WHOSE COIN

AM I:

CAESAR’S OR GOD’s?

OPENING IMAGE

Poets often see what others don’t see and point out in their poems what we could have seen, but didn’t see. 

For example, take Michel Quoist, a priest and a poet. In his book called  Prayers, now a classic, he wrote a poetic prayer entitled, “Prayer Before A Twenty Dollar Bill.”

Everybody would notice the “20” on a twenty dollar bill. Some people might notice Andrew Jackson’s picture on it, but wouldn’t most people stop there?

Quoist looked at a twenty dollar bill and began to imagine the history of that particular bill. He began to imagine its secrets. He wondered how many hands did it pass through? How many people possessed it for a few hours? Did anyone cheat for it? Did anyone fight for it? Who worked for it?

He imagined it being used to buy roses for a fiancee - food for a baby - bread for the family table - a book to teach a child with - clothes for a young girl. He also sees it used to buy stamps to send a letter to break an engagement. Was it used to help pay a doctor for an abortion? Was it used to buy liquor by a alcoholic? Was it used to produce a movie unfit for children or an indecent song? Was it used to buy a weapon for a crime or wood for a coffin?

Those are some of things a poet might see in a twenty dollar bill. He ends his prayer by talking to the Lord, who knows the history and the mystery of that $20 dollar bill, who knows its joyful and sorrowful mysteries, and thanks the Lord for the good it was used for and forgiveness for the harm it might have been added to.

HOMILETIC REFLECTIONS

When we listen to today’s gospel, we might be surprised  that Jesus didn’t even know whose picture or whose image was on a common coin.

Didn’t Jesus the poet and the person of prayer ever look at a coin? Didn’t Mary ever give Jesus a coin to play with while she was preparing supper? Didn’t Joseph ever take Jesus up on his lap and teach him history with the use of money? Didn’t Joseph receive coins for work done as a carpenter? Or was everything done by barter: a loaf of bread for fixing a chair, a jug of wine for fixing a door?

We don’t know. Yet we do know that Jesus taught a great lesson in today’s gospel from a common coin: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.” That sentence, that saying of Jesus, certainly has gotten a lot of mileage down through the centuries. The version most of us are familiar with is: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” It’s one of those Biblical sayings that everyone seems to remember. We’ve all heard politicians and preachers use it down through the years. 

Jesus must have had some idea of the political situation of his day. Roman soldiers could be seen in the streets and on the roads of Palestine since they had conquered Jerusalem 63 years before his birth. He must have known about the crunch of high taxes and the endless disputes in the temple about paying taxes to the foreigners - whether paying taxes to the Romans was against the Jewish religion or what? He must have know that the Zealots, a Jewish revolutionary group refused to pay taxes or cooperate with the Romans. He surely didn’t just spend all his time looking at birds of the air. He had to know what was happening on the ground.

When we listen to today’s gospel, it’s obvious that once more Jesus is being set up for an attack. In the section of the gospel of Matthew where today’s gospel comes from, it’s the third attempt by the Pharisees of Jerusalem to discredit Jesus before the crowd. Were these Pharisees scared of Jesus because the day before he came into Jerusalem in the big “Palm Sunday parade” with crowds praising him on all sides? Were they angry at him because the day before he also expelled the money changers from the temple? Were they trying to get back at him because today he told three parables, all of which were aimed directly at them? In this third attack they sent some of their disciples and a few Herodians to try to trap him. They tried to put him between the horns of a dilemma, between a rock and a hard place, by asking him if it were permissible to pay taxes to Caesar of not. And Jesus slides through their trap with his classic answer, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.”

For Christian communities in the years that followed, these words of Jesus were saved and used to deal with serious questions on how to be a good citizen and how to be a good Christian.

Without falling into the trap of being dualistic or the trap of trying to be a citizen of just one world (here or hereafter?), Jesus’ words are a good slogan or motto to keep in mind.

We need politicians. We need government. We need laws and courts and roads and police. We pay taxes and tolls and we benefit from some tax money. We trust most of our food and our medicines because of F.D.A. approval.

All of us can’t be chiefs. Some of us need to be Indians. And we know that some leaders are good public servants. Some people in city hall help us. In today’s first reading we heard about Cyrus who conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. and granted freedom to all the people who had been forced to live and work there. As a result the Israeli’s were able to go home. We have seen leaders like that arising in Eastern Europe in our time and we hope that more leaders, who will free people instead of enslaving them,  will come forth in the future.

So we need our Caesar’s and our Cyrus’. But we also need our God. We need to render our lives to both. That’s what Jesus’ words tells us today.  Jesus’ words have a nice balance to them. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.”

But they are just words until we live them. So the next step is to do what Paul recommends in today’s second reading. What Jesus says in the gospel are not just a matter of mere words, but they have power. And that power is the power of the Holy Spirit, the power that comes with the realization that we have been chosen. We are the beloved of God. Therefore, we have the power to give to God what is God’s and to Caesar, what is Caesar’s.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Now to be practical, today’s words of Jesus are like a good bumper sticker message. They are a good sign to hang on a wall in front of us. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.”

Let’s take Caesar and God one at a time: first Caesar, then God. I hope God won’t mind being put in second place.

1) Caesar can be anyone: our boss, our spouse, our children, our parents, our local community. We are called to serve others. We are our brother’s and our sister’s keeper. We are called to render service and love to our neighbor. We are called to be good citizens.

In his “Essay on Civil Disobedience”, Henry David Thoreau makes reference to Jesus’ words about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Written back in 1849 it still has challenge after challenge for the Christian and the citizen of today. He calls us to challenge any government, local or national - and we could add church - that is self serving and gets in the way or has lost its integrity. “Let every man - and today we would add “woman” - make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward attaining it.” He points out that our government is so often the rule of the majority and often issues are dealt with not on the basis of justice or conscience, but on physical strength and expediency. The result is the poor and the minority lose. He makes an interesting interpretation of Jesus’ words. Since you Herodians “gladly enjoy the advantages of Caesar’s government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands it.” Then Thoreau adds, “`Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and to God those things which are Gods’ - leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.”

If we wish to know how to be a good neighbor, how to be a good citizen, a good worker, a good spouse, a good parent, often it’s not giving the other  money, it’s giving them our time and our very self. Too many parents give money or the games money can buy to get rid of their kids. Once more the gospel challenges us with tough issues. Is their anyone in our life whom we are not rendering service to?  Is there a soup kitchen or a nursing home in our area that needs volunteers? Is there a rescue squad that could tax us with a bit of our time? Or to return to actual taxes, is there any use of tax money that needs to be protested? These are the kind of questions that should tax us.

2) Next we come to God. Are we giving God his due? Do we pray? Do we worship? Do we acknowledge God as our Creator not just in word, but in deed? Do I really believe that God made me for a purpose, that God has an actual plan for me?

Jesus looked at the coin and asked whose image or picture or head was on it. They answered, “Caesar’s.” If Jesus looked at us and asked whose image or picture is on us, what would we answer? Every once and a while it’s a good idea to look in a mirror for 5 minutes - 300 seconds. Try it. It’s a good meditation. Stare at your face and into your eyes and ask, “Whose image am I? Who am I? Who owns me? Who do I work for? What am I about? Why was I created? Can I be bought? Do I have a price?”

And hopefully we will answer, “I am God’s. I am made in the image and likeness of God. I’m not just Caesar’s”. Aren’t we God’s coin - created and minted by God? Who else but God could put together a computer as great as our brain? Who else could make a camera as great as our eyes? Who else could make a speaker as great as our voice? Who else could make a vacuum as great as our mouth? We are billion dollar machines with God’s image on us.

When we look back on our life, we have to admit we often sold ourselves out for much less. Who of us picture ourselves as valuable as a billion dollars? My God, don’t we see ourselves more like the $20 dollar bill that Michael Quoist mentioned earlier? And like that $20 dollar bill, we have often done things we want to keep secret.

We sit here in Church every Sunday knowing where we have been last week. We know whether we earned our pay last week or whether we were on eternal coffee breaks. We know whether we gave our kids the time of our lives. We know whether we treated the gigantic coin called earth with God’s image also stamped on it well last week or whether we tarnished it.

CONCLUSION

We know down deep whether we are giving to God and whether we are giving to Caesar. And hopefully we also know  what Michel Quoist said at the end of his “Prayer Before a Twenty Dollar Bill,” “O Lord, I offer you this bill with its joyous mysteries, its sorrowful mysteries. I thank you for all the life and joy it has given. I ask your forgiveness for the harm it has done.”

We can take his prayer and say a prayer for ourselves, “O Lord, I offer you my life with its joyous mysteries, its sorrowful mysteries. I thank you for all the life and joy you have given me. I ask your forgiveness for all the harm I have done.”