The rebus above provides some hints about my homily this weekend but you'll probably need to give it a read or listen in order to understand what the three images above represent. You can link to the gospel on which my homily is based here and to a video of my homily here. (There are two moments in the video when I stumbled over my own text so following along with the text (below) might be helpful!
We
hear these same scriptures every 3 years on the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
which always falls sometime in October. So it's not my plan or design
that we read this gospel just 15 days before the midterm elections! But it may
prove to be a blessing, that just before we cast our votes, we hear these
familiar words of Jesus once again, that “we pay, that we give back, that we
render to Caesar what belongs to the state. and to God what belongs to the
Creator.”
So, let's spend a few
minutes just considering what this teaching means, beginning with the question,
“What belongs to God?” Or conversely - if you will, on the other side of
the coin: “Is there anything that doesn't belong to God?” Is there
anything that is so much my own that - should the Lord demand it of me - I
might say, “Sorry, God, that's mine. You'll have to get your own.”
I have nothing - I have nothing
- that belongs exclusively to me. Everything I have, everything is a
gift from God. Everything I might think I own belongs to God - and is on loan
to me as a precious gift given to help me grow, to become the person God made
me to be; and given to me so that I might share what I have with others -
especially with those in need.
It's not for nothing that
we all acknowledge that “You can't take it with you…” That when we leave this life, we will
leave everything behind, taking nothing with us - since none of it truly
belonged to us in the first place.
All the things we have are
given to us as tools, devices, implements, instruments, equipment, hardware,
and software - to help us to become who we were created to be; to help us care
for the world, care for creation, to conserve the world entrusted to us by God.
And to share what we have with those who have less.
So, what's left for
Ceasar?
What belongs to Caesar is
that share of our possessions and allegiance, which might contribute to, and
even collectively, more effectively, enhance, augment and ensure the pursuit
of the common good, which the Church defines as “the sum total of social
conditions, which allow people, either as groups or individuals, to reach their
fulfillment more fully. and more easily.” That's what the Church teaches.
Do see what's happening
here? Even what belongs to Caesar truly belongs, first belonged,
and will always belong - to God.
But I wonder if there
isn't even a prior question deserving our attention. Is it possible that the
reality that first stakes a claim on my allegiance and loyalty might be neither
God nor the state, but rather – me, myself.
Many of us (and at sometimes
all of us) give first allegiance to the self.
How often is it a
consideration of myself and my own interests that largely determines what I
render to Caesar? When I'm choosing a political party or a candidate to support…
When I'm pondering the complex and critical differences between freedom and
license, justice, and mercy, liberty, and law… Or when I'm simply deciding
whether I'm too busy or too lazy - to go out and vote...
Fidelity to my own
interests and comfort often plays a large part in shaping my allegiance to the
state and its role in my life.
And likewise, how often is
it a consideration of myself and my own interests that largely determines what
I render to God? When I wrestle with difficult moral issues, personal or social…
When I determine how much of all I have I'm going to share with the poor… When
I choose between speaking out in faith or concealing my beliefs in silence… When
I weigh the wisdom of God with the folly of the times… When I'm simply deciding
whether I'm too busy or too lazy - to go to church on a given Sunday…
Fidelity to myself and own
interest often plays a large part in shaping my allegiance to God and God's
role in my daily life.
It's often to myself that
I pay out the first coin of duty. My strongest allegiance is often to my
wants and my needs; my fantasies, plans, and desires; to the choices and
decisions that favor my circumstances; to self-preservation and the
comfort of those I love; to ensuring a pleasant future for myself…
My most blinding loyalty
might well be neither to Caesar, nor to God - but rather to myself.
We might even rephrase
today's gospel dialogue to sound like this:
“Tell us, Jesus, what is
your opinion?
Is it lawful to pay
allegiance to oneself - or not?”
To which Jesus might reply,
“Show me the checkbook
with which you provide for yourself.
Whose inscription, whose
name is on each check?”
“It's my name, Lord.”
“Well, then - give to
yourself what belongs to you
and give to God what
belongs to God.”
And that brings us back to
where we began!
“Is there anything that
doesn't belong to God?”
Is there anything I have
on which I have a greater claim than God? The answer is simple: everything
belongs to God who has first claim on my allegiance, my loyalty, my duty, my
fidelity, and all my possessions.
Everything I have is God's
gift to me, to be used for good - for the common good… to be shared - and
shared especially - with those who have so much less than I do.
So, in light of all that,
it's clear that there's no simple division of reality between what I do in the
ballot box and what I do in church - because faith and politics deal in the
same reality. There can be no facile separation between the two. It's not
as if I take care of “Caesar's business” at the polls, and my “God business” in
church. I don't somehow conduct my life's business between those two venues.
When the Lord looks at my
soul, he doesn't look to see if it's red or blue. He looks to see how I have
shaped my life according to his word and the wisdom of the gospel. And, if and
how I have broken my life open, like bread, to feed others - if and how
generously I have shared myself and my possessions with those in need.
It's to the business of
the life I live between the voting booth at the polls, and the pews in church
that the Lord looks to see how I spend, how I return, to whom I render
all the good things the Lord has given me and done for me.
This is not easy to preach
- partly because I fail at this myself so often and so easily.
This would be an even more
difficult message to preach, were I not preaching it in the shadow of the Cross
of Jesus, under the outstretched arms of the One who gave up his claim to
everything, sacrificing even his own life because sinners - like you
and me - were in need of his life, of his mercy, of his love. We're in
need of all of that more than anything else we might have or ever hope
to have.
At this table, we give
back, we return, we render to God what God first gave to us:
simple gifts of bread and wine, broken wheat, crushed grapes…
Here in the Eucharist we
give to God what belongs to God: as we sang in the psalm, glory and honor
- praise and thanksgiving for all that we've been given to share with others.
And for all that God has shared with us through, with and in Christ Jesus, the
Lord.
