Death and Taxes Still Belong to Caesar
Psalm 99 read responsively and Matthew 22: 15-22
Preached by Linda Jo Peters ~ October 16, 2011
Unity Presbyterian Church ~ Terre Haute, Indiana
INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Psalm 99 is the last of a
group of four psalms which speak about the sovereignty or kingship of God. The sovereignty of God is expressed in
specific human instances of justice, equity and righteousness and always in
relationship to the lives of real people.[1]
1The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits
enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2The Lord is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the
peoples.3Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he!
4Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.
5Extol the Lord our God; worship at his footstool. Holy is he!
6Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called on his name. They cried to the Lord, and he answered them.
7He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept his decrees, and the statutes that he gave them.
8O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9Extol the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy.
Matthew 22:15-22
15Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in
what he said.16So they sent their disciples to him, along with the
Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of
God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not
regard people with partiality.17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it
lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”18But Jesus, aware of
their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show
me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.20Then
he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?”21They
answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor
the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”22When
they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
SERMON
The plot is thickening to
entrap Jesus in law breaking against Rome.
Since his teachings were challenging enough, as I said these leaders
could have made this problem disappear.
They had that authority, but they wanted Rome in on it so the crowds
would not be angry with them. Dealing
with one dissident is a whole lot easier that dealing with an uprising. Death and taxes were an area of Roman
authority as they are with most governments.
Death and taxes also fell under the laws of Moses that these leaders
administrated. Taxes were paid to the
temple but you could not pay them with a Roman denarius that claimed Caesar was
divine.[2]
My sermon title comes from the
wisdom of Benjamin Franklin, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain,
except death and taxes."[3] The name Caesar has come to be synonymous with
government or government leaders. It comes
from the first dictator of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar. For centuries, later rulers claimed the name as
they claimed to be divine.
Law is another venue of
governments. For thousands of years
those who made the laws were not subject to the law. The early democracies of Greece and Roman
sought to change that norm. They were
locally successful but when Rome became an empire and invaded other countries
the rule of law became a tool for oppression.
Prophets, teachers, leaders such as Jesus was and we, as his disciples,
are called to be, must speak out against oppression wherever it is found.
Several years ago the Magna
Carta was on tour here in the US. I got
to see it in Chicago. The Magna Carta is an English charter,
originally issued in the year 1215. It
was the first document forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects,
the feudal barons, in an attempt to limit his powers by law and protect their [rights]. Ultimately it began the process that lead to our
great American experiment in governing, which subjects everyone to the rule of
law.[4] From the poorest to the richest person,
everyone is to stand equal before the law.
Jesus, who was divine could
of stood outside the law, but he chose instead to stand under the law even the law
that brought him death. He said:
"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to
fulfill them.”[5] So trying
to trick Jesus into breaking the law was ludicrous. Jesus refuses to play their political game
that will never bring life. Jesus we
know is all about giving and transforming life.
So from his ironic response, are we to pay taxes or not?
In Matthew Skinner’s
commentary he wrote:
It
couldn’t hurt for Jesus to show up and weigh in on America’s current economic
and political challenges. It might be helpful if he issued a declaration about
who should pay taxes, and how much. Then again, this would likely get him
killed all over again.[6]
I can certainly see Jesus
meeting the Occupy Wall Street Groups.
What would that encounter look like?
I think he would see them like he saw the crowds in Palestine. He would have compassion on them for “they
are like sheep without a shepherd.”[7] Not because they are stupid like sheep are,
or because they get lost easily like sheep do, NO but because sheep need a
shepherd to guard them when they sleep or care for them when they are ill or
lead them to green pastures and besides still waters. People all over the world have been
galvanized to gather in the public square, to find community, acceptance of
differences and life-giving choices for the future. With deep regret I have to admit that religion
even the Christian religion does not consistently provide the environment that creates
such a community. What is often missing in the church and seems to be alive and
well moving through the world is the power of shared spirit. I have said many times that God’s Holy Spirit
cannot be controlled by us. I believe
the Holy Spirit is moving, Watch the shape of this movement does it bear the
fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.[8] For now and on the whole it has many of the
signs of a community formed by the Living Spirit of God. Will it last, or as the pundits ask “does it
have legs?”
The Roman historian Tacitus wrote after Rome burned that:
Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most
exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians
by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the
extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our
procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked
for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the
evil, but even in Rome…[9]
We know here was a movement
that had “legs.” 2000 years later it
continues to have legs through the power of the Holy Spirit. Though the life of the church- countless
humanitarian efforts serve others in need going far back as the plague the
Alexian brothers where the only people willing to care for the sick and bury
the dead – today believers work for disaster relief all over the world - the
abolition of the slave trade was based in Christian Churches as was the Civil
Rights movement - the Salvation Army is a Christian-based organization that is
the largest provider of social aid in the world. Christians led reform movements in the US in
the 19th century: factory reform, temperance, education, child welfare, safety
in the workplace... now we work for migrant workers, immigration reform, a
broad range of women’s issues and peacemaking everywhere. Millions of Christian
missionaries continue to provide education, food, reform, medicine and lives of
devotion to peoples in all corners of the world most of them supported by the
financial gifts of churches.
Like Julian Chike’s message
last Sunday, we believe we have been called and are used by the power of the
Holy Spirit to make a difference in this world.
Every time we move away from these fruits of the Spirit, we become what
sent Jesus to his death. So open your
heart and your mind to the power of the Holy Spirit. Who knows where the Spirit will lead you…
maybe you be here working in the food pantry on Friday or working at St. Anne’s
clinic or building a well in Malawi or walking with students that need to know
they are accepted and loved for who they are.
Turn your life over to the Spirit of God. See you in the square. Amen.
[1] See: Weekly
Comments on the Revised Common Lectionary, Theological Hall of the Uniting
Church, Melbourne, Australia.
http://hwallace.unitingchurch.org.au/WebOTcomments/EpiphanyC/TransfigurationPsalm.html
[2] see
Matthew 17:24
[3] see: www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/death-and-taxes.html
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
[5] see:
Matthew 5:17
[6] The Heavy
Cost of Paying “The Emperor”, ON Scripture, 2011.
[7] Matthew
9:36
[8] see:
Galatians 5:22-23
