The Emperor's and God's.
"Give the emperor what belongs to the emperor and give God what belongs to God."
As the Pharisees and others who listened to the words of Jesus, we also wonder. What do these words, that we know so well, really mean? On the surface it sounds so simple: Give the emperor what the emperor's is. Give the state the tax required, pay what you owe. And give God what belong to God : your faith, your trust, your hope, your prayers and your thanks.
I always come to think of Benny Andersen's poem "Phrases" when I read the gospel of the day. In the poem's terms, the poet turns old famous phrases or sayings upside down giving them a whole new and surprising meaning
No exception without rule (No rule without an exception)
Change scares (Change delights)
It is now or always ( It is now or never)
And then today's reverse phrase
Pay your taxes with joy – changed to Pay your joy with taxes
Which, after all, tells us in the finest and most poetic way to pay our taxes, what we owe, to society and to the others... with pleasure and joy, because we can; because we owe to share what we have, and because of our faith we show gratitude and compassion by paying our fair share.
Benny Andersen's Collected Poems was just one of the many books that I have sorted and laboriously packed into numerous moving boxes for my parents. I was two weeks in DK to celebrate my parents' Diamond Anniversary and also to help to sort and pack their lovely home of 60 years into boxes, so they are ready to move into their new smaller home later this month.
So, I packed and sorted. Packed beautiful Royal Copenhagen porcelain, Holmegaard's glasses and silverware. Emptied drawers and cupboards for hidden treasures and forgotten things. Some had to be saved, moved, and used, others had to be reused through Red Cross Thrift Store, and others had to be thrown out.
It is a laborious and emotional task. To go through 60 years of collections of everyday small and large treasures, because they all matter. It was like sorting a long life, and at the same time diving into my own story. Porcelain, paintings, furniture, photos, books, and much more. All the many things and treasures bought by Mammon or the Emperor’s coins, and yet all these material things are filled with stories, memories and anecdotes from all the years. We can give thanks for all this material treasures, but even more we give thanks for all what we have not paid for directly, but all that has been granted and given: the family, the time, the friends, the years, the experiences and the love.
In today's text, the Pharisees try to trap Jesus, but instead of being trapped, Jesus does what he so often did. He gets very practical and specific. He used real things to show his point. He therefore takes a Roman coin and gives the famous answer: "Give to the emperor what the emperor's is and give to God what God’s is!" Jesus was challenged and responded with a much larger and complex challenge by insisting that the relationship between faith and politics is too complex to be reduced to easy solutions. It is not just either or.
Jesus says the coin belongs to the Emperor, so just give it back. "Simply pay your taxes with joy – or pay your joy with tax." You live in a society, in a democracy, and you pay your fair share.
AND then Jesus looks up from the coin and asks us to consider the much bigger and harder question: what belongs to God? What do you owe God?
The Roman coin that Jesus took up bore the Emperors' image.
As human beings, we are created by God, in God's image. So, we carry God's image in everything we are and do and therefore we owe God everything.
We are in the middle of a Corona time. We are in the middle of an election time. We are amid a time that is divided and where we discuss politics, religion, racism, economics, and taxes. Or rather, we do not discuss; instead, we seem to be simply shouting more and more at each other from our camps. For we are far from agreeing on what or how much to give to the emperor, and what we owe God. Families, churches, friends, and organizations are divided over political, economic, racial, and cultural issues – and we seem to entrench ourselves behind walls of dissent, instead of building bridges of conversation, democracy, and unity.
When we listen to Jesus' speech and when we are reminded of Jesus' actions in the world and among people, we do understand what we owe God: Humility, service, forgiveness, care, generosity, and love.
When we find it difficult to listen to each other, or try to understand each other and live together, - well, just then we must listen to Jesus. After all, he is always talking into the clash between politics and religion, morality and ethics, humanity and freedom. For Jesus requires us to listen to the story about a loving, forgiving, and gracious God in whose image we are created—and perhaps that is precisely what we owe God, especially in this divided difficult time, that we show grace and care and generosity to those we share time and place with. Even if we do not agree. That could be our solemn prayer for post-election time: that we agree to disagree but even more agree to try to listen, to engage and to build bridges.
Figuring out what we owe or pay in taxes is the simple easy part of life. What is much harder is to live with Christian humility and care amid the politically divided times that ours is. A divided time, just like the times of Jesus and his disciples were.
If we truly belong to God, if we genuinely believe that we are created in His image, then we need to exercise our politics and our faith in a way that reflects, who God is.
So, give the emperor what the emperor's is, but remember that what we owe first and foremost is to respond to a power that will remain and maintain power and glory long after the fall or greatness of these earthly emperors and kingdoms. Our first and highest respond is to love and be like the God in which image we are created.
Pay your taxes with pleasure - Pay your pleasure with taxes.
Show your faith with love. - Show your love with faith.
Once all the boxes have been packed and the house emptied. When a long life has been sorted and packed down, then life, joy, experiences, family, friends, years and love are left behind. Everything that can not be bought by the emperor’s coins, but is granted, given and blessed.
And – this is what we owe God thanks for.
Amen.