It’s been a few weeks since I last wrote a Sunday Reflection. I’ve been occupied with traveling back and forth between the UK and the US to finalise my visa process and getting moved into the rectory (the house provided to clergy by the church) in the UK. I can’t yet officiate any services but that will come soon. I’m grateful to have this time to settle in and begin getting to know the people I will be working with in the benefice (a group of geographically joined churches under the care of the same clergy).
Because the whole process from the original job offer to now has taken far longer than any of us imagined to begin with, this time of beginning is more precious and special, I think, than it would have been had all gone according to the original plan. We’ve all had to let go of our need to organise and control the various steps and trust that God was in the works of it all, even as human bureaucracies slowed things down.
Furnishing this large rectory was quite daunting at first. I chose not to send much of what I had in my house in the US because of the expense of shipping it all overseas. Many people have offered what they have, furniture and housewares that they are no longer using, and it’s all coming together to make a lovely home for me and the dogs. I pray it is a place of genuine welcome and hospitality for all.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is confronted by a group of folks who aren’t very hospitable, quite the opposite in fact. These people want to catch him in saying anything they can use against him because Jesus’ Way of Being threatens who they have chosen to be and the power they choose to hold over others. And, true to his nature, Jesus turns their words back on them, requiring them to self-evaluate their own motivations and by extension, to require us to self-evaluate how we view power, money, possessions, and life itself.
Jesus speaks the famous line, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (NRSV) and he frames this statement in image bearing, a direct reference to both our Creation stories and the command of God against graven images. The coin has the image of caesar engraved on it with all of the coercive power implications that come with that image. If Jesus had only said give to Caesar what is Caesar’s then it would have been a simple lesson in paying taxes. But he didn’t. Jesus adds the statement give to God what is God’s, leading us all to ask the question, what is God’s?
Well, what is it that bears God’s image as the coin does Caesar’s? Every single human being who’s ever lived and ever will live is made in God’s image. All of creation is made by God, including the materials used to make the coin with Caesar’s image, including the workers who crafted the coin, the one who commissioned the coin, the one holding the coin, those who give and receive the coin. In deepening the question from ‘should we pay taxes’ to image bearing, Jesus is exposing the false power of the one whose image is on the coin. Jesus is reminding us that all that we have, all that we are, the whole of our life bears God’s Image. All that we think, say, and do is to reflect this image within us. Our life isn’t a split between spiritual and physical. We are whole and holy heart, soul, mind, and strength. We can’t separate these ‘parts’ of what make us human as God chose to make us.
Our job, our family, our income, our savings, our home, our hobbies, our possessions, our chores, our politics, our recreation, our votes, our volunteering, our community service, how we view all of these is to be guided by the knowledge that we are Image Bearers of the One, True, Loving God. How we live the whole of our life is to be guided by God’s justice, mercy, and compassion.
There is nothing I have that isn’t from God and with all that I have been given I am to participate with God in the building up of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. What this looks like, how it plays out in our daily living is different for each of us. The true treasure of God’s Kingdom is the healthy relationships we nurture with God, each other, and ourselves. This is the ‘currency’ of The Kingdom and yet life in The Kingdom-on-earth is never to be transactional. I don’t do for you because I expect you to do equivalent for me. I don’t give to you in expectation you will give to me. We each do for others because we are Image Bearers.
In God’s Kingdom, here and now (and not quite yet) we do life together, tending to each other’s needs, offering what we have and being willing to ask for what we need so that together and with God’s help we all flourish. This is the Good News that invites and welcomes everyone into the Fellowship of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven.
We must each do the challenging and ongoing work of finding those ways where we view the world through a lens of self-serving or power-holding or fear-of-not-having. What part of my life am I treating as if it were not from God to be used for the Glory of God? It’s a lifelong journey we walk together, following Jesus, knowing we won’t always get it right and knowing that when we don’t God is with us wanting and waiting to help us refine our lens a little bit more each time.
The folks that were trying to catch Jesus in saying something wrong so they could use it against him were amazed at what he said. They were amazed and then they walked away. We don’t know what happened with them after this encounter with Jesus. Did they go back to the ones who sent them saying they couldn’t get a straight answer from him? Did they take to heart what he said and let it begin to reshape their worldview to one of companionship rather than competition? Was it a seed planted that took time to grow? Did they decide that change and growth were too hard, that they’d have to give up too much?
In our humanness, we all bear witness to the image of what we let shape our worldview, be it money or power or love. We are most fully human as we are created to be when we let our faith in God as we walk with Jesus shape our worldview to a Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven view.
The delays and frustrations I have encountered (as have all those involved in this process with me) have shaped how I am now entering into relationship with the good people of this benefice and the diocese I am now in. Mostly I’ve experienced gratitude and grace that we are at the point of officially beginning to journey together. And I am so very grateful for their generosity and pray that I am guided to give into this relationship as generously as well. With God’s help and following Jesus we will all continue to grow into who God created and is calling us to be, Image Bearers made to be like Jesus. Thanks be to God. Amen.
