First Reading: Isaiah 45:1-7
1Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped
to subdue nations before him
and strip kings of their robes,
to open doors before him—
and the gates shall not be closed:
2I will go before you
and level the mountains,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron,
3I will give you the treasures of darkness
and riches hidden in secret places,
so that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I surname you, though you do not know me.
5I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
6so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7I form light and create darkness,
I make wealth and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things.
Psalm: Psalm 96:1-9 [10-13]
1Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2Sing to the Lord, bless the name of the Lord;
proclaim God’s salvation from day to day.
3Declare God’s glory among the nations
and God’s wonders among all peoples.
4For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised,
more to be feared than all gods.
5As for all the gods of the nations, they are but idols;
but you, O Lord, have made the heavens.
6Majesty and magnificence are in your presence;
power and splendor are in your sanctuary.
7Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord honor and power.
8Ascribe to the Lord the honor due the holy name;
bring offerings and enter the courts of the Lord.
9Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness;
tremble before the Lord, all the earth.
10Tell it out among the nations: “The Lord is king!
The one who made the world so firm that it cannot be moved will judge the peoples with equity.”
11Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad;
let the sea thunder and all that is in it; let the field be joyful and all that | is therein.
12Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy at your coming, O Lord, for you come to judge the earth.
13You will judge the world with righteousness
and the peoples with your truth.
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
2We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. 6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, 7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. 9For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22
15Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] 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.
CHILDREN’S SERMON: Let me share one of my favorite poems again. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Let us pray: Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart glorify you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Help us as we ponder the roads we choose today.
SERMON
As I write this sermon, I am aware of the life choices I made, the path I chose, in marrying my husband and the repercussions of that choice. “It made all the difference.” Thank you all who prayed me through the funeral last Saturday and thank you for the beautiful bouquet of flowers.
I am also aware that some of the questions dominating the news in the US this week are issues that divide people like the question in our text about Caesar’s coin. Who do we pay taxes to? We polarize red and blue over presidential candidates. We polarize over the Middle East conflict. We are tired of Russia – Ukraine conflict. Those are only a few issues that are divisive today. Paying taxes to the emperor, to Caesar, became a litmus test of Jesus’ allegiance, of the condition of his heart. We stand and stare at the roads in front of us and avoid talking with others about our choices for fear of being lectured or alienated. Jesus faced the same dilemma.
17Tell us, then, what you think.
Jesus is in Jerusalem, the Washington DC of the Jewish world. He is at the Temple, the center of government, and he is before leaders. He is in the public eye. I’m guessing CNN would have loved to be there covering that moment. The pundits would have spent at least an evening debating the whys and wherefores of the conversation.
We have Matthew’s report, though. Matthew is in the middle of telling us about the last week of Jesus’ life. We have been reflecting on Jesus’ parables given about the kingdom of heaven. Judaism was compared to God’s vineyard, and the religious leaders seem to have been the bad guys. Accountability was predicted and the leaders’ feathers were ruffled. The Jewish leaders now are “plotting to entrap Jesus” and so they set him up. “Tell us, then, what you think.” I would suspect they do not genuinely want to know what Jesus thinks. It is a set up question to get Jesus to say something they can hold against him. We know this tactic. Before I can give my answer to a question, the other is already giving me feedback. The leaders are threatened, plotting and so open with a setup.
In today’s text, two sides, Pharisees and Herodians, come together to ask Jesus a question designed to entrap. Both are groups within the Jewish system but Pharisees are defenders of Mosaic Law, defending Jewish spiritual tradition, and Herodians are defenders of the Herod dynasty, involving Jewish political tradition. Pharisees are like the rule writers and Herodians are like those who carry out the rules. We might say the legislators and the police unite. They unite to tackle a common enemy, Jesus.
“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?”
Caesar represents the hated Roman emperor that abuses all of them. To what extent must the Jews obey a repressive, abusive regime? This is a moral, ethical question but it is also a legal or political question. We stand at the intersection of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world. Twice in the text we are told the intent of the question is “to entrap” and asked with “malice.” Jesus even went to far as to call the questioners “hypocrites.” Ouch! But that does not change the fact that our faith is often lived out in a world of murky forces and in response to difficult choices. Our civil responses occur within the context of our religious beliefs. Both systems bear weight on us. Life is like a coin with two sides. We answer to God in a world of political powers.
I am compelled to obey the speed laws but I am also told by faith to forgive the guy who cuts me off in traffic and not give him the finger. Hmmm. I am compelled to pay taxes but the honesty with which I respond is a matter of conscience. It reminds me of the moral dilemma our generation faced in deciding how to respond to the draft for the Viet Nam war. Clear but not so clear. Our faith is lived in a context. Our responses often reveal the intent of our heart. The question was a genuine dilemma facing people but the asking of it revealed the intents of the askers’ heart. We must obey the law…but…which law – God’s, human, and if they contradict what do we do? As we respond to situations, we must always check the motives of our heart and then act.
“18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said,
“Why are you putting me to the test,
you hypocrites?”
Jesus does not avoid the question because it is malicious or murky, designed to entrap him. He stands firm in the midst of the mess. Jesus stands firm in the midst of our chaotic choices we face too. For many it is difficult to find God in the midst of situations that challenge faith. In the face of death, war, poverty and disease, we often throw up our hands and ponder, where is God. How can a God of love allow the civil reality of injustice? Our pain and discomfort blinds us to a bigger reality and we forget that we live in this kingdom of this world that is fallen and we live by a spiritual reality that is eternal. God is working and answering our questions and not afraid of our dilemmas. Jesus does not zap the Pharisees and the Herodians but uses their duplicity as a teaching moment.
“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s,
and to God the things that are God’s.”
Jesus answers. We live in two realities. We must give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and give to God that which is God’s. When we burn the candle at two ends, we must not be surprised if we burn out. If we dabble with pornography, is it a surprise there are marital problems? If we play with fire, we get burned. Disease kills people and at the same time our lives are in God’s hands. Faith grows in this tension.
But we must also give to God, that which is God’s. Now here comes the bind. Works measures our civil responsibilities but our spiritual responsibilities are issues of loyalty and allegiance and our response to situations often reveal our heart’s allegiance. When I choose to forgive the idiot who is slow on the take-up at the traffic signal, it says something about faith. When I treat the stranger with kindness, I live out faith. Next week we will focus on Reformation and the truth that we are saved by grace, through faith to do good works. Our good works do not save us but are an expression of our love of God. Giving to God is loving God with our whole heart, our whole mind, and with all our strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves. The two sides of the life coin are seen as we respond to events. Justice of Caesar can be tempered with mercy from God. Hate for evil deeds is answered with love found in forgiveness. Sin is met with second chances. Civil rules have a flip side in spiritual rules that are different.
So. Let’s go back to our original scenario, the debates we are living with today in our culture. I would not want to end this sermon leaving the impression that there is only one way, one candidate, one perspective that speaks into our quandaries today. The answer is not Republican or Democrat. Fortunately good, godly people stand on both sides of the isles on these issues and we have the freedom to engage them in public debate even as Jesus engaged people who questioned him, in the Temple. Jesus stands in the middle of the issues that confuse us and calls us to honor both Caesar and God with what belongs to each.
The last line to the text today comforts me, “2When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.” Coming to Jesus diffuses some of the malice and drive to entrap the other. Engaging with God and not just arguing our case defuses arguments and anger. God’s wisdom goes beyond our reasoning. As we go to the polls, we submit to our civil system of choosing leaders. But as we ponder our choices we submit to a God who sees our hearts and sees what malice may be lying therein. May we never forget “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)” Our enemy is not our neighbor.
Our prayer, “May people be awed by our love of God and may political unrest and violence be avoided.”
Let the people of God say, “AMEN!”
On the Way to Wonder 