What is God's

 

Devotion for Being Apart -
October 18

I will share new devotions from time to time,
and invite you to browse through devotions that have been posted on this blog.

Our text today was Matthew 22:15-22
 
Jesus was no stranger to the drama of politics.  In this scene we encounter Jesus in the hot seat during a multi-day town hall. He was camped out in the temple fielding questions from various people, both genuine and smarmy, those curious and wondering, and those playing “stump the rabbi.”   
When the scene opens, these two opposing groups, (imagine Team Pelosi and Team McConnell, for example), no fans of each other by any stretch of the imagination, but allied in their mutual contempt for Jesus, dreamed up between themselves the perfect question to entrap Jesus by his own words.  They’d offer up a lose-lose scenario, a question with two possible answers, neither one good.  There’s no way to answer without pissing someone off or getting into trouble. Jesus would be trapped.  It would be delicious.
 
So they start by pouring on the compliments – Jesus, you are so sincere, and so truthful, and you treat everyone the same, so how would you advise us in this difficult question?
And then, faces falsely earnest, they pop their prepared question: Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?  
 
But Jesus, seeing their malice… refuses to play along.  
 
Lead us not into temptation, the Lord’s Prayer says, but deliver us from evil.  In the Greek, it’s is this same word - deliver us from malice.  Set us free from the desire to cause pain, injury or distress to another.  We pray this every week.  Deliver us, Lord, from malice.
 
Jesus calls them out.  Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin you use to pay taxes.  And so, right there in the temple, where they are not supposed to have or use money from the empire but only temple coins, they rush to pull out the coin stamped with the image of the emperor Tiberius and the words, son of the divine Agustus, in other words, Son of God. And they show it to Jesus.
 
Whose image is shown there?  he asks them.  That’s who this belongs to.  
Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s – give to God the things that are God. 
 
The image of the empire is stamped on nearly everything we touch and do.  It looks like credentials, status, salaries and titles, insurance and credit ratings, ranking and reputation, grades and credit scores, how much we have, how we look, what we achieve.  We live as though everything belongs to the empire – and indeed, there is no way to escape it.  We ourselves are part of the broken system; even in the temple Jesus’ questioners could readily pull out the coin with the emperor’s face on it, money claiming who is really god.  We too are at the ready – to defend ourselves, to advance ourselves, to rank and compare ourselves.  Even if we don’t like it, even as we disagree with big parts of it, we function pretty comfortably within the empire.  
 
But I keep coming back to the malice…to the desire to cause someone else pain. I keep returning to the hope to entrap someone so they will destroy themselves with their own words, to wish ill on another person, to take pleasure in their demise.  I’m not going to lie – I can muster me some malice. What makes this such a great temptation for us that we are guided to pray against it every time we say the Lord’s Prayer?
 
I think it’s that we forget that we ourselves do not actually belong to the empire.  We are so often locked in the mindset of the way of fear, where our worth is earned and can be taken from us, where our security is up to us, where we believe that some must lose so others can win.  
The Pharisees and Herodians believe that discrediting Jesus somehow makes them more secure.  In the way of fear there is not enough respect for everyone, only enough security and wellbeing for some. We become convinced that we must compete for our humanity to be upheld.  We mostly live in fear of loss, so we turn on each other.  
 
Whose image is stamped on this? Jesus asks, holding the coin out to them.  That is who it belongs to.  
 
We are not stamped with the image of the empire. It does not own us. We are made in the image of God.  God’s image is stamped on us at our birth, traced on us at our baptism.  We are all children of God; we belong to God.  We are formed in the image of Love Incarnate, God beyond constricts and boundaries of nation and need, even time and space, who has given humankind to one another to care for each other, with the mandate to care for the earth and all its creatures.  This is God’s world – every mountain and river and ocean and desert and creature of it.  We are God’s children.  Every single human being is precious and valuable to God.  
 
Jesus says, Give to God the things that are God’s.  That’s everything, friends, that’s everyone.  And specifically, that’s us – we give each other to God, we give ourselves to God.  Jesus not only opts out of the game, he exposes the empire for the false god it is, and calls his questioners to a deeper, harder, truer realty, with a much farther horizon and a much greater God.  
 
So we pay our taxes, we vote, we get grades and pass tests, we use insurance and build retirement funds, and fill our homes with nice things, and dress for success, we pick the things we support and the things we oppose, we contribute to what we think is good and reject what we think is evil, we make our way in this life, trying to shape a good life for ourselves and those who come after us, by using the tools of this economy in the systems, structures and institutions we live in, with the good and bad all mixed up and impossible to separate. Life is messy, and it’s hard, we’ve got the emperor’s image in our pockets all the time. But at the same time, our citizenship is in a deeper Kingdom, we belong to a greater reality, so we pray, Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from malice… 
 
We’re complicit, Lord, forgive us.  Free us from the temptations of fear and competition, to live as Christ is accused here of living - with sincerity, trusting in the way of God, speaking truth, and regarding all people without partiality.   May we look at others, Lord, and see your image. May we give to you what is your’s.
 
This act of giving to God what is God’s is called blessing.  We can bless anything and everything –we can walk through the world recognizing the hand of the Creator in each minute detail of the natural world.  But most of all, we can bless one another, recognize the image of God in one another.  No matter who the person is, we may say of the other, “Here is a blessed child of God.” 
We bless our enemies and our beloved, those we’re tempted to hold with malice and wish ill upon, as well as those we adore and seek with all our heart to protect from pain.  
“This one is yours’ God,” we say, “I give them to you. I release them to you.”  
“He is yours’ to do with as you will, to call into deeper belonging, fuller life, and truer love.”  “She is yours to hold in tender care, holy wisdom, unfailing connection.” 
“I am yours, God.”
 
Barbara Brown Taylor says “Pronouncing a blessing puts you as close to God as you can get.  To learn to look with compassion on everything that is…to make the first move toward the other, however many times it takes to get close; to open your arms to what is instead of waiting until it is what it should be, to surrender the justice of your own cause for mercy, to surrender the priority of your own safety for love – this is to land at God’s breast.” 
 
Give to God what is God’s, Jesus says.  
Today, when we confirm our tenth grader we are giving him to God.  We acknowledge his belovedness and affirm with him that he belongs forever to God.  Tonight when we gather online to pray healing for our sister from cancer we are giving her to God. We acknowledge her belovedness and affirm with her that she belongs forever to God. When we sing our benediction over each other, we give each other to God. And in a minute, when we lift up one another’s longings, joys and suffering in prayer, we are giving to God what is God’s.  
 
No matter how grim and entangled things appear at any given moment, beloved, we belong to God, not the empire, and we can opt out of the game.  Return to the real reality, find the quiet center, and embrace the generosity and fullness that Christ extends to us all: we belong to God and we belong to each other. 
 
Amen.

CONNECTING RITUAL:

Tonight, when we go to bed, whatever time that is in our home, let us pray in this way and so join our hearts:

God, I am yours.

My life belongs to you, I give it back to you.

I give my life to love. I give my life to hope.

I give my life to being part of your healing and joy in the world.

God, (name of loved one) is yours.

Their life belongs to you, I give it back to you.

I give their life to love. I give their life to hope.

I give their life to being part of your healing and joy in the world.

(Repeat as needed with other names)

God, (name of someone it's difficult to love) is yours.

Their life belongs to you, I give it back to you.

I give their life to love. I give their life to hope.

I give their life to being part of your healing and joy in the world.

(Repeat as needed with other names)