Sermon for Pentecost 20: "Rendered to God"

+ 20^th Sunday after Pentecost – October 22^nd, 2017 +

Series A: Isaiah 45:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 1; Matthew 22:15-22

Redeemer Lutheran, HB

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Just about everyone knows that if you want to have a polite conversation at dinner, over coffee, or with your neighbors, you don’t bring up politics. Apparently, the Pharisees they didn’t get that memo. They had no interest in polite conversation.

They saw the Palm Sunday crowds; heard “Hosannas” echoing in the streets of Jerusalem. Great crowds followed this teacher all over Judea to see his miracles and hear his teaching.

How ironic that all this happens during the Passover; Israel celebrates God’s redemption while the Pharisees reject God’s Redeemer.

The Pharisees had heard enough of Jesus’ teaching and parables. They had seen eating and drinking with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes too many times. Jesus had to go.

But how do you turn the crowds against Jesus? Pull out one of the oldest tricks in the political play-book. Ask Jesus a “gotcha!” question. Have him spell potato, show you Russia from his front porch, or explain what a Berliner really is.

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.

That’s how the game works. It’s a trap! A lose/lose situation. Get Jesus to say something that could be used against him. Draw him into a debate on religion, politics, and taxes. And once he does, his approval rating and followers will vanish.

And just to make things fun, the Pharisees invited their political and religious enemies, the Herodians to their staged press conference at the temple. Now, the Herodians and the Pharisees weren’t exactly BFFs. The Pharisees despised the Herodians for their allegiance to Herod, a puppet of Rome and for their alliance with the Sadducees, who oversaw the temple and priesthood. And the Sadducees and Pharisees got along about as well as USC and UCLA fans at a rivalry game. But they agreed on this: Jesus had to go. So, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

 “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 

We’re not fooled. And neither is Jesus. Earlier in the Gospels, the Pharisees accused Jesus of having a demon and being allied with Satan. Solomon warns us about this in Proverbs 29:5: “A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.”  This is nothing more than another one of the Pharisees debate tactics: flood your opponent with flattery to disarm them, then move to attack.

Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

It’s the perfect lose/lose, gotcha question. If Jesus answers, “No, it isn’t lawful to pay taxes to Caesar”, the political Herodians can go after Jesus for being a traitor and a religious nutcase. And if Jesus answers, “Yes, it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar”, then Jesus is a blasphemer for supporting the Roman and a traitor to his people.

But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?

Jesus knows their wicked hearts. The Pharisees’ spiritual bankruptcy is exposed. They claimed to have kept and followed God’s Law, but broke it failing to love God and neighbor (22:37–40). They were more concerned about the lawfulness of the temple tax than they were with God’s justice, mercy, and faithfulness. They were full of malice, not mercy.

Jesus calls them out on it. “You hypocrites”.

Jesus’ words expose the Pharisees’ hypocrisy and ours. Yes, we too are hypocrites. We thank God we’re not like other sinners, and yet we’re spiritually bankrupt. We claim to follow God’s Law, yet fail to love God and our neighbor perfectly. We spend far more time concerned with political debates and our earthly desires than God’s justice, mercy, and faithfulness. We are full of malice, not mercy.

Although, maybe the Pharisees were on to something. After all, it’s easier to spend our days arguing about taxes or politics, or anything other than repentance and forgiveness in Jesus’ name, isn’t it?

So, Jesus turns the tables on the us and the Pharisees.

Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.  And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”  They said, “Caesar's.”

There’s the answer. The coin bears the image and likeness of Caesar. It belongs to him. “Therefore,” Jesus says, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.”

Not exactly the answer the Pharisees were expecting. After all, Caesar was ungodly. Caesar expected people to worship him as divine. And yet, St. Paul writes that the governing authorities are God’s ministers, servants of God’s left-hand authority in the earthly realm. They’re given to punish wickedness and reward good. And so, Paul writes in Romans 13, we pay taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due; give honor to whom honor is due, and respect to whom respect is due.

We see a picture of this in today’s Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah. God used a pagan Persian, Cyrus, to return His people to the land so that in fulness of time His anointed Son could be born in Bethlehem of Judea to save the world. You see, God will use any Caesar we throw at him to accomplish his saving you in Jesus’ death and resurrection, even if it means being crucified under Pontius Pilate for you.

That is where this story leads us, to the cross. It’s not really about the legality of the temple tax or the things of Caesar, though we are to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. And yet, Caesar, Pilate, or any other ruler would have no authority if it weren’t granted to him from above. And that leads us back to the main issue at hand:

Render to God the things that are God’s. We know what Caesar wants. But what about the things of God? What does this mean? What does God want?

He doesn’t want your denarius. He wants you. You bear his image and likeness, or at least we did when Adam and Eve were first formed of dirt and rib. In the image of God, he created them…male and female he created them. So too, he creates you and loves you. He wants you, your undivided heart, soul, mind, and strength. He wants us to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things. He wants your faith in him as King, Redeemer, and Savior. But the Pharisees were so preoccupied with politics and power that they neglected the important things: God’s mercy and forgiveness. Same is true for us.

What does God want from us? To love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength; and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And while we may be able to render to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, we are unable to render to God the things of God.

But there is one who has perfectly rendered to God the things of God, and he did it for you with his perfect life lived for you and laid down for you.

The denarius that the Pharisees and Herodians showed Jesus bore the image of Caesar on it. But, Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:2). 

In his birth, life, death, and resurrection, Jesus rendered to God what was God’s: our humanity, to restore the image of God to our flesh. He rendered to God the things that are God’s. And He did it “not with gold or silver,” not with the coin of Caesar, but with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death at the hands of the Pharisees and the Herodians and the Roman government, all of whom served as God’s instrument to reclaim a fallen cosmos from sin and death.

On the cross, Jesus throws the treasury of God’s mercy wide open for you. For while we were still hypocrites, Pharisees, and sinners, Christ died for us. Although we are unable to render anything to God, Jesus renders himself to the Father to reconcile us to him by his cross.

In Holy Baptism, God places his image and inscription on you. You belong to him. You are a new creation. In this world, you render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. But you don’t belong to Caesar. You belong to Christ, joined to him in his death and resurrection.

Here in the temple of bread and wine, Jesus renders to his own body and blood in the bread and wine given and shed for you for your forgiveness.

Through his Word and Absolution, Jesus gives his saving death to you, that you may be his own and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. You are rendered to God in Christ crucified. This is most certainly true.

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Two Kingdoms Bible Study

Here at Redeemer Lutheran, HB, we've been going through a Sunday morning Bible study series on the doctrine of Two Kingdoms or Two Realms or Two Kinds of Authority (among other names). The study continues to go well. At the completion of it, I'll post some further resources on the church website, including PowerPoint and selected handouts. In preparation for this study I was greatly pleased to see that the Lutheran Witness had come out with an issue on the very same topic for the month of April. I was kindly asked to write a short Bible study for online distribution in conjunction with the issue on two kinds of authority. You can find the Bible study online by clicking here where it is available for viewing and download.

Mr. Harrison Goes To Washington

The left branded the panel misogynistic. The right branded the panel supporters in the war against Obama. Neither was true. And neither side was really aware of the issue. As I've said before, and I must say again, this is not a blog for politics. Never has been. Never will be. When it comes to talking about politics on this blog...I must echo the words of Pastor Harrison as he testified before the oversight committee, "I'd rather not be here." But every once in a while, the state steps into the church, or in this case the conscience. And we must speak in defense of religious liberty. Simply put, this is the issue: If there is no freedom of religion and no first amendment of the constitution, there is no Democrat or Republican. In fact, there is no more republic.

Many in the media have called this collection of men a panel of pawns. But pawns are not allowed to declare or confess anything, they are simply moved and played according to the game-maker. While all the chess-players in the room (on both sides of the aisle) were busy making their moves, Pastor Harrison and the others on the panel played the real game with brilliant moves and words of wisdom.

So move over Jimmy Stewart. This is why the Lutherans came to Washington on February 16th, 2012. It wasn't about politics. It wasn't chiefly even about contraceptives. Thankfully, President Pastor Matthew Harrison understood the issue clearly, spoke the truth in love without sacrificing either. He would have made his doppelganger (Teddy Roosevelt) proud. Much has been written on the blogosphere and in the media these past few days. And more will be written in the days and years to come. As I turn my attention towards preparing a bible study for our congregation on the Two Kingdoms doctrine, I rejoice in Pastor Harrison's clear exposition and confession of many things, this important Biblical doctrine included.

You can read the entire transcript of the testimony here. Or you can watch it here along with a few other press releases as of late, from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. So here's a few highlights of Pastor Harrison's testimony, including a few quotations to summarize my thoughts on this issue.

• "We don't distribute voters' lists. We don't have a Washington office. We are seriously non-partisan, so much so that we're often criticized for being quietistic." Thank you, Pastor Harrison for addressing one of the biggest red herrings in Lutheran circles, namely, that we are quietistic. The list he cites later on in the transcript about the tip of the charitable ice berg proves that this moniker is fallacious. Pastor Harrison's testimony and presence before the House Oversight Committee also debunks this long-standing myth. This leads to the second point
• The Two Realms: also known as the Two Kingdoms, or two estates (although Luther had three, but the point is the same).  "We confess that there are two realms, the Church and the state. They shouldn't be mixed - the church is governed by the Word of God, the state by natural law and reason, the Constitution." In other words, the church is not out to Christianize the state and the state should not be out to bureaucratize the church. This was not only a brilliant exposition on Christian freedom in a secular country (albeit one founded on judeo-christian principles) but was also an excellent confession of the two realms. We are citizens in both. But both have their unique, God-given vocation.
• He quoted the Prophets, Isaiah to be specific: "The bed is too narrow, the sheets too short." A quotation from Isaiah 28:20. If you read the rest of the context of this passage in Isaiah and compare it to the context of Pastor Harrison's testimony, I think you'll find it quite revealing and insightful.
• And lastly, the freedom of religion:
  “Religious people determine what violates their consciences, not the federal government. The conscience is a sacred thing. Our church exists because of overzealous governments in northern Europe made decisions which trampled the religious convictions of our fore bearers. I have ancestors who served in the Revolutionary War. I have ancestors who were on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I have ancestors who served in the War of 1812, who fought for the North in the Civil War – my 88 year old father-in-law has recounted to me, in tears many times, the horrors of the Battle of the Bulge. In fact, Bud Day, the most highly decorated veteran alive, is a member of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.
  
  
  We fought for a free conscience in this country, and we won’t give it up without a fight. To paraphrase Martin Luther, the heart and conscience has room only for God, not for God and the federal government. The bed is too narrow, the blanket is too short [Isaiah 28:20]. We must obey God rather than men, and we will. Please get the federal government, Mr. Chairman, out of our consciences. Thank you.”

Thank you Pastor Harrison, for taking the time to speak the truth in love, to speak boldly on behalf of the LCMS, for carrying your well-worn Greek New Testament (and the truth it declares) with you to the Capitol. Many have said it, let it be said again. It was - and still is - a  good day to be a Lutheran.

I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, And will not be ashamed. - Psalm 119:46