Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle A

Matthew 22:15-21

You really old people may remember the turmoil that was going on in this country during the Viet Nam war.  It was the last time that our country drafted individuals to participate in the war.  I had two college classmates who died in that conflict.  I was in medical school when I was asked to sign a document stating that if drafted I would not cooperate.  Up until then I hadn’t given it much thought because I could see that both sides had a point.  Which side was God on?  My dad, who had enlisted in the military at the beginning of World War II, saw the situation as black and white.  Any good citizen should be willing to take up arms for his country, and Dad thought that the prevention of another country falling to the communists was a noble cause.  One of my professors, who spent a lot of time handing out leaflets and marching in anti-war parades, told us at a so-called teach-in that we had no business telling another country how to govern themselves, especially since they had done nothing to provoke our country.  

I think the deep division in this country at that time was maybe worse than now.  Certainly in my medical school there was very little support for continuing the Viet Nam war.

Today Jesus tells us to  repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.  Those words have been used to separate politics from religion, as well as to support the idea that our duty to our country is nearly absolute, second only to our duty to God.  And unfortunately you can find people who claim to speak for God who are on both sides of the issue.  And of course Jesus himself lived in an era when patriotism as we know it did not really exist.  Jesus belonged to a tribe of people from which the Romans would never tolerate rebellion.  As a subject people the Jews would never have been trusted to become Roman soldiers, and needless to say, crucifixions showed that there were plenty of rebels among the subject people of the Romans.

Look more closely at the gospel.  The tax Matthew is referring to was originally the tax which supported the temple; every Jewish male had to pay it.  The emperor Vespacian, after subjugating the Jewish people, ordered that it be continued, but the collection would go for the uptake of the temple of Jupiter in Rome.  About this time Roman money became the only money you could use to satisfy your obligations to the government, and the denarius coin was roughly the daily wage of a laborer;  it also had a picture of the emperor on it.  The Pharisees had more than one problem with the tax -- first, some felt that paying the tax was acknowledgement that the Romans were their masters.  Second, many felt that a coin with the picture of Caesar on it was idolatry, because the Jews believed graven images were sinful.  Third, the money was going to the uptake of a pagan temple -- the temple of the Roman's highest god.  So they might have asked the question of Jesus to trap him, since he would either get in trouble with the Romans or with the Jewish people who made up his followers, but it was a good question.  But Jesus’ answer is very clever; instead of dealing with the lawfulness of the payment of the tax, he turns his audience to the question of what is Caesar’s and what is God’s.  

Well, everything is God’s, right?  But at the same time God puts people in charge of things.  Saint Paul asked his readers to pray for those in power.  I hope you pray for our politicians no matter which side you are on.  So what is God’s that is not being cared for by a politician, or a farmer, or someone from the human community.  I think the only possible answer is that which no one else can touch, that which does not pass from this ruler to that ruler, from this father to that son -- our human lives.  God gives us the freedom to accept him or reject him -- which also means to offer ourselves to him or live lives devoted to our own intentions.  Nothing is truly mine except for myself.  And that is the only thing I have which I can offer to God. 

Everything in the world is stamped with the image of Caesar.  My house belongs to me -- for now.  My car as well.  Saint Mary’s church technically is owned by the bishop of Springfield -- while he’s alive.  The Cape Cod National Seashore is owned by the citizens of our country, who are represented by the national park service -- until some other Caesar is put in charge.  Everything is stamped with the image of a Caesar -- except you and I, who can choose to be stamped with God’s image, who can choose to belong to God.  Maybe in those short words -- repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God -- we should hear Jesus telling us to give ourselves to God and then all the divisive things in our lives -- public and private -- become much easier to deal with if we belong to God.