Musical Prelude and Service.

Exodus 33:12-23 & Matthew 22:15-22
Where do we see God? How do we see God?
Why are we seeking those signs that God remains with us accompanying us on our journey? Have we become anxious that God may have abandoned us? Or is that just a common way of moving through life?
There are times when life can seem overwhelming. I have absolutely no doubt that sometimes, if not frequently, we can find ourselves wondering who we can rely upon to get us from day to day or to lift us out of the particular pit of despair we are at threat of falling into.
I don’t want to get into details on this, but this is definitely a concern for a great many people.
Moses is prevailing on God for some sign that God is still with the people of Israel. He is concerned.
And God says he will give him that glimpse, but Moses cannot see God’s face. Just wait in this crevice and shield your eyes.
Moses can glimpse a portion of God’s presence, but even he is not allowed to fully witness the splendour of God.
We cannot know all of whom and what God is. At some point we can only know in part.
Faith is a word that gets cast about a lot. There has been a great deal of ink spilled talking about what faith is and what it means. Many say it comes down to believing in something that cannot be proven.
And that is one way of describing it. Or, in part. Faith is also about trust. That without relying upon some sort of verification, trusting your partner or the person with whom you have a relationship to have your best interests at heart.
And has to do with commitment. That you are committed to the relationship. That you will work at it and dedicate yourself and who you are to that relationship.
I find myself reflecting on the story of Jesus and the question about taxes in the context of faith this week.
Once again, we listen to Matthew frame the pharisees as the enemy of Jesus. Once again, I hear the words of Jewish rabbis encourage preachers such as myself to handle these scriptures with care. The pharisees are the root of the modern rabbinic movement. They loved posing questions and engaging in spirited debate with a passion for getting at deeper truths.
So, lets take care in assuming the motivations of these question of Jesus. Perhaps this was an attempt to silence or discredit someone who was challenging the status quo. But it may also be the playful debate that was so much a part of their culture.
The question is, should the Jews pay taxes to the emperor? The coin of the empire carries an image of Caesar and names the emperor as divine. It is basically an image of a god that people would carry with them. To say yes is to speak against Hebrew law. To say no would risk the punishment of the Roman empire.
Jesus once again needs to negotiate a response that answers the question without angering either side. Perhaps we can see this encounter as foreshadowing his eventual confrontation with church leaders and the empire.
But Jesus also highlights the intriguing theological question at the heart of this question around taxes – To whom do we belong?
The emperor, or the empire does demand things of its subjects. Jesus and his audience live within an empire. They face demands. Taxes is one of them.
But they are also people of faith. Jesus, his disciples, the pharisees, the temple priests are all working hard to be faithful to God. How do you make a commitment to God and God’s desires while living peacefully in an empire?
Give to God, that which is God’s.
In the end, we belong to God. The empire can demand material things. The empire can insist upon taxes. But, our hearts, our souls, our minds; who we are, what we value; that is God’s.
Jesus is speaking about a form of resistance to the colonizing and brutal influence of empire.
We are left with the question of what has changed since the time of Jesus and the Romans? We may not live in a time when the wealthiest and most powerful openly use the terms emperor and empire, but we do live in an empire. Our Caesars use different names, but we are living under the control of many different rulers whether they are political or corporate. We find ourselves struggling to determine where our money goes. What sacrifices we must make in the name of various powers. We need to make decisions around the ownership of cars; of cell phones – how connected to the world are we willing to be?
Paying our taxes to Caesar is far more complex than simply handing our coins over to a tax collector regularly. In this context I see it as far more than simply dealing with Revenue Canada. But we must still come to terms with it.
And into this conversation we hear Jesus say, give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Give to God, that which is God’s.
Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind.
The empires of our world can and will try to change us. They will tempt us with values that privilege wealth, ambition and power. They will urge us to compromise in ways that divide us, isolate us. To live in ways that force us to rely upon the status quo of an indifferent world.
And so, we are reminded that who we are; what we value; who we value; who we love; those are things that belong to God. Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Caesar demands a portion of what wealth we may have. So be it. But don’t let the values of empire – the indifference to human worth that is typically a feature of empire? Don’t give in to that.
God is more than that. God is still here, and God does expect something back.
We must trust in God’s presence. Trust in God’s love and trust in God’s hope. And we must choose for ourselves to make that commitment. To be faithful and true in who we are to the God who empowers us and delivers s from bondage into a world of freedom and justice. Because in the end, do we belong truly to God or to the empires of this world?
God remains with us, guiding us, strengthening us, loving us. We cannot know God fully, see God fully. We ourselves become a sign of God’s love, a sign of God’s presence, when we relate to the world with the love, the courage and the compassion that God provides for us. We are God’s people. We give to God, that which is God’s. Ourselves. Thanks be to God. Amen

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789