Herodians and the Pharisees have gotten together to trick him with their questions.  Herodians, aptly named after the family of Herod, are pro-Roman Empire and pro-tax, because they benefit from collaboration with the empire.  The Pharisees are anti-tax, because the money used to pay it has the likeness of Caesar on it, which is idolatry.  These two groups would not agree except that this Jesus guy is a problem and must be dealt with.  So they make an uneasy alliance to trap him.  Politics truly does make for strange bedfellows.

Is it lawful to pay the tax to Caesar?  This is not a question about Roman law.  We know the answer to that!  This is a question about the Torah.  Is it lawful according to the laws of Moses to pay the tax to Caesar?

Jesus gives a two-fold answer.  On the one hand, he asks for a coin, and asks whose likeness is on it.  This defies the Pharisees who want to trap him, but cannot abide idolatry.

Then he says, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

Over the centuries, this answer has tied the church in knots.  Is it a pat answer that says we pay our taxes to the state and pay our hearts to God?  Some have tried to force it into a formula like that.

But this is the Gospel of Matthew we are talking about.  It begins with the strange story of pagan kings coming to offer tribute to the baby Jesus, born king.  This is the Gospel of Herod feeling his power and authority threatened by the birth of a baby who is called king and Christ.

And in this chapter alone, where there are so many tests of his role, his authority, what he stands for, he answers unequivocally, “It is all about God.”

So when Jesus says, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's,” it should be clear to a Gospel people that it all belongs to God.

It all belongs to God.

I recently saw one of those little sayings that travels around the Internet.  I found this one to be better than most:

God gave us people to love,
and things to use,
not the other way around.

You can tell how far from the Gospel we are by how much we love things, and how much we use people.  This is not always easy to remember.  As a child, about this time of year, the catalogs started showing up.  Christmas catalogs.  With pages and pages and pages of toys in the back.  As a child, I would gladly use my parents, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, whomever it took, to get some new toy that I never knew existed before that catalog came out, and now I cannot live without it.

Such a willingness to use people to get stuff is childish.  This was age appropriate behavior back then.  And I am learning it starts early.  Mary told me that our daughter and her best friend were downstairs in the nursery.  And there are these two identical little piano toys.  Each one of them was playing with one, and each one of them wanted the one the other had.

Sharing is a learned behavior.  Caring for our neighbor is a learned behavior.  Loving one another as Christ loves us is learned behavior.

And learning experiences are not always easy!

Moses did not go to school to be a prophet.  He did not take “Commanding Pharaoh to Let My People Go 101” or “Senior Seminar in Sea Parting” or “Theories of Manna Management.”  It was all on the job training.  He may have felt what I often feel about chaplaincy: usually I learn what I need to know right after I needed to know it.

So here we have Moses, who is trying to follow God, trying to lead his people, talking with God about what is needed.  God says, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  And Moses replies, “If you don’t go with me, don’t send me!”

Moses knows what he faces is overwhelming.  And he needs God to go with him.

We face some overwhelming stuff don’t we?  Maybe it is a child’s surgery, or maybe it is a loved one in hospice.  Maybe it is running out of money before we run out of month, or maybe it is running out of day before we run out of list.  Maybe it is trying to budget for the ministry of this church, or maybe it is trying to learn how not to get in a battle of wills over our child doing his or her homework.

And we might yell at God, “If you aren’t going to go with me, don’t you dare send me!”  Or we might not be ready to yell at God.  Maybe we just think it quietly.

What we learn from Moses is that when God sends us, God goes with us.  When we face that which is overwhelming, that is when God is closest to us.  And sometimes when we are at the end of our resources, our strength, our will, that is when God’s presence is finally allowed in.

And when we remember that, we might also remember what Jesus said: It all belongs to God.  And so do we.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.