Proper 24 A 1

Matthew 22: 15-22

The Cost of Love
From an early age I had a fascination with coins, which were
oth a !oy and a fr"stration to a ten-year-old oy with a dollar-a-wee# allowance$
%oin collecting, after all, is not an ine&pensi'e hoy, and I(m not s"re that I
amassed more than a do)en coins at a time: "*alo nic#els, wheat pennies, all of
them deeply worn from all the hands thro"gh which they had passed o'er a
h"ndred years or so, more 'al"ale to me eca"se of the groo'es and chips that
mar#ed them, each one telling a story$ +he pride of my collection, howe'er, was a
half-dime that had elonged to my grandmother, in slightly etter condition than
anything else in my tiny collection$ ,i#e the rest of the coins I owned, it was
'al"ale to me eca"se of the way in which it was worn, and I "sed to li#e to hold it
in my palm instead of the plastic slee'e I had for it, precisely eca"se I felt I was
carrying a piece of my grandmother with me, a woman who had come o'er to this
co"ntry with practically nothing, raised a large family and was oth lo'ing and worn,
li#e the edges of that coin, someone who had gi'en all that she was so that her
children and grandchildren might ha'e a life meas"red in something other than -'e-
cent pieces$
.nowing the cost of that #ind of lo'e ma#es it easier to see
the /ordian #not that the 0erodians and the Pharisees ha'e laid efore 1es"s this
morning$ +he cens"s ta& was something especially loathed y the +emple
a"thorities eca"se it co"ld only e paid in 2oman c"rrency, with the image of the
emperor as a god and all the lasphemy that image re3ected$ +o ad'ocate against
paying the ta& wo"ld ha'e meant certain arrest, while condoning it wo"ld represent
a deep etrayal to those at the center of 1es"s( ministry$
4"t his response as#s a deeper 5"estion of "s than the trap
posed y the a"thorities$ 6e are gli ao"t 7rendering "nto %aesar8 when
confronted with ills or ta&es that we -nd especially onero"s, "t it is "sef"l to
consider the position of 1es"s as he hears the 3attery of his wo"ld-e acc"sers$
1es"s is, after all, not carrying coins of any #ind9 they ha'e to e prod"ced y the
a"thorities themsel'es$ +he c"rrency in which he has een dealing is the li'es of
h"man eings, all of "s created in the image of /od, not images of temporal
a"thority9 his ministry has een among li'es worn y s"!ection to the 'ery
a"thority he is confronting, people li'ing in hope of a world free from the corr"ptions
of occ"pational r"le$ In the gathering of people aro"nd this enco"nter, he is o*ering
a 'ision of a world where people, with their callo"ses and worn spots, are the legal
tender in the #ingdom of /od$ Far from ma#ing a di'ision etween ci'il and religio"s
oligations, 1es"s is o*ering a 'ision where all of "s are coins in the di'ine realm,
with o"r own scratches and imperfections, the mar#s that ma#e "s in'al"ale in the
world he is eginning to create$ +he point of his response is directing "s to what we
are willing to o*er to /od, something that he is prepared to demonstrate in a few
days !"st o"tside the city walls$
6hat "ndergirds this e&change is, of co"rse, fear: fear of the
threat of the a"thorities, the fear that this /alilean "pstart will o'ert"rn the system
that had s"stained ci'il and religio"s go'ernance for years$ And it is precisely that
fear that 1es"s is wor#ing against, reminding them that there is a di*erence
etween lawf"l oedience and the /od to whom we owe e'erything we are$
0ypocrisy, oth theirs and o"rs, egins when we fail to ac#nowledge the /od who
o*ers "s all we need, the /od who gi'es "s, in Isaiah(s words, the treas"res of
dar#ness and riches hidden in secret places$
In the stewardship season that is "pon "s, ao"t
which we will hear more today and in the coming wee#s, it is 1es"s( words that point
"s to this fact$ All we ha'e, all we are, we owe to /od and it is in that #nowledge
that we o*er o"rsel'es, not in coercion "t in gratit"de for the lo'e we are
witnessing and helping to ring into the world$
:orothy :ay, who ran the %atholic 6or#er from Mott ;treet in
<ew =or# for -fty years with practically no f"nding, had an instr"cti'e response to
1es"s( words$ 6hen as#ed ao"t them, she pa"sed for se'eral moments and then
allegedly replied, 7If we were to render "nto /od all the things that are /od(s, there
wo"ld e nothing left for %aesar8$ It wo"ld e easy to oser'e that :ay stood
o"tside the mechanisms that ma#e o"r world f"nction, where medical ills, college
t"ition, e'en the price of heating oil create press"res that wear on all of "s$ 4"t her
point is deeper than that$ ;he was reminding all who wo"ld listen that o"r needs are
simpler than we reali)e and that it is this an&iety, m"ch li#e the fear that per'ades
the -nal wee# of 1es"s in 1er"salem, that "ndermines the pr"ning that wo"ld
prod"ce the fr"it of the #ingdom$ 76e don(t want to pay the cost of lo'e8, :ay said9
7we don(t want to e&ercise o"r capacity to lo'e8$ It is a matter of recogni)ing that
we owe /od o"r entire eing, that no part of o"r life is e&cl"ded from the gifts of
o"rsel'es that we o*er on ehalf of the #ingdom$ As fond as :ay was of reminding
people aro"nd her that the coat that hangs in o"r closet elongs to the poor, the
cost of lo'e in her terms is the willingness to part with o"r 'ery sel'es on ehalf of
a world where o"r material concerns are replaced y the freely-o*ered lo'e of /od$
;o the response of 1es"s is a deeply-rooted warning against the
idolatry that Isaiah is 5"ic# to warn "s ao"t: 7 I am the ,ord, and there is no other8$
4"t while 1es"s ac#nowledges that it is indeed lawf"l to pay the assessment that
the state re5"ires, o"r own idolatry egins when we conf"se what is e&pedient with
that which is transformati'e$ +he #ind of compromise at the heart of this morning(s
gospel is an e'il orn of s"!"gation $ +he more profo"nd danger is to see the
system that perpet"ates that e'il, one that wears down the so"ls of all who
participate in it, as an end in itself, a s"stit"te for the 'al"e we place on each other
and on the lo'e of /od$ As memers of the people of /od, as stewards of each
other, we are ec#oned to foster that lo'e in each other, ac#nowledging the wor# of
the faithf"l who ha'e come efore "s, honoring the cost of that lo'e, and
ac#nowledging o"r d"al citi)enship as creat"res of o"r own time and place and
memers of the #ingdom that is coming into the world$