Sermon: The Image of God We are Grateful For
In today’s story, Jesus is stuck! He is put in a very tricky spot. The Pharisees and the Herodians, two groups which normally have little to do with each other — The Herodians, who derive their power from the Roman occupiers, and the Pharisees, who align more closely with the occupied and oppressed commoners — declare a temporary truce in order to work together to trap Jesus. These two groups are deeply unhappy about Jesus, this upstart rabbi, and what he has been doing over the previous day, the previous week – even the previous month. What inspired these two different, powerful groups to collaborate? Some time ago, Jesus made a visit to Jerusalem, entered the Temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers. He challenged both the political and religious powers with that dramatic action. ...
Scripture: Matthew 22:15-22
So, in today’s story, the Pharisees and the Herodians compose the perfect question to entrap Jesus, asking Jesus whether it is lawful to pay the imperial tax that funds the Roman occupation.
Should Jesus answer in the affirmative, the adoration of the crowds would likely not only evaporate; it could violently whiplash into opposition. Should Jesus answer negatively, however, then he will have openly positioned himself as opposing the Roman occupation, which is never a wise thing to do. So, they’ve got Jesus trapped.
Or as least that’s what they think. Now Jesus, “Wise like a serpent, gentle like a dove” (Matthew 10:16), makes an interesting, ingenious breakthrough…
I have two kids, aged 16 and 11. Their schools start at 8:30 am, and some days, they are still at the kitchen table, fallen into an argument at 8:15 or 8:20! I remind them… “Guys, there’s no end to this debate, because it started with the wrong question!” The questions that tend to cause conflict and hurt are not put on the table for the benefit of the other person. It’s wise sometimes just to let go and to not fall in the direction that the questioner wants to take. I commend that Jesus uses a better strategy. Rather than being distracted by the limited answers that Jesus’ foes have assumed will hurt him, Jesus gets away from the trap like a shrewd serpent, and instead responds by asking a harmless question in return. “Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then, Jesus asks them, “Whose head [Greek: image ikon] is this, and whose title?”
It’s the coin of the Empire — the only coin that could be used to pay the tax in question. Roman coins with their images of the emperor on them were not permitted to be used in the Jerusalem temple for offerings. The denarius is the specific coin that is required to be used to pay the Roman tax. It is a Roman coin. And on that coin is the image of the Roman Emperor, and his title is printed, for example, “Tiberius, Emperor, son of God”. Thus, the coin violates the Jewish commandment to have no other Gods except for Yahweh. It was a violation of the core faith of the Hebrew people.
Jesus asks whose image is on it.
And the Pharisees and the Herodians answer “The Emperor’s.”
They are holding a coin with an engraved confession of Caesar’s divinity, the declaration of the ultimate authority and the rights to govern and control the far-flung empire, asserting Rome’s power over every town and city and person in the known world. But not their souls, and not their Gods.
There are many good ways to look at today’s story — different understandings and interpretive focus, all of which can be valid; the diversity inspires us in a variety of ways, helping us to learn about each other’s context in life and ministry.
And, today is Thanksgiving Sunday - the first Sunday for us to start thinking about the meaning of stewardship and relevant ways to practice it in our life’s context, and in our present, complex times.
So, I have decided to present to you a question, inspired by Jesus’s breakthrough declaration: ”Give, therefore, to Caesar, the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
What is the Image of God you are grateful for?
If you are asked to think about the counter-cultural one, theological one, the living image of God that would inspire us to nurture hopes, share dreams, build gratitude, spread the vision for God’s world and for ourselves, would it be one of those? How are they different from the image or the images of the Empire… The images of excessive capitalism or excessive individualism, White supremacy, classism, the Doctrine of Discovery, heterosexual patriarchal normativity, ableism, — you name it —… What are the counter-cultural images you find in the world, alternative visions, concepts, ideas, things, arts, poems, that inspire a different worldview? And how can we preserve or change the world, with the Imago Dei (the image of God) in such visions, as the new currency of God’s realm, creatively, collaboratively, collectively, as children of God? Can this be what a church can do?
The opening chapter of Genesis shares the verse that we can relate to, as we ask these questions: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”
‘Likeness’ in Genesis — ikon — is the same Greek word used in Jesus’s question in today’s story, ““Whose head [ ikon] is this, and whose title?” So, Jesus is really asking, “Whose likeness is this on this coin, and what title?” Jesus‘ word choice reminds us of God’s initial pronouncement and promise: We bear, and we must bear God’s likeness, something that inspires closeness to God, kinship to God, and we are therefore, made to be more than we might realize… The image of God is stamped not on coins… but on us… the whole of ourselves… We, all of us, (ALL is important) are created from, and grow into, the Imago Dei…
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Therefore, we are also called to ceaselessly, effortfully, courageously, look for, seek, discover, find, recognize, acknowledge, affirm and spread the images (not just one image, but many) of God in the world. It is an act of stewardship; it is an act of extending, to all, the abundant life God wishes for ALL. Perhaps, we might not always be able to discern the image of Empire vs the image of God, because, in real life, many things are a mix of both — in different ratios. But we can try, in faith, to tug on the strands of idealism, to pull the sincerity and the integrity of God’s image from the complex matrix… We can do the hard work to find the language, the poem, and the lyrics of our faith, our stewardship.
Let’s take a moment, a few minutes of quiet centering, to think about what are the image or images of God, that we are grateful for… What if we were called, employed in God’s Mint, and we were going to make a new coin that God’s realm would use for its future currency, what image would you choose to be on the face of the coin? Would you be willing, open, even excited to invite one another to pull our resources together to create larger possibilities for the images of God in the world to grow, take root, and flourish? First things first: before the garden work, we would need to open our hands, and look for, discover, acknowledge, affirm the seeds… Choose what we will plant on ‘God’s soil… You and I…’ (the title of the next song), as the images of God in the world. The diversity. The sincerity. We need to choose what we are going to plan, to imagine, to design and build such a garden…
The first Sunday in September when Min-Goo and I joined you for our first worship at Broad View was such a fun and engaging experience for both of us. There was, of course, energetic music, hymn-singing in a circle, great coffee, and so on, but what made the one hour fly past as if it were 10 minutes, were the stories that we shared with one another on the three questions… So, let’s make that wonderful time again.
Please find a group of two or three people, next to you, and share the images of God that you are grateful for today… Not just family and friends, even though they are so important, our treasure and blessings… But, in this moment, let’s approach this a bit more theologically or even poetically. Let’s try! What are the images of God, the image of God you are grateful for today, or in the world. What if we were called, employed in God’s Mint, and we were going to make a new coin that God’s realm would use for its future currency, what image would you choose to be on the face of the coin?
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Look for the images of God in the world.
Invest in the images of God to grow,
take root, and flourish…
Last but not least, remember… the image of God is not for the coin… right? The image of God is not stamped on the coin… God’s image is stamped on us. ALL. Not just as individuals, but the whole of God’s image is on the whole of interconnectedness of everyone’s history, story, identity, their political and spiritual power. ALL includes rocks, soil, earth, air, sea, climate, worms, and bees. Serpents and doves. Not just humans. But “The glory of God is all creatures fully alive”.
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