Give to God the things of God

 

In the film ‘Oh God’ which came out in the late 1970’s, the idea was mentioned that the reason God gave Adam and Eve no clothes to wear was because God knew that once they had clothes, they would want pockets, and once they had pockets, they would want money ! 

 

Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 22:15-22) deals with money and more precisely taxes but perhaps more importantly, it also addresses the question of priorities and commitment and where those things should be directed. 

 

Taxes and money in general are difficult issues today, and so is the whole issue of commitment to civil authorities. Today we are thinking about and celebrating the coronation of King Charles next Saturday… We’re praying for him and for all involved in positions of national authority… But we’re also thinking about our role as Christians in a country today where faith isn’t an established priority, but where the love and power of Jesus remain as relevant as they ever have been…   

 

Going back to our gospel reading, we hear the Chief Priests and the Pharisees asking Jesus whether it was lawful to pay taxes or not. This wasn’t part of some interesting debate that they wanted !  They hoped and thought they could catch him out, and Jesus knew that and he didn’t answer their question – he asked them to produce a coin and look whose head was inscribed on it. When they looked and said the emperor, Jesus replied by saying ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’

 

To this statement they could give no reply – he had not claimed honour above the emperor, and he had not suggested that the emperor had no power to raise taxes. He had also not lessened one bit the importance of God. 

 

And one of the reasons why this incident is so powerful is that it actually reminds us that, as Christians, we are called to live in 2 worlds – the world of the spiritual and the world of the secular, and far from the 2 not being allowed to overlap as some people like to suggest, they actually constantly overlap – it is not possible to seperate our faith and the practice of it from what we do every day of the week. 

 

And so we can’t ignore the questions, sometimes the conflicts between faith and secular society, between government and church… All of these things are about people, and we are concerned about people – when we look at our churches we are constantly reminded of the need for growth, for a need to confidently and passionately work for, pray for and expect growth, and we do that as part of our communities, whilst offering a message that is often very different to that offered by so many others…. 

Growth in our churches is for very practical reasons, but the practical is outweighed massively by the need to share a message that is life changing and life enhancing for everyone who recognises it.

Let’s go back to money briefly. Money is an important part of life – we all need it and we often think we don’t have enough of it – somebody once said, ‘Money talks – mine keeps saying “Goodbye”. 

Whether as individuals or as Churches we need money, and we also need to recognise our duty to our communities as well as the wider world community – the gospel reading talked about taxes and that’s just another reminder that taxes are an inevitable solution to enable us to contribute to the well being and maintenance of our country. We honour the civic rules when just and lawful. We recognise our need to serve others just as Jesus served others, and we also hold tightly and proudly to our faith as an absolute priority. 

 

Our celebration today of the King’s coronation next week is about honouring an institution that we trust will be good. We honour the work for justice and peace. We honour the opportunities the role of the monarch offers, and we pray for Charles in his work… And as we do so, we are challenged to wonder what that honouring means – and what priority we give it in our lives…. The gospel emphasises the importance of civil authorities but also reminds us that God is God and it is to him that we ultimately answer… 

 

The gospel is directly about money and taxes on the surface, but it’s about much more than that… Jesus is highlighting in his answer to those who were seeking to catch him out, and to us today I think, the need for us to have a wider picture than money and how we use it, whilst not ignoring the importance of money one bit – but enough about money…  rather than think any more about the exciting subject of money and tax, I want to think about what Jesus said about giving to God the things that are God’s. 

 

What are those things ? Well, they are surely to seek to display the fruits of the Spirit that God gives us as wonderful gifts of his grace and I think inevitably we must start with love – it’s something that can never be bought or forced, it’s something that comes from deep within us. ‘Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbour as yourself’ are the 2 great commands. That is what God desires, and that is what God deserves. As he loves us unceasingly we must surely love him too !

 

As the devoted father who is prepared to give anything for his child, God exceeds all of our expectations and hopes. As the comforter and support, God is there for us, as the strength, he is alongside us, as the wisdom and inspiration, he is our guide. 

As we recognise the role of King Charles, as we think about the roles of governments and others in authority, we trust that they will seek to do some of these things – imperfect though they may be at times, just as we all are, but we seek to follow and emulate the one who is perfect and who revealed and continues to reveal his love, his grace, his mercy everywhere and who invites us constantly to join in with his work in the world… 

 

And the wonderful thing about God is not that he wants us to praise him and forget others – God is not self-centred, but is concerned and compassionate towards everyone, and our duty to other people comes just as highly as our duty towards him. 

 

The love that we show him in our lives, the prayer and the worship and praise, mean nothing if we are not showing those things to other people in the way we live our lives ! 

There’s a wonderful but really challenging quote which says, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” (Dorothy Day). As Christians we have a duty to be good citizens in the world, to respect and honour those laws and rules which are established, whilst having the responsibility to uphold the need to care for everyone, to love our neighbour…

 

Giving to God the things that are God’s means giving our lives to him to be transformed by his wonderful power. To be transformed in a way that no earthly success or material wealth can ever transform us. And to help positively transform the lives of others. 

 

May God give us the wisdom to seek and to know the things that are his, and the vision to offer them all to him for his praise and for the good of everyone. AMEN