October 16, 2011 – Exodus 33:12-23; Matthew 22:15-22
Exodus 33:12-23; Matthew 22:15-22
The Image of God
18th Sunday after Pentecost [Lectionary 29] – October 16, 2011
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Jesus has been in a confrontation with the religious leaders since he entered Jerusalem.
It’s the last week of his life in the part of the story we’re in, right?
It’s Tuesday of Holy Week, and here he is trying to hold the religious leaders
accountable for the welfare of their own people: Jesus is making trouble.
So they figure they’ll ask him a trick question,
a question to which there is apparently no good answer.
They ask him if it’s lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, the emperor in Rome.
If he says “No,” then he could be arrested as it was illegal then – as it is now – not to pay taxes.
If he says “Yes,” then he will lose his great popularity with the people,
for the people hated Rome and hated being occupied by the Romans and
really hated paying some of their hard-earned money to an empire that had
moved in with its big army and taken control of their country.
Jesus, apparently, is in a no-win situation. There is no right answer to this question.
But Jesus is smart: he’s not the Messiah for nothing!
He simply says to them, “Show me a coin.”
Interesting, right, that he’s not carrying one: Jesus knows how much trouble is caused by money.
In any case, they show him a coin.
Then he asks them, “Whose image (not ‘head’) is on the coin?” “Whose likeness?”
“Caesar’s,” they say. And of course Caesar’s image is stamped on the coin.
“So,” says Jesus, “give it to him: Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”
Great, they think, we’ve got him! Tricked him into saying it’s okay to support the Romans!
The people will hate him for this!
But before they can gloat too much, Jesus turns to them and says,
“And give to God the things that are God’s.” This answer amazes them, and they walk away.
Jesus 1. Religious leaders 0.
Now it might be kinda fun to preach about taxes today. And there’s a lot a person could say.
It’s a very newsworthy item right now, particularly in the United States,
where raising federal revenues – or cutting federal spending – has become a huge issue.
And it’s been lovely that right at the centre of the debate in the States has been
the third wealthiest man in the world, Warren Buffet, who has now famously asked
the federal government to tax him more and to stop coddling the super-rich.
He has since revealed that last year he paid just 17% of his 63 million dollar income in taxes.
That’s less than his receptionist, he noted. Less than every other single person in his office.
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks, he wrote.
My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/15/warren-buffett-higher-taxes-super-rich)
We pay a portion of our taxes for the common good of all people.
It’s about having hospitals and schools that benefit everyone.
It’s about having structures in place that protect the vulnerable,
for any society’s health, surely, can be measured in how well it cares for the vulnerable.
It’s okay to pay taxes. It’s even good to pay taxes. Jesus says, “Go ahead.”
But there’s something else going on here that’s much deeper than just talk about taxes.
After all, why are the religious leaders silenced when Jesus simply says,
“Give to God the things that are God’s”?
Well, he’s looking at a coin, right? A coin with the emperor’s image on it.
What you need to know is that Jesus is making an allusion to the Bible,
to the very first chapter of the Bible, to the story of the first man and the first woman.
To the verse that reads, So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Jesus is saying that the coin was made in Caesar’s image, so give it to him,
remembering of course that Jesus doesn’t care much for money.
But you, Jesus is saying, you are made in God’s image, so give yourselves,
all of yourselves, to God. Live into the image of God you’re created to be.
It is, an amazing answer. You never want to get into an argument with Jesus.
It is, an amazing answer. . . . But what does it mean?
I mean it sounds great but if you’re made in God’s image what, after all, does God look like?
Supposedly poor old Moses this morning can’t even have a glimpse of God’s face
or he’ll burn up because supposedly no one can look on God and live.
Sure, he gets a glimpse of what many have called God’s “backside,”
which has been a source of jokes for centuries.
But not even Moses gets to see what God looks like.
So what does that mean for us who are supposed to be created in God’s image?
I suppose the Sunday School answer is that no one has ever seen God.
We don’t know what God looks like, really. Certainly not an old man with a white beard.
I think this is a very convenient answer for many people because then they can fashion God into
whatever image they like.
But, wait a second, not even that text about Moses today will let us off that easily.
God does reveal God’s name to Moses, right? It has the consonants YHWH in it.
When you see the word “The LORD” in capital letters that’s what it really says, YHWH and
That YHWH name that is so sacred we don’t ever say it in church or see it in our Bibles.
It means, I am who I am, right? Or I will be what I will be? Which is pretty vague, let’s face it.
But in today’s reading, God gets rather more specific about the divine character.
Yes, God says, I am YHWH, and I will be what I will be, but then God goes on and says further
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and merciful to whom I will be merciful.
God’s nature is fundamentally mercy. And grace. And compassion. And forgiveness.
And inclusiveness. And healing. That is just who God is. And that is good news.
God is not fundamentally anger. God is not fundamentally apathy.
God is not fundamentally greed. God is not fundamentally self-obsessed. God is love.
So: Has anyone seen God and lived? Well, yes, actually.
The religious leaders Jesus is in dispute with today are looking right at him.
And they walk away from him. And in a few days time, they’ll put him on a cross.
And that is where God’s glory is most fully revealed.
That is where YWHW is most fully seen. That is where God is most merciful.
That is where God is most gracious. That is where God is most forgiving. And most loving.
What does God look like? Like Jesus: that’s why we worship Jesus.
That’s why we come here every week to incorporate ourselves deeper into Jesus’ story.
That’s why we come here to take Jesus into our selves: so we can show his likeness more.
Jesus is the image of God and you, you are created in the image of God who looks just like Jesus.
You’re not made in the image of a professional athlete and you’re not
made in the image of a movie star and you’re not made in the image of a billionaire.
You’re made in the image of a God who is merciful. Who is love. Who looks like Jesus.
Who are you, at bottom? You’re not petty. You’re not vindictive. You’re not power hungry.
You’re not greedy. You’re not despairing. You’re not small. You’re not apathetic.
You’re caring. You’re compassionate. You’re forgiving. You’re loving.
You might be some of those other things some of the time. But at bottom you’re a being of love.
That is who your true self is. And until that is actualized in deeds of self-giving,
you will never feel whole or complete.
So, Jesus says, give yourselves to God. To the God of all grace and all mercy.
To the God whose mission it is to heal, bless and love this world and every single person in it.
Give yourselves to this God and this mission, says Jesus. Give yourselves without reserve.
Let every decision you make be informed by it: what you buy and how you spend your time.
God’s likeness – the likeness of Jesus – is stamped on you,
and so you were created for noble, life-giving things.
You were created for the common good of all people. So give yourself. All of yourself.
Back in the day in what is now France and Belgium, the Gauls, a warlike people,
were conquered by the Romans were visited by Christian missionaries.
When they were baptized by immersion in the nearest lake of river, they’d hold one arm
out of the water rather than being totally submerged.
The missionaries puzzled over this until they figured out the reason.
When the next battle came along, the baptized Gaul could say, “This arm has not been baptized”
and so could grab his sword and go kill his enemies with it.(www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt22x15.htm)
Well, before we judge the Gauls too harshly we should probably take the log out of our own eye.
We too are adept at ways of trying to keep parts of ourselves and parts of our lives free from
the influence of baptism.
We too are adept at ways of dividing our lives up into neat segments so that
some of them can remain free from God’s lordship.
We’re especially good at this when it has to do with money.
I think Jesus is inviting us to really ponder the question:
What belongs to God? And what belongs to Caesar?
If everything, ultimately, belongs to God – if as it says in Psalm 24, the earth is the LORD’s
and all that is in it – what do we owe to God and God’s mission to bless this world?
How does our faith shape our economic decisions: our buying and saving and giving?
If we are made in the image of God – if our true selves are made in the very likeness of Jesus –
what does it mean for the way we live,
for how we spend our money and how we spend our time?
When people look at us and how we spend our time and
how we spend our money will they see Jesus?
When people look at our community, our congregation of First Lutheran Church,
will they see Jesus? Will they see God? Will they see grace? Will they see mercy?
I think Kids Klub shows this God image.
I think our hospitality to guests shows this God’s image.
I think Food Bank shows this God’s image.
I think our treatment of children shows this God’s image.
I think our Meal Teams show this God’s image.
And I think our treatment of the vulnerable shows this God’s image.
I’ll say next week on Reformation Sunday, part of being a reforming church means
reforming for the sake of being able to show this God’s image more and more clearly.
So that when people look at us and what we do – in worship and out of worship –
they’ll see the God of all compassion and all grace clearly and plainly.
You are showing this God already, and to many.
And so, like Paul giving thanks to God for the Philippians this morning, I want to
give thanks for all of you, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
So let the assembly say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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