Faith, Hope, and Love

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
October 22, 2023

24 Proper A 

          One of my favorite scripture passages, if not my most favorite, is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 43.  “But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” I love this passage for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I rather like my name.  My name connects me with my great-grandmother and my cousin and godmother for whom I am named.  I can still hear the sound of my grandparents speaking my name and the love in their voices decades after their deaths.  And while Charlotte is now a rather popular name, when I was in school no one else was named Charlotte so there was not one single time when there was another Charlotte in my class, girl scout troop, choir or anything else.  So the idea that God has called me by name, that I belong to God, and that no challenge shall consume me has long been a source of strength and comfort to me.

          I think of the passage from Isaiah when I hear God say to Moses this morning “I know you by name” and promise that God’s presence will go with Moses, even though neither Moses nor anyone else is allowed to see God’s face.  Moses belongs to God and God’s presence will never abandon him.  God and Moses have been through a lot together as they have brought the people out of Egypt and through the wilderness.  There have been manna and quail, and uprisings, and water and the 10 commandments, and the golden calf.  Either one would have been justified in giving up on the other at various points in the journey.  But God’s promise is that Moses belongs to God and God will never let go.

          In the gospel, the Pharisees are out to trap Jesus.  First they butter him up with a few disingenuous compliments.  “We know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality.”  Oh, please.  Insert Jesus’ eye roll.  Then, “So what do you think?  Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”  Clearly this is a trap for if Jesus says “no” then he is an enemy of the state and if Jesus says “yes,” he is an enemy of his own people who regard Rome as a threat to their existence.  So Jesus says “Show me the coin used for the tax” and they show him a coin which bears the image of the emperor.  “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”  This so totally confuses Jesus’s challengers that they shake their heads in amazement and leave.

          While on the surface, Jesus may have cleared up the issue of what belongs to whom, a small scratch below the surface causes us to dig deeper.  If the image born on the coin indicates to whom the coin belongs, then how do we know what belongs to God?  Where do we find the image of God?  Scripture is clear on the answer.  The first chapter of the book of Genesis tells us that we humans are made in the image of God.  According to Jesus’ logic, which I would prefer not to challenge, that means that we humans belong to God.  All the humans.  Every single human.  So while the coin belongs to the realm of the emperor, humans belong to God.

          In the letter to the Thessalonians, we hear something of what the image of God looks like as lived in the lives of the early Christians.  Paul commends the church in Thessalonica for their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope in Jesus.  We are reminded that our identity as people made in the image of God who follow Jesus calls us to a life of faith, hope, and love and that our actions, like Paul’s actions and those of the Thessalonians, speak about that faith, hope, and love to the world around us.

          The world seems very dark these days, with violence, fear, darkness and death seeming to have the upper hand.  The situation in the Middle East is explosive.   Congress has no clear path forward and is paralyzed.  Ukraine and Russia are still at war and tensions are simmering around the globe.  There is no obvious way forward on so many fronts.  We don’t always know what to say or how to pray, and I believe God’s heart is broken as God’s beloved humans destroy each other.  This morning we are called to remember that every human being bears the likeness of God.  We all belong to God, who calls us each by name, and God has promised never to abandon us.  As followers of Jesus, we, like the Thessalonians, are called to lives of faith, hope and love in the midst of despair, hatred and death.  Our lives are called to proclaim to the world that darkness and death will never have the final say.  The place to start and perhaps the greatest act of faith, hope, and love, is to see the face of God in the face of those with whom we have little else in common and act accordingly. 

                                                                   Amen.