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I speak in the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Amen.

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So I typically preach roughly once a month and Jack preaches the rest of them.

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And you'll feel remember the last time that I preached it was about economics and money.

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And then this week I opened it up and it's about not just politics, but politics and taxes.

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And I started to wonder if I had like done something to make Jack upset at something

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I had done.

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So we'll see where this gets us.

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So truthfully we're in the middle of a string of several difficult stories in Matthew's

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Gospel that are all full of parables and lessons that would be difficult for the preacher.

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This week's Gospel reading shows Jesus at his most clever.

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He is masterfully navigating his own difficult situation, side stepping thorny traps laid

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for him by some of his fiercest critics and staunchest enemies.

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In this short passage Jesus not only showcases his ability to evade his opponents, but he

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also has sharp and powerful instructions for his followers, words that resonate through

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the centuries for us today.

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This passage comes to us in the 22nd chapter of Matthew.

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Jesus is now firmly on his way to the cross.

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This story like several that we've heard over the past few weeks takes place between Palm

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Sunday and that triumphant entry into Jerusalem where the crowds were cheering for him and

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adoring him and his betrayal and his death on the cross.

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In this scene Jesus is teaching in the temple.

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And already we've had chief priests and elders who have come to him with difficult questions

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not to learn from Jesus, but to find some way to trip him up, to catch him in a lie,

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a contradiction, an impossible situation.

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And Jesus has evaded all of their questions so far and has told string after string of

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parables designed to turn their tricks back on the people asking them.

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And in this passage Jesus is approached by Herodians or people who supported Herod in

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his reign and the disciples of the Pharisees.

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They too come together in an aphorious mission to trick Jesus.

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They're honorifics, they call him teacher, they call his works and his wisdom good.

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All of it is a ploy.

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The religious powers of the day have already decided that Jesus must go, they have already

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decided that they will be rid of him as soon as possible and in the most convenient means

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possible.

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So the trap that they devise in our gospel today is actually quite ingenious.

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They seemingly leave no good exit strategy for Jesus, no loophole for him to exploit.

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They ask him whether or not Jewish law would permit taxes to be paid to the Roman state

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and the emperor.

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This is a yes or no question that has no good answer.

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If Jesus were to say yes, he risks alienating his followers, the Jews who are being forced

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to pay taxes to a government who is oppressing them, who is taking their land, who is dealing

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harshly with anyone who openly opposes them.

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If Jesus showed even tepid support for the Roman government, the Pharisees and the Herodians

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know that Jesus' supporters, at least some of them, will start to desert him.

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Of course, if Jesus says no and denounces paying taxes to Rome, Jesus will swiftly find

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himself taken in on charges of sedition and insurrection, one of the few crimes that Rome

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dealt with immediately and brutally.

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Jesus says masterfully sides up the issue entirely.

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He invades the question, not only that, but then turns the onus from himself back onto

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his questioners.

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He calls out their schemes and tells them to bring the coins that they use to pay the

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taxes in question.

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And it's here that Jesus has them, the very fact that they're able to produce this coin

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that contains the image of the emperor, a prohibited offense to have any graven image, and the

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temple points to their own blatant and extreme hypocrisy.

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It reveals clearly that their question has nothing to do with taxes or their Roman government

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or even religious convictions.

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When asked by Jesus whose image is on the coin, the questioners reply that it is the

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emperor.

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Jesus then drives the point home further, delivering that punchy and off-quoted line,

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then give to the emperor what is the emperor's and give to God what is God's.

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The Herodians and the emissaries from the Pharisees leave in utter amazement.

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Not only has Jesus defeated their line of questioning, they're carefully and cleverly

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laid out trap, but Jesus has ensnared them himself, dragging their hypocrisy into the

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light, exposing their plots and their designs.

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But for those who sought to harm Jesus, we know how the story will end.

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They will succeed.

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They will indeed find a way to be rid of Jesus whose ministry of love has so pushed them

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into a power struggle that they are desperate to win.

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So this story might actually then cut deeper for those of us who want to follow Jesus, those

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of us who want to pattern our life around Jesus' teachings.

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Jesus in this short and simple but profound phrase leaves much for us to consider about

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our faith and how it should be the lens through which we view the world and the totality of

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our lives.

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Frustratingly the real crux of this gospel reading lies more in what Jesus leaves unsaid

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than in what Jesus says.

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How are we supposed to go about sorting the things in our lives that belong to the emperor

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and the things that belong to God?

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Jesus seems to think that we must know the answer already for he gives no instructions

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beyond that.

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But for us, trying our best to live our lives in good and meaningful ways.

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The answers are not quite as obvious as Jesus would insinuate.

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In grappling with this passage though, it is important for us to understand right at

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the outset that Jesus is not actually instructing us to create a dichotomous world.

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Jesus is not telling us that our lives need to be neatly sorted into two piles.

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Things that belong to the empire and things that belong to God.

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Early things and heavenly things, and Jesus is certainly not telling us that if those

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two categories were to exist that they would be in any way equitable.

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Nothing on earth comes close to competing with what is in heaven.

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But at their very core, in their very essence, all the things in our lives belong to God.

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As the book of first chronicles reminds us, something that many churches say at the offertory

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every Sunday, all things come from God.

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And everything that we give, whether to the emperor or to God, is only because God has

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given to us first.

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So truly in this passage, Jesus is giving us a much simpler instruction.

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Everything belongs to God.

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All of this belongs to God.

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And we have everything that we are.

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And so then, what do we do with that?

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How do we learn to structure our lives in such a way that acknowledges that the gifts

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that we've been given are ultimately from God?

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We're in the middle of a stewardship season where our stewardship committee has asked us

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to do just that, to consider the riches of our time, our talents, and our treasures,

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and how we're using them.

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Just no surprise that they chose the lens of first chronicle to frame this stewardship

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season.

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All things do come from God.

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We're not giving from our own abundance, but we only ever give from God's abundance to

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us.

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Jesus is not naive.

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Of course, our time and our talents and our treasures, our wealth, our gifts, our goods,

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will be used for both worldly things and heavenly things.

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And it's not a bad thing.

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We're not a bad person for doing that.

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But Jesus' message today is more of an urgent and a poignant reminder.

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We cannot, in the push and pull of our lives and the busyness and the fullness of our days,

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we cannot forget to make space for God.

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We cannot forget to set aside the things that belong to God.

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Indeed, in a fully ordered and right life, the kind of life that Jesus desires for us,

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we would set aside those things first, those things that belong to God, and fill in everything

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else after that.

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Jesus is not asking us to split our lives into earthly and heavenly things, things that

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belong to the empire and things that belong to God, because in truth, the whole of our

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lives and everything in them belongs to God.

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The trick for us then becomes learning to use our lives to build up God's kingdom on

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earth through all of our actions and our choices and our moments.

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So if all things come from you, Lord, then in that generous abundance may we learn to

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give generously to.

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Amen.

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Thank you.