St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
Church of the
Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
October 22, 2017
Year A, Proper 24:
The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 45: 1-7
Psalm 96:1-13
1 Thessalonians
1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22
The Occupation of Our Hearts
A
couple of weeks ago there was a story in The
New York Times about the decline and fall of stamp collecting.
It
seems that kids today just aren’t interested in collecting these little bits of
paper and gum, these small works of art, so the average age of stamp collectors
is steadily rising, and the market for all but the rarest of stamps is drying
up.
In
the age of email and the Internet and all the rest of it, stamps and stamp
collecting have become quaint relics of the increasingly distant past.
This
article caught my attention because as a kid I was a very avid stamp collector,
spending many happy and solitary hours arranging and poring over my collection.
I
was the kid who went to the post office the first day a new stamp was issued,
the nerd who pestered the clerk for a rarely used stamp in an odd denomination.
Some
of my happiest childhood experiences were when my parents would take me to
Gimbel’s in Herald Square, which had a remarkable Stamp Department (Macy’s did,
too, but it was nowhere near as good!).
I
would look longingly at the many cabinets filled with interesting stamps from
all around the world – and, usually, my parents would let me buy a set or two
so I could fill a gap in my collection.
Good
times.
For
whatever reason, I was especially interested in stamps from the many British
colonies, large tracts of land in Africa and the islands dotting the Caribbean
Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
For
the most part, in the British Empire the stamps were very similar. Often they
would depict some local landmark or some example of flora and fauna, but a good
bit of the stamp’s real estate was taken up with an image of the Queen, either
her picture or her silhouette.
For
some of you, these are the stamps you grew up using, right?
I
didn’t think about this as a kid, but each time that somebody in one of the
colonies licked one of these stamps and stuck it on an envelope, they got a little
reminder that they were not in control over their own land, a reminder that
they were occupied by a faraway foreign power, a power that cared more about
its own wealth and prestige than the well-being of colonial peoples, a power
that was represented by the monarch’s face right there on the stamp.
And,
the same was true of the coins, too.
As
we heard in today’s Gospel lesson, there’s nothing new about this strategy.
For
example, the Romans put the image of the Emperor on the coins that were used
throughout their vast empire, in lands stretching from Britain itself all the
way to Judea, to the land of Jesus and his fellow Jews of the first century.
The
Gospels were written by people living in the Roman Empire.
The Gospels were
written by people who wanted to survive
living in the Roman Empire, and wanted their new faith to survive, too. So,
they tend to downplay Roman brutality (think of Pilate washing his hands of
responsibility for the death of Jesus). The Gospels instead tend to turn the
priests and the Pharisees into the villains of the Jesus story, unfortunately
and tragically setting the stage for two thousand years of Christian hatred and
violence against Jews.
But,
the truth is that the people of Israel, the people that Jesus lived among,
chafed under Roman rule – they didn’t like it one bit.
They
resented the Roman occupation of the land given to them by God.
They
despised paying taxes, giving their meager resources to the faraway emperor and
his government, who ruled brutally and selfishly, completely lacking in empathy
for the suffering of ordinary people in their vast Empire.
This
is why the tax collectors were so bitterly despised in the time of Jesus – they
were Jews working for the occupiers.
And,
the Jews hated using coins bearing the image of the Emperor, these little idols
that reminded them over and over that they were an occupied people.
From
time to time the Jews rebelled against Roman rule and each time the Romans
crushed these rebellions and executed those who had dared to rise up, a warning
to others who might get ideas about challenging Rome.
In
first century Jerusalem, crucifixions were not uncommon at all.
So,
that’s the unspoken but very real and harsh backdrop of today’s gospel lesson.
As
usual, there’s tension between Jesus and other religious authorities. This time
we’re told it’s the disciples of the Pharisees and also a group called the
“Herodians,” who presumably supported Herod, Rome’s puppet king.
They
ask Jesus,
“Is
it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”
The
author of the Gospel tells us that they asked Jesus this question to trap him,
and maybe so, though I always wonder if maybe they just honestly wanted to hear
his opinion on this sensitive issue.
Anyway,
if they were trying to trap him they fail because Jesus holds in his hand one
of the Roman coins, one of these little idols, and replies with a very
Jesus-like answer:
“Give
(therefore) to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the
things that are God’s.”
We’re
told that his questioners were amazed by this answer and get away from him as
fast as they can.
Jesus
of Nazareth was a first century Jew, so I’m sure that, like his Jewish brothers
and sisters, he was unhappy with the Roman occupation.
I’m sure that he
was horrified by his countrymen crying out in agony from crosses, that he was
angered by the indignity of Roman troops and officials in the land of Israel.
The
Roman occupation was brutal, but, the
truth is, that Jesus the Son of God is much more concerned with the occupation
of our hearts.
So,
yes, send the coins to the emperor, the brutal man in the capital city who
fancies himself a god and cares nothing for our suffering, send him his coins
for as long as the Romans occupy our land.
But,
here’s the thing: despite the very real suffering and indignity, despite the bloody
cruelty and violence, despite his image being all over the place, don’t let
the emperor occupy your heart.
Instead,
give your heart – give all that really matters - to God and God alone.
Because,
someday the emperor will be gone, and someday even his whole empire will
vanish, but, after all that and much more, God will continue to reign.
What
Jesus knew was that God is hard at work building a kingdom, a kingdom founded
not on violence and greed, but a kingdom based on love and generosity.
And,
you and I are invited to help build that kingdom.
We
build God’s kingdom each time we open our doors and feed people who can never
repay us, maybe even people we don’t like or even trust.
We
build God’s kingdom each time we pray for others, people we know and those we
don’t, people we love and those we may despise, and, yes, even the person who
may think he is the emperor of today.
We
build God’s kingdom each time we break down the barriers that divide us, black
and white, haves and have-nots, Democrats and Republicans, lifelong Christians
and those who don’t believe a word of it, …
And,
yes, Incarnation and St. Paul’s.
We
help to build God’s kingdom each time we love and take the side of the
oppressed and the outcasts, the colonized people of today, the people of Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands, so many of whom are still without water and electricity, the people of color harassed
day after day by those in charge, the worker whose labor isn’t respected or properly
compensated, and, yes, the tiny minority of our fellow Americans who volunteer
and are sometimes sent to faraway lands most of us have never heard of, to
fight and die in wars most of us don’t understand.
Yes,
Jesus was well aware of the brutal Roman occupation of his homeland, but he
recognized that the emperor’s power was only temporary.
So,
go ahead, pay the tax.
But,
Jesus was much more concerned with not letting the emperor occupy our hearts.
Jesus teaches us
that, no matter who may seem to have
the power in this moment, loving God and doing God’s work must be the
occupation of our hearts.
Amen.
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