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Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

October 22, 2017

24 Proper A

          A few weeks ago, I was at Midway airport in Chicago with an hour or so before my plane boarded to come home.  Airports are one of the finest places on earth for people watching.  I’m not much for sitting still in an airport, so I tend to walk the various concourses.  While the vendors are probably hoping that people like me are window shopping and will come in and purchase something, what I’m really doing is observing my fellow travelers.  In a busy airport, the vast diversity of the human family is on display as people from a huge variety of religions, ethnicities, languages and ages work to get from one part of the airport to another.  The part of people watching that I especially love is the connection my brain makes between people I know and the total strangers in the airport.   In a total stranger, I will see the image of someone at home, or a friend from a distant time in my life, or a relative I miss.  Sometimes the image is so clear that I am startled.  Other times, when I look back, I can’t imagine what made me think of my friend or relative.  A little time wandering the corridors of Midway airport is a good reminder that we humans are all connected.

          Jesus is talking about these kinds of images in this morning’s gospel lesson. The Herodians and the Pharisees are once again trying to trap Jesus. So, they ask Jesus “Is lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor, or not?” Surely this time, Jesus is trapped. If Jesus says "no, it is not lawful," then the Romans can try him on charges of treason.  If Jesus says "yes, it is lawful," he will have betrayed the Jews, his own people, because the Jews believed that paying taxes to Rome was to endorse the foreign occupation of Israel.  Jesus is once again in what seems to be a no-win situation.

But Jesus cannot be tricked by the Herodians and the Pharisees. Jesus asks for a coin and says “Whose head is this, and whose title?”  The answer, of course, is that the emperor’s image is on the coin. So Jesus says "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s." When the people heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had been there that day, I might have left amazed, but I would also have left confused. The issue is far from settled by Jesus’ answer. How do we know exactly which things belong to the emperor and exactly which things belong to God? What, exactly, are we to give to each? Rather than providing us the direct and clear information we want, Jesus leaves us with more questions than answers.

Whose image is on the coin? The image of the emperor is on the coin, so the coin belongs to the realm of the state and can be used for the purposes of the state. Simple enough. But what about the things that are God’s? How do we know what they are?

As the Pharisees and Herodians well knew, in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, we are told exactly whose image we carry. "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Gen. 1:27) What bears the image of God and belongs to God is nothing other than humankind. We are made in the image of God and we have the image of God woven into every fiber of our being and imprinted on our souls.   

Jesus is not giving out tax advice this morning when he tells the Pharisees and Herodians to give to the emperor what is the emperor’s and to give to God what is God’s. When it comes to the issue of what we are to do with our money, Jesus is calling us to remember in whose image we are made and to whom we belong. Then Jesus calls us to remember in whose image every human being is made and to treat every human being with the dignity and concern due the image of God. In a few weeks, on Christ the King Sunday, we will hear Jesus say "When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me. When I was naked, you gave me clothing, When I was sick, you took care of me. When I was in prison, you visited me." Jesus, the Son of God, reminds us that when we care for another human being, we care for the image of God that dwells within that person, and when we turn our back on that person, we turn our back on God. Jesus’ primary concern is not about the lawfulness of paying taxes, but with how we use who we are and what we have to care for the image of God that dwells in all people.

In the reading from Exodus this morning, Moses needs reassurance from God that God is with him in the journey through the wilderness and to the Promised Land. Moses asks God for three things: for God to show Moses God’s ways, for God’s presence to go with the people, and for God to show Moses God’s glory. God agrees to all of those requests, but then God says, "You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live." Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, the presence of God is known, the glory of God is revealed, and God is gracious and merciful. But the tradition of the Hebrew scriptures is the face of God cannot be seen. Perhaps we are not to look at the face of God directly because the place where human beings are to find the face or the image of God is on each other.

                                                          Amen.