Taxes and things

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 !

Talk about money is always a little bit controversial in Churches – some people think it should never be mentioned, that it’s somehow a dirty subject, however Jesus taught more about money than any other subject. 

Twenty-seven of Jesus' 43 parables, have to do with money and possessions. One of every ten verses in the gospels deals with money in some way. The Bible includes 500 verses on prayer, fewer than 500 on faith, but more than 2000 on money. 

Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 22:15-22) is one of those passages that deals with money and more precisely taxes. There’s a story about a little boy who wanted £100 desperately. He prayed for one week but nothing happened. Then he decided to write God a letter requesting the £100. when the postal authorities received the letter addressed to GOD UK, they decided to send it on to the Prime Minister. 

The Prime Minister was so impressed, touched and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy £5. The boy was delighted with the £5 and sat down to write a thank you note to God, which read, ‘Dear God, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through 10 Downing Street and, as usual, they took most of it’ !

Taxes and money in general are difficult issues today, perhaps they have been even more highlighted in recent weeks, but they have always been difficult issues over which agreement by all has rarely been forthcoming! It was no different in the time of Jesus. 

Thinking they could catch him out the Chief Priests and the Pharisees asked Jesus whether it was lawful to pay taxes or not. Jesus of course 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 honourabove the emperor, and he had not suggested that the emperor had no power to raise taxes. He had also not lessened the importance of God. 

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

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 and the wider world community – we may not agree with levels of taxation, maybe not the form of it at times, but it’s inevitable that we will have to contribute to the well being and maintenance of our country, and we do that in tax.

But as we think about money or the lack of it we can also remind ourselves of 2 rather corny but pretty accurate sayings, ‘A person is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has’, and the other, ‘To feel rich, count the things you have that money can’t buy.’

In many churches money seems to be a top priority and sadly the impression people often have of the church is that we’re only really interested in money… It is a huge and continuing conflict – we need money to survive – to pay our bills, to maintain our buildings, to share with charities and so on, but money must never govern our thoughts. 

Money is a tool we use in order to glorify God, but it is only one tool – the most important tool we have, the most important resource we have to share God’s glory is ourselves…. 

If churches are seen as just after people’s money then those people will not look beyond that perception to see God… I went to a wedding some years ago now. As any wedding should be it was a great and joyful occasion until the Vicar spent 5 minutes giving both a patronizing and rather desperate plea for money.

It was embarrassing, it was depressing – and many of the people at the wedding would have gone away feeling that the service was just a function as part of the day instead of a ceremony celebrating the gift of love, and reminding people of God’s love for each of us, and his constant care for each of us.  

However necessary money is, and it is, and as Christians we should recognise our need to give as faithful stewards in God’s church, it must never be seen as what the church is about… 

Jesus is highlighting in his answer in the gospel reading the need for us to have a wider picture than money and its uses whilst not ignoring the importance of money one bit – and today 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 ? It is 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. 

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 !

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

I’ll finish with a short verse which says :

Money can buy medicine, but it cannot buy health, 

It can buy a house, but not a home, 

It can buy companionship but not friendship, 

It can buy entertainment but not happiness, 

It can buy food but not an appetite, 

It can buy a bed, but it cannot buy sleep, 

It can buy a crucifix, but not a Saviour, 

It can buy a good life, but not eternal life. 

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