I’d like to tell you a story about a young man that ran away from a placement. I was visiting my husband at work one day. He is a police chief in a small town, and we were having coffee in his office. A call came in about a young man who’d run away from his residential placement across the county from us. Howard said “why don’t you ride along with me while we look for this kid….we never find them anyway.” So I scooped up my coffee and drove with him while we went looking for this teenager. We drove around Smithville, which is only a mile square, and didn’t see this child anywhere, so headed back to the police department. Howard got a call saying the young man turned himself into one of the graineries in town, so we turned around and picked him up and put him in the back of the cruiser. Now, he had runaway the night before, and had crossed fields and creeks (where there are no streetlights) and was cold and wet and hungry. So, I’m a mom- I went to the gas station across the street to get him a sandwich and chips, a big brownie and a drink. When I got back, he was shivering, so I went to my car and got a big, thick beach towel and wrapped it around him to try to warm him up.
I left to go back to my office, and then this kid’s mother showed up at the police department. This kid went nuts!! He was fighting and doing everything he could to get at his mother, who was on the other side of the door. My husband fought him for a good 15- 20 minutes, before he got him under control. Turns out, the kid had called his mother to come meet him at the Dollar General store in town, so he could kill her with the knife he’d brought along for that purpose.
So, let’s talk about Matthew’s Gospel. In it, we hear: “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.” ….but we want to know “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor?” I read a commentary about this passage that described the Pharisees as actively opposed to the Roman Empire that was in charge at this time; and the Herodains didn’t necessarily agree with the Empire but worked with it (obviously to their own benefit.) Both groups were united in their dislike of Jesus, so aimed to trip Him up with this question. They are unlikely teammates against Him.
Then He goes on to answer them: “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s”
I want to talk about what we are to give to God? What do we give to God right now? Present day? What do we give to God during this season of deep division of strife and anguish, hurt and sorrow?
Even the Pharisees and Herodians could see that Jesus played no favorites, but treated everyone from the tax collectors and prostitutes to people with high social standing equally.
They themselves recognize the differences in social rank of these people, because they point out the social differences. With Jesus treating everyone equally, He started this revolution which He named the Kingdom of God. He told us time and again that all were welcome into the Kingdom.
Our own Baptismal covenant tells us we are now “marked as Christ’s own forever” So when Jesus says give to God the things that are God’s, one of the things He is talking about is US. All of us. Give ourselves to God. When even the Pharisees know that Jesus does not treat some people better than others, then we know He is calling US to do the same.
When we recognize that even the kids who want to kill their mothers are God’s children…that means everyone is included in being God’s children, then we know how we are called to treat God’s children. Even tax collectors should be treated with love as God’s children. Even Democrats and Republicans and everyone in between should be treated as God’s children.
We need to see Jesus in people. We need to show Jesus to people in ourselves.
That young man in my husband’s office…even when he couldn’t see the Jesus in himself, he needed me to see it in him. Even when I hear someone call me names and try to insult me, I need to try to see the Jesus in him. That’s what this is all about. We are all flawed- we are all in this together and no one gets out aliv
I want people to see- I hope people can see- the Jesus in me…because through all my flaws and mistakes, I know I have Jesus in me. Sometimes people may have a hard time seeing Him in me, but He will always succeed even in my failures. I am called to see the Jesus in other people, because they are all children of God. I work with a lot of different people- addicts, abusers, victims, alcoholics, women, children, men- and Jesus is in all of them.
Look at the people in your homes (if you are watching this on video) and look at your neighbors in this building, and then think about all your neighbors whoever they are. They are God’s children. All. Of. Them. Many of us know the problems that are facing people in our society. I bet many of us can agree on what those problems are, and we may disagree on how to solve those problems. But none of that stops us from serving God and our community by serving the Jesus in them. By giving to God that which is His.
I’m going to paraphrase the reading from Isaiah a little. In it God says: “You may not know who I am!! I have stripped kings of their power; I have leveled mountains! I have broken the iron in the bars; I have destroyed brass gates! And God says I will do these things because I know you by name. This is not the only person God knows by name. He knows all of His children by name.
There is a popular saying: “Won’t He Do It! When folks are praising God. “Won’t He Do It!” What we know from all of these readings is that He is with us…He loves us…He knows us by name… He levels mountains for us….He loves Joe Biden and Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi and you and me….
we need to find common ground and work together…and Won’t He Do it!!
This is not about singing kumbaya around a camp fire, although I’m down with that if anyone wants to do that! There are serious issues we have to face, and we have an election coming that threatens to divide our country if we let it… BUT
We have to remember that God is bigger than all of this.
We have to remember we are all God’s children.
We have to remember He levels mountains for us.
We have to remember that Jesus loves everyone including tax collectors, and people of different political parties,
We have to see Jesus in people even when they cannot see it themselves, and sometimes we have to believe in Jesus in us, even when we have a hard time seeing Him in us.
Let us take the hopeful and joyous words of Psalm 96 and keep them with us. Let us spend our time sharing those words of hope with people we know and like, and the people we don’t know, and people we don’t like.
Let us give to God, that which is His.
Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
Amen.