Homily by Fr R Christopher Heying
“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.”
In this well-known response to the question put to him about the licitness of paying tax, Jesus is not articulating a carefully developed philosophy about the separation of church and state, somehow dividing the world into two distinct and perhaps opposing realms. Rather, Jesus maneuvers past a trap being laid for him.
Here in the Temple precincts things are heating up, for the Pharisees have made up their minds. They have already decided what is needed and have only to figure out how to get it, and politics, they say, make odd bed fellows.
So here the disciples of the Pharisees come with natural enemies in tow, the Herodians who support Roman rule with its payment of the census tax which to the Pharisees was hated symbol representing Roman dominance of a land given to the Jews by God, the Roman denarius being particularly problematic for it bore the idolatrous image of Caesar and the blasphemous inscription, Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest.
And so here they come to trap Jesus, for they know that they must get him out of the way, by discrediting him if they can, by killing him if they must. They begin with somewhat artless flattery: we know you are a person with no regard for opinion polls and will tell us straight up—is it okay to pay tax to Caesar or not?
If he’s for the tax, he’s sure to lose credibility with faithful Jews. If he’s against the tax, he can be charged with sedition.
So Jesus asks for the coin with which the tax is paid, as he seems not to have it on his person, and it is telling that those who would ensnare him are the ones who carry it.
Whose image does it bear? Caesar’s.
Well give it back to him: what is Caesar’s is Caesar’s . . . but what is God’s is God’s.
Some might see Jesus as thereby indicating the State may legitimately collect the tax, but his answer is modified by pointing to what is rightfully God’s.
And what is not ultimately God’s?
What can we legitimately keep from God, as unrelated to God’s claim on us?
To put another way, what in our lives is none of God’s business? What decisions? Commitments? Loyalties? Energy? Questions? Time? Are ours to make without reference to God?
Are there things, people, interests, passions, loves, joys, sorrows, decisions in our lives that are rightly godless?
I suspect if we are here today, and not in prison for tax evasion, we have made an affirmative decision about the legitimacy of paying tax to Caesar.
But have we not also figured out how to render to him as little as possible? To give the State perhaps no less, but certainly no more, than its due?
And do we take that same cautious approach when it comes to giving to God? Give no more than what is required? Especially if we figured out that unlike with the State there exists no apparent sanction for cutting corners with God! For bringing in slightly (or perhaps even a lot) less than the “full tithe into God’s storehouse”? (cf. Malachi 3.10)
As people of faith, at least when we stop to think about it . . . and maybe even to pray about it, do we not know that all things come from God and ultimately will return, be it from an open hand in life or a closed fist in death, to God?
As David put it in the Temple, and as we so often say at the presentation of the gifts of our life and labor at the altar, “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.”
It is not just money. It certainly will include money if we have it, but “all things” is far more encompassing than the coinage of any realm.
“All things” is about all we do with all we have all the time.
Each year about this time the church seems to begin its stewardship campaign, sometimes described as “the October twitch, the November convulsion, the December squeeze.”
And we are invited to consider and to pray about the blessings we have been given and how we will return thanks to God for those blessings. What will we give back to God to extend the reach of ministry to the lonely, sick, bereaved, desolate, to those celebrating new birth, a new job, new life? And would we prefer that ministry to be conducted with air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter, lights on in every season?
Yes, rendering to God the things that are God’s includes more than money. In fact when we think about what is rightly God’s it is, as they say, “the whole kit and caboodle”! Our gifts, talents, time, energy. Even our imaginations, hopes, dreams. . . . It includes the questions we ask, the answers we seek, the life we live.
And anything less could be described as idolatry, an attempt by us to carve out chunks of our lives, to tuck away concerns or thoughts or time or money, so they are neither accountable to God and to anyone else for that matter.
But when we open our lives more and more completely to God, allow our trust and confidence to grow in this God who is in fact the Giver of All Good Gifts, as we consider the whole kit and caboodle into the light of God’s care and love, we will give back to God in a way that truly encounters that amazing grace and unspeakable power which can change our minds, transform our hearts, and, in fact, make the whole world new.
Amen.