Sermon, October 20, 2002
20 Pentecost -- Proper 22, Year A
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

The Sunday Observance of The Children’s Sabbath 

Gospel – Matthew 22:15-22 God and the Emperor

Today’s Gospel sets a trap for Jesus. If he says "yes" to taxes, he loses credibility, colluding with the oppressive Romans. If he says "no," he is guilty of sedition and subject to arrest and probable execution. But he refuses to accept the terms of the question. He changes the question. "Whose image is this?" The coin bears Caesar’s image. But you and I are created in the image of God. Give to God the things that are God’s. And all things are God’s, especially people, created in God’s own image. You are God’s coins. Therefore give yourself to God and God’s priorities.

It’s an issue of allegiance. Will you give your allegiance and priority to God and to the good of God’s coins, people, the things created in God’s image? Or will you give your allegiance to the power and claims of the state, of mammon and wealth, as a similar passage puts it?

On the annual national observance of the Children’s Sabbath and in the heat of a political election season colored with the shadows of war, Jesus’ eyes and Jesus’ questions penetrate us as well. Where will our allegiance be? To God and to people who are the very image of God, or to other powers and claims?

One of the things I most like about St. Paul’s Church is our reredos window of Jesus welcoming and embracing the children. What a perfect image above our focal point of worship. We are and we strive to be a congregation that is welcoming and embracing of children. It is a picture that communicates a consistent priority of Jesus – his love and advocacy for the vulnerable, the poor, the weak.

I’m am also proud of the ways that this parish works to serve children beyond our walls. We created and we support The Community Clinic at St. Francis House which is Northwest Arkansas’ primary resource for dental care for needy children. It is also a major provider of health care for children and families without health insurance.

We also welcome the most vulnerable children in our community, homeless children, into our Seven Hills Center. And yes, there are homeless children in Fayetteville. We feed hungry children, especially in the summer, through our Community Meals outreach. We collect clothes and school supplies with our Community Kids Closet and School Supplies Sack Drive. Last Sunday we leant our new kitchen and parish hall to the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and helped them raise over $12,000 on behalf of children’s advocacy. And that’s not to mention all of the individuals in our congregation who serve and teach and care for children in their work with schools and non-profits, and all of you who give generously to support them.

Despite those good efforts, one child out of every five Washington County still lives in poverty. Imagine filling this nave with kids, squirming and teeming with life. Then emptying the church and filling it again with children. You would have to do that over thirty times to bring in all 7000+ children who live in poverty in Washington County alone. The percentages are worse in other parts of Arkansas.

There’s a program in Washington D.C. called Martha’s Table. It serves poor and homeless children like some of the children we know in our ministries. As their birthdays approach, the children are asked what kind of special gift they would like. Tony desperately wanted a bike for his twelfth birthday. They had some used bikes, and promised him one. On his birthday, however, Tony quietly approached the supervisor. "I want to change my birthday order. Instead of a bike, I want a bag of groceries for my mom." Then he added softly, "And it has to be things that don’t need to be cooked, because we live in the shelter and we can’t use the stove."

With her heart breaking, the supervisor took Tony into the kitchen and packed two big bags full of food, including a day-old donated lemon meringue pie she put on top of one of the bags. Tony picked up one bag and the supervisor picked up the other to carry them out. As they walked across the parking lot, the bag the supervisor was carrying broke. Broken glass and spilled food were everywhere, and on top of the pile was the birthday pie, now ruined.

The supervisor began to cry. Tony, however, just shrugged his shoulders. He looked at the mound of ruined food – garbage, now – and said, "That’s my life."

Twelve-year-old boys shouldn’t have to make the choice between the bicycle they have always wanted and the food they need to survive. And their lives and future should not feel like a mound of garbage. The cruelest effect of poverty is its capacity to make God’s children feel like they are garbage rather than God’s beloved, made in God’s very image. (Repairers of the Breach, by the Children’s Defense Fund, vol. 11, p. 59)

But Caesar can help. Caesar can help give to God the things that are God’s. It is primarily through our government services that we can work together to nurture and care for our children. If every child is to have access to quality health care, quality child care, and quality educational opportunities, we will work through our government to do that and our taxes will help pay for it. If every child is to grow up free from the scourge of poverty, it will require our corporate political will to make that happen. In a democratic republic, we are Caesar. We tell our leaders what our priorities are – God or mammon; compassion or power; nurture or greed. If children are to be cared for, the adults have to decide to care for them. We have to decide whether all the children are created in the image of God, and thus are our responsibility; or whether they are just created in the image of their parents, and their welfare will simply be the luck of which parents they’ve chosen. How will we frame those very political religious questions?

Political questions are as tricky and deadly as the question the Pharisees and Herodians used to trap Jesus. How the questions, how the issues are framed is sometimes the most important factor in how clearly we can debate and decide what is best for us. The first Caesar knew that. Listen to his ancient advice:

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar. (Julius Caesar)

Jesus refused to accept the terms of the Herodian’s argument. His answer to them was not a mandate to pay or not to pay taxes, but an assertion of God’s absolute authority and priorities. His opponents were exasperated. No wonder. He refused to give a clear direction for what aspects of one’s national duty we should accept. But he did give us an example to follow. He invites us to challenge and question the terms of our nation’s debate. Should military and financial security be unquestionable primary values? What would the children say? (parts of this paragraph borrow from Sojourners on line, The Agitating Word)

We are left with much ambiguity. How do we best honor the image of God in every person and child? How do we best use our corporate power and wealth? How do we respond to the questions of Caesar and of God? Don’t underestimate the craftiness and complexity of the questions. Our system is as complex and entrapping as the world Jesus lived in. Our questions are as life threatening as the question Jesus faced. Jesus’ answer was to remain steadfast and faithful to God, even when the world was coming after him. Can we be as bold?

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