Gospel text for Sunday 18 October 2020

Matthew 22:15-22        The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Reflection

Are you Republican or Democrat? I say, “Yes.”

Are you pro choice or pro life? I say, “Yes.”

Are you capitalist or environmentalist? I say, “Yes.”

I experience these as forced choice questions, questions designed to assign me to a particular category or group, questions aligned with a narrowly defined set of values or ideology, questions meant to make me smaller and separate me from you. I do not want to bite. 

Do you want drinkable water and breathable air or freedom from government over reach? What answer could we possibly have but, “Yes?”

Using forced choice questions to distract, divide and entrap people is nothing new. This is what we witness in our gospel text as the Jewish religious officials, the Pharisees, along with the men who profit by collecting taxes for the Romans, the Herodians, try to entrap Jesus with their question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

The first thing to remember is, the Pharisees and the Herodians are opposing groups. The Pharisees enforce strict worship of God in prayer and study of the Jewish law. The Herodians support the monarchy of Herod who is the source of their livelihood. Together they are trying to force Jesus to choose sides. If Jesus protests against paying taxes to Rome, the Herodians will quickly accuse him of treason and inciting the people to rebel against Roman authority. If Jesus supports paying taxes to Rome he will be counseling the Jews to use idolatrous coins  that not only sport Caesar’s image but also the inscription, “Tiberius Caesar, Augustus, son of divine Augustus.” Jewish law definitively prohibits the use of such idolatrous objects. Furthermore, Jesus’ followers who are suffering beneath the burden of excessive taxes will feel betrayed. 

We have all been there, caught between a train and a platform. Are you for profitable business or are you for healthcare? Are you for free speech or for civil discourse? Are you for free enterprise or environmental regulation? Whenever we are faced with these forced choice questions our antennae need to rise and we must become wise, wise as Jesus, and refuse to be distracted, divided and entrapped. Refuse to bite.

Let us with wisdom look at a contemporary example of a forced choice question intended by each party to entrap and incriminate the opposition. Are you for environmentalism or capitalism? How do we begin to wisely engage this question? Wisdom begins by asking, what are the fundamental values and downsides of each? Please pardon this simplified description.

Capitalism affirms peoples rights to private ownership (many of us own our home and car). Capitalism maintains our freedom to use our resources for profit (invest our money), and privileges individual rights (to own property including guns and to have custody over our bodies). Overall, capitalism has led the U.S. to great economic success. 

Environmentalism values protection and conservation of natural resources (many of us are mindful of our use of power and water). Environmentalism privileges the common good (we care about our neighbors and our planet). Environmentalism has protected public lands and provided national parks and seashores available for all to enjoy. 

A downside of environmentalism is that action aimed for the common good can impinge on individual rights eg to do fracking on my privately owned land.  A downside of capitalism is private ownership of resources does not incentivize action aimed at the common good, eg manufacturing practices tend to privilege profit over the side effects of contaminants on the shared resources of earth and air. 

So let me ask again, Are you for capitalism or environmentalism? If we are honest with our selves what can we say but, “Yes?” What then shall we do?

As people of faith I believe we must refuse to be distracted, divided and entrapped. Distracted by the high emotion with which each group spins their story, divided by shrinking ourselves to fit into a singular category or group, entrapped by political ideologues, who, like the Pharisees and Herodians are bent on winning by getting us to shrink into their side. We must not bite.

As people of faith we affirm that all of creation is good, including the earth and all that dwells in and on and around her, so, we are environmentalists. As people of faith we affirm that from the beginning human beings are very good with the right to freedom and fullness of life, so, we are also capitalists. Therefore, the question is not, “Are you for capitalism or environmentalism?” The question is, “How do we embody our value for both the individual and the collective, for personal agency and the common good?” 

Is it fair to appropriate Jesus’ words and say, “Give therefore to the individual the things that are the individuals, and to collective the things that are the collectives?” 

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Gospel text for Sunday 22 October 2017

Matthew 22:15-22

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Reflection      The  Pharisees and Herodians, the religious and political officials, see the world as either black or white. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Either you are with them or against them. They see no gray zone.  They expect Jesus to play into their hand… do you pay heed to the emperor or to God? 

This kind of thinking represents early stage development of human consciousness. When our children are young we firmly say “No, don’t touch” when they get near the kitchen stove. But as they grow beyond a pure black and white perspective we say, “Be careful when you are near the stove… then… we show them how to use the stove to cook safely.” This is how human consciousness evolves; from a simplistic, black or white, dualistic perspective to a more complex, integral way of thinking that recognizes there are ten thousand shades of grey between the absolutes of black or white.

Much of the political discourse today revolves around people who want to reduce complex issues that cross the spiritual, social and political realms to a decision between two falsely simple alternatives; liberty or common good, equality or privilege, limited government or government intervention, freedom or order, conservative or progressive. I believe we would do well to follow Jesus example and refuse to be entrapped between false alternatives. Jesus refuses to play the game of the standard bearers of his day. Instead, he leaps ahead of his time and expresses a more highly evolved level of human consciousness and refuses to be entrapped.

In his book “Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution” the attorney and acclaimed author Steve McIntosh writes, “The left-right conception of politics that dominates most political discourse in the developed world is woefully simplistic and generally inadequate as a model of the complex political dynamics of the 21st century. For example, we can see in history how the roles of liberal and conservative have actually reversed position several times (the Republicans were the progressives of the 19th century), and thus it is likely that some of those who now identify themselves as progressives may in the future find themselves defending the status quo…  within each worldview’s agenda can be found those who emphasize freedom and those who emphasize order. This often results in activists of decidedly different overall political persuasions finding themselves in temporary alliances with “strange bedfellows.””*

Which points to today’s gospel text and the alliance of the Pharisees and Herodians intending to entrap Jesus. “Strange bedfellows,” the political and religious keepers of the status quo strain against the growing pains of the evolution of human consciousness. They do not want to change, to give up the sacred cows of their historical religious or political privilege. So what do they do? They conspire to discredit, silence and ultimately eliminate the messenger.

We know the story. The messenger is killed but the message persists.  Traditionalistic world views strive to force dualistic choices upon complex issues; individual rights or interpersonal relationships, big government or small government, tradition or truth (did you know the antonym of tradition is truth?), right or wrong, Herod or God. 

When we, like Jesus, refuse to live between false dichotomies,  when we refuse to subscribe to the notice that things of God are in opposition to things of the world, suddenly we stretch to a higher level of integral consciousness. We begin to look at religion and politics through a finely nuanced lens that reveals ten-thousand shades of grey and changes how we live. 

Before long we hear people describing us saying, “We know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.” Living in imitation of Jesus is a significant step in the evolution of our consciousness.  Let us not be silenced and not afraid.

* McIntosh, Steve. Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution: How the Integral Worldview is Transforming Politics, Culture and Spirituality. Paragon House, 2007.

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Gospel text for Sunday 19 October 2014

Matthew 22:15-22       The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Reflection       We live in a world with two economies, the world’s economy of exchange and God’s economy of gift.  In the economy of exchange we work for money that we trade for things we prefer not to work for; we exchange money for roads we do not build or maintain, money for food someone else grew, caught or butchered. The exchange economy is  real,  it is important, and it is not God’s economy. It is not the economy of the Church.

God’s economy, the Church’s economy, is a gift economy. In the gift economy we understand that all that we have is gift, which includes the skills, talents, intellect and physical capacity to trade our work for money in the exchange economy. All that we have and all that we are is gift, unearned, undeserved gift. As we wrap our minds and hearts around the biggness of our gifts we begin to see that in every area of our lives, including our money, we are stewards, stewards of the gifts given to us by God. 

This makes me think of Matthew’s parable of the vineyard owner who paid everyone a full day’s wage, even those workers who did not show up until 5pm. You may recall what happened. Those who had labored a full day grumbled when those who had labored not at all received the same full days wage. The grumblers were living according to the world’s economy of exchange and the vineyard owner was living in accord with God’s ecomomy of gift; he replied, “Are you envious because I am generous?” (Matt 20.15)

How are we to respond to such unspeakable generosity? By being envious that some receive more? Or, by being grateful for the life and the breathe and the being we are given in God’s economy? Do we live as if it is all about the economy of exchange and cling to everything we have? Or do we live by faith in God’s economy, freely giving back to God all that we are given? I believe the question Matthew’s gospel invites each of us to ask is this; “Lord, how are you inviting me to respond to your generosity in my life?” 

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