Proper 24-A 10/19/2008
St. Paul’s
Exodus 33:12-23; Psalm 99; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22

Whose head is this, and whose title?

I remember in the 1970s, a lot of people advocated not paying the federal tax on our phone bills, because that federal phone tax went right to the military. Tax resistance was one way people could resist war, and this passage from Matthew was often cited on both sides of that debate. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” No, said the tax resisters, Christians should not pay unlawful war taxes. Yes, said others. Taxes are of this world, and Jesus said we had a duty to support the rulers of this world, even with our taxes, even if our true loyalties lie with God.

I don’t know where you would land on the war tax resistance debate, but the point is, this passage is not about whether religious people should pay taxes; people in 1st century Palestine paid a lot of taxes. Jews had to pay the Temple tax – 21 percent! Everyone had to pay customs taxes on what goods they traded. If you were a farmer (and 90 percent of the population were farmers), two-thirds of what you earned went to the Roman and Jewish elite, through a combination of how much you were taxed and who owned the land you farmed. In those days, they really ensured that the rich got rich and the poor got poorer. But with this coin with the face of Caesar – this was really offensive to Jews, to all Jews, who lived by God’s commandment not to make graven images (remember last week’s story of the golden calf?). This coin with the face of Caesar had to be used to pay the tribute tax to the Roman Empire. If you used this coin with the graven image to pay the tribute tax, you were breaking one of the Commandments handed down by God to Moses. If you did not use this coin – if you did not pay the tax – the Romans would lock you up for sedition, and that is much worse than being audited by the IRS.

Just about everyone who reads this passage from Matthew acknowledges that Jesus knows that his opponents are trying to trick him with this question, and so he cleverly avoids the trap. He dismisses the problem with the coin as not a theological one at all: this coin obviously belongs to Caesar, so give it back to him. So what? It’s only money.

Then he lays out the theological problem: Give to God what belongs to God.

In our lives, what does belong to our equivalent to Caesar? In our lives, what does belong to God? Most of us, most of the time, pay taxes. “Caesar” has to know how much money we have, or how much we spend, in order to tax us, and here in the United States, many people spend a lot of money, both legally and under the table, to avoid paying taxes. A lot of people aren’t even “rendering unto Caesar” but shaving a little (or a lot) off the top before Caesar knows what’s happening.

So what do we do with that money that is NOT rendered unto Caesar? With that money that, in the United States at least, does not go into fixing the roads on which we all drive, or the emergency services we all hope will be there when we need them, or the schools where we learned to read and write? How many people seem to exercise a “preferential option for middle class living over living the gospel?” If we’re not giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s, are we giving to God what is God’s?

Think about it: What is God’s? What do we owe God?

Our good friends the Sisters of St. Margaret are here today to talk about the work they are doing with the people in Haiti whose lives, livelihoods and homes were destroyed or damaged by hurricanes, floods and landslides. I think many people in Haiti were very poor already, like those poor farmers in 1st century Palestine, and like 1st century Palestine, those who own the land and collect the taxes in Haiti get the first cut of whatever the people earn.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s; give to God what is God’s.

Brockton is not a wealthy community. Many of us in this congregation depend on the kindness of others to get through the week. Many of us count on that meal at St. Paul’s Table. Many of us know what it is like to have our homes threatened or even taken from us. Many of us know what it is to lose our jobs or not to be able to make a living. Many of us know the worry of not being able to take care of our children. Some of us cheat a little bit to evade paying taxes, and for others of us, Caesar is very harsh indeed.

We, more than many people, know what the people of Haiti have gone through. We also know how hard it is to offer care and food and shelter day after day to the people who have very little left after Caesar has extracted his due.

We thank you, sisters, for being here today, to remind us that the world is a very small place, and to remind us that as harsh as Caesar can be, this world, and all of us in it, belong to God. Thank you for helping us give to God what is God’s.