How many of you remember the VISA credit card
commercial “What’s in your wallet?” My favorites involved the marauding Vikings
on holiday, but they all ended with a bellowing question- “What’s in YOUR
wallet?” I think of it whenever I hear this gospel lesson. Because what’s in
our wallets is close to us, and important to us. As the Pharisees are being
tested by Jesus as much as they thought they were testing him. But what exactly
is Jesus really getting at when he tells them to hand him a coin and then tells
them to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s but give to God what is God’s?
The short answer is “I don’t know for sure.” But I
do think we have Caesars in our lives too.
And by that I mean whatever occupies us and controls us.
The Pharisees and God’s people lived in an occupied
land. They were taken over by the Romans who brought their laws, their army and
their money. Literally the answer to what’s in their wallet is money that had a
picture of Caesar on it and proclaimed he was the Son of God. So much for the
people who say they will have no other gods before the Lord. Claiming
allegiance to the Lord was seemingly an impossible dilemma. They were allowed
to worship their God as long as they also worshipped Caesar. And it seems they
are caught and yet, they have no trouble even in the temple of handing Jesus
that coin. The one they tell others they can’t have in the temple and must
exchange for temple money for a price. They have a lot of those Caesar coins
and they’re not sharing. And they have no trouble going to the occupying
leaders about Jesus. Their words about God and their actions have gotten pretty
disconnected. Frankly, they’ve spent an awful lot of time cozying up to the
very thing that threatens them.
We are not occupied in the same way, but we are
also living in a system that demands much it seems. However we answer the
question of what occupies us affects our decision making, how we see the world,
and tells where we place our hope. Often it is in our wallet. Even though our
money boldly says “In God We Trust” on it.
But I wonder if anyone has looked at those words
when you’re buying something, or before you spend money. Does anyone stop and
look at those words “ In God We Trust” and ask if this decision lives that out?
Anyone? Me neither.
With credit cards and electronic purchases becoming
the norm kids today perhaps no longer will even see those words. They won’t
even cross our minds.
We’re all far more likely to pay attention to the
words of the brands we are loyal to. Now advertisers have gone beyond trying to
convince us of a brand- it’s about creating a whole community. There are Nike
people. And I-phone people. There are Weis shoppers and Redners shoppers. There
are whole systems based upon these loyalties- there are even loyalty cards. And
while some offer us a deal here and there, they are mainly just tracking what
we buy to get us to buy more of what it seems we can’t do without. I keep
waiting for my loyalty to Turkey Hill really give me the better gas discount.
They tell me to keep spending. Getting us to cozy up to their system and treat
the connections as real. To be the thing we want most. But they’re not real
connections.
What’s in our wallet says a lot. It says not only
what we are loyal to, but I think it says where we place our hope. That’s why
retail therapy is a thing. For those of you who don’t know, that’s shopping at
a favorite place to feel better. The next product is bound to make a difference
until maybe we do realize that VISA really does own us. There’s even a spoof on
the Viking commercial where the person realizes how much they owe and the
Vikings come back and smash it all.
The truth in this is that there is an obvious
tension in life between how to live a life of faith in the world and how to
live in the culture of our world. How to live without letting the culture own
us.
And I wonder if maybe the real question Jesus was
asking the Pharisees and us is, whether we think the pull of the culture is so
strong we don’t even try?
Maybe we begin to think it’s too much to ask how
faith shapes our decisions in life about spending and saving and giving. That’s
a place of no hope in the end. Yet Jesus says give to Caesar what is Caesar’s
but give to God what is God’s. Which may
be a way of reminding us how our coins and our cards do not define us.
Because God does. We belong to God.
Jesus invites and even demands us to engage these
words we say about God and ourselves- to speak of our Lord in terms of a real living
relationship. And a source of hope. Because while God wants all of us, the good
news is that God first says- you are mine. It’s a promise not a threat.
Words that are intended to reassure us that we are
more than our money and don’t have to live in fear of having it all.
Perhaps now more than ever these are words of
community and comfort and direction we need to hear. That our hope is not limited
to what we can buy. That we can live in faith that God loves us, provides for
us and saves us and we can believe there is a future and hope. Now more than
ever as we look at our world and feel powerless we can be a community that continues
to gather together around what is real- God’s love and promise today and
forever in Christ’s work of the cross. That’s our hope. And it’s real.
In a few weeks, we will be gathering for our annual
meeting, and voting upon a plan for how we will carry out ministry in the
coming year. The time honored term is called a budget. And it often feels that
our thoughts about bills and coins are the only way we see this process. But I
want to suggest we view it as a statement of trust in God and as a statement of
hope.
That the choices we make in our commitment will be
based upon our trust in God so that we can support it financially. And that the
choice we make in shaping ministry will be based upon what we believe God is
calling us to do, not only what we feel used to doing.
Because we’re liberated by God from the weight of
whatever feels like it occupies us. We are liberated! And our primary response
is to say thank you! Thank God! And trust God’s providing as we carry out the
gospel for others. So they can feel liberated and thankful too.
And this is who we CAN be because God claims us,
loves us and empowers us to respond.
Let us pray- Lord God, sometimes we are unsure
about how we can respond to your calling. Help us to surrender ourselves, and be thankful because
we are yours, and to trust that you love us and provide for us, so that we can
break free from what holds us back and share of ourselves for the sake of your
world.
In Jesus’ name. Amen
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