Matthew 22:15-22 Sermon!!!

I am preaching tommorrow on Matthew 22:15-22. This is what I am preaching as I figure that you all may be interested:

Questions are asked of us every day whether we are aware of it or not. When we go to a store, we are asked if we want paper or plastic, if this will be on our credit card or if we are paying in cash. In conversations people often ask us if we are following the news or if we have seen a television program. And if we have, there is the question of what we think. That always makes for good ways to get to know people in the context of conversation.

We ask questions of other people as well. The question arises of when we ask a question of other people, what is our intent? To judge them or to understand where they are coming from? Are we eager to put them in a boxes as conservative or liberal, as educated or uneducated, etc? Or are we really wanting to find a level of understanding of what another person is saying?

Or it can even be more simple questions that can cause division. I live in a dormitory with 18 other people where I share a kitchen and a television room with them. Last year one of the things that people had passionate stances on was whether to watch Greys Anatomy or The Office on Thursday evenings. While it sounds silly to me now, this was a huge issue that divided our small dormitory community as we had only one television room. We did eventually find another place to watch televison that we switched between every other week.

Or the question can be posed as to how often we get defensive when we sense a level of malice behind a question. Sensing that the intent is judgement or putting us into some kind of definable box we give it is easy to become defensive in what our responses may be. Who do you support, John McCain or Barack Obama? I know that my natural response is to be able to want to explain why I support the candidate that I do when I am asked in the realm of conversation about politics. In controversial issues, I know that I can identify as having strong opinions sometimes and I become aware that I fall into thinking that I need to defend my perspective no matter what the cost is. While this not always a bad thing, becoming so aware of my own opinion that I am not able to listen to another perspective contributes to a sense of division from people can sometimes lead to a sense of self righteousness over my opinions. Suddenly I may not be able to hear what another person has to say.

Jesus is aware that there can be a sense of malice and judgement behind questions in this text. Jesus is posed with the controversial question of if it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor. In the context of his time, to approve of the taxation would have been offensive to Jewish nationalists; to disapprove would have been treasonous. Jesus could have taken a strong stance at this point in time to align himself with a political position.

If Jesus answers yes, the disciples of the Pharisees and the crowds who perceive Jesus as a prophet will reject him for not teaching the way of God. If Jesus is bold and rank in his speech and says that Jews have no obligation under Jewish law to pay taxes to Caeser than the political supporters of Herad will denounce him to governmental authorities.

Jesus sensed the malice behind the question. So he boldy states: give to the emporer the things that are the emporer’s. Give to God the things that are Gods. Jesus is not defensive about his stance, like my dormmates and I were about Grey’s Anatomy and the Office. I know that I can be tempted to defensive be in discussing politics. Rather Jesus calmly makes a statement that is controversial to everyone. He does not make people choose between loyalty to God or loyalty to the emperor. This is challenging to the way people tended to think in this culture about taxes. Because suddenly, it is not a matter of either you are aligned with Jewish law or governmental law. He makes everybody think and challenges everybody. Whose head is on the denari? Who gives us life???

So, what can we learn from Jesus’s actions today?

Jesus did not take any kind of revenge and he did not get defensive. This story is a story that eventually leads up to his crucifixion on the cross. He did not bite the bait that the Pharisees gave him. Rather, he affirms the current tax law AND endorses his own agenda: which is pointing to God.

This was challenging to the either/or way of thinking that the Pharisees seemed to have. They went away amazed because they probably found themselves challenged. Not only did Jesus not take the bait that they were trying to give him to place him under arrest, they were now posed with a difficult question themselves. What belongs to God???

The Pharisees probably left asking this question of themselves when the Bible says that they were amazed.

In this particular Bible story, I really see how it would be easy to focus on Jesus’ words on thinking about what belongs to God. In fact, I think that the Pharisees were amazed paritially because of the way Jesus framed his words in a way that would have been challenging to them, especially as they were considered to be among the people who were official representatives of Judiasm in their day. They were concerned with what they considered the way of God to be, even if they did see Jesus as a threat to their own way of doing things. Jesus gave them a serious question to consider, are you giving to God the things that are God’s?

They gave Jesus a trick question hoping that it could help them set Jesus up. But Jesus did not take the bait and managed to affirm that it is important to consider God in our actions. We can learn from what Jesus has to say in this situation, yet we can also learn how Jesus handled this situation as well. Instead of giving an immediate reaction, he asked question of why they were asking this of him? Why are you putting me to the test? I think that we can learn from this in our day to day lives on many levels. In my dorm situation that I told you about in the Greys Anatomy and the Office dilemma, asking people why they brought up the topic could have been useful before the conflict ensued. It does get more tricky with more controversial topics, like the upcoming election, however I could take a lesson in stepping back and asking why it was brought up before making a statement that could stop the conversation.

What baffles me is that Jesus made a statement statement that challenged everyone’s way of thinking about the taxes instead of retaliating. I like the way Max Lucado reflects on this particular story, “Did you see what Jesus did not do? He did not retaliate. He did not bite back. He did not say “I’ll get you!! He left the judging to God. He did not take on the task of seeking revenge. He demanded no apology. If ever a person deserved a shot at revenge, Jesus did. But he didn’t take it. Instead he died for them.” My own thought is that Jesus embodies nonviolent living in this story in not fighting back, but asking challenging questions. How often do we really do this in our own lives?

Jesus gives us a good example on how to behave in our interactions with other people. He asserted his stance to give to God’s the things that are God’s but not in a way that threatened the law of taxation but rather upheld it. Think of the last time that you had some kind of conflict with someone. Did you uphold the other person’s perspective or were you more concerned with your own perspective? Were your words guided by fear or anger or were they guided by love and understanding? Now, how do you think that Jesus would have responded?

I doubt that any of us lived the same way Jesus lived in being able to be this calm However that does not mean that we shouldn’t strive to live up to Jesus’s example.

When we treat others with the same kind of grace that Jesus did treated people, we are living out the gospel in our actions to the world. People will get a glimmer of what the grace of God looks like here on earth.

But let’s face it: Jesus was divine and human. We are only human. We will use fighting words, we will fall into the traps of questions that set us up. This is a part of our sinful nature. Yet just because we are sinners does not mean that we shouldn’t strive to live the same way Jesus did. Because we can provide good news to the world by dealing with conflict in a loving way that can make the gospel come to life to the rest of the world.

The good news for us when we fall short of Jesus’s examples for our lives is that God forgives us. God is always generous and forgiving. We may take the bait of sin that is lying out there in the world for us, but God does not fight back but takes the firm stance of forgiveness of our sins. The thing that we may need to be wary of is that God will probably ask challenging questions of us as well, just as Jesus posed questions back to the Pharisees. We may need to come prepared.

Did You Know About Gandhi??????

I just posted this on the Pace e Bene blog, thought it may be of interest:

i am currently reading Gandhi and Jesus: The Saving Power of Nonviolence by Terrence Rynne. I have always been intrigued by the life of Gandhi but I learned a few things about him that I had no clue about before reading Rynne’s book.

For example, did you know that while Gandhi thought Christianity would be more effective if Christians spent less time preaching and more time just living out their faith???

Did you know that Gandhi was deeply inspired by the Biblical Jesus and actually thought that the Sermon on the Mount (the sermon Jesus preached in Matthew 5-7) was the sacred truth that the world yearned for???

I was aware of Gandhi’s Hindu influence but I was not aware of how much the Jesus of the Bible really influenced his stance on nonviolence. In fact, Rynne argued that Gandhi’s idea for a nonviolent society was more in line with the New Testament idea of the Kingdom of God than any other worldview.

Did you know that in Gandhi’s satyagrahi that there is no room for cowardly behavior? Rynne says that “Gandhi maintaine that it was better to be violent than to be a coward, while always maintaining the superiority of nonviolence.” Examples Rynne gave were “defense of the defenseless or the fending off of a robber or even in the ending of a life of unending pain.” Rynne stressed that Gandhi “saw violence and nonviolence as constituting a continuum not as absolute opposites.” Of course, nonviolence is the ideal, but it should not be embraced passively, rather it should be embraced actively.

These were just a few of the things that really struck me about the life of Gandhi while reading this book that I had never known before. They are definitely items that are food for thought as i am a student of life!!!

Are Faith Communities Afraid to Be Challenged By the Gospel???

This is what i just put on my pace e bene blog:

I am currently reading Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman.

He mentions that “It cannot be denied that too often the weight of the Christian movement has been on the side of the strong and powerful and against the weak and oppressed despite the gospel.” Thurman points out that Jesus WAS in the population that was the oppressed minority for being a poor jew under the Roman empire.

How often is the message portrayed in churches about Jesus not one that uplifts the fact that Jesus himself was a minority?

Recently, in my Old Testament Class with Steed Davidson, he mentioned that Micah is the prophet in the Bible that has the most to say about poverty and injustice. However, churches do not hear this message because in the lectionary cycle, only one of the chapters of Micah is really read in church. The chapters that call for nations to change themselves is not being read.

I can not help but think if the issue regarding Micah and the issue regarding Jesus are similar. How often are the images and messages of the Bible that call us to examine ourselves and work for justice the ones that are not considered central points in church communities???? Do we expect a message of comfort when that is only a portion of what the Bible is about? Are our faith communities afraid to be challenged by these messages???

People Hearing Without Listening

I am loving my new teaching parish and my work with Pace e Bene this year. However while I feel like I have some really good professional communities I am not really so sure how I feel about community on a personal level. While I am looking into counseling and internet dating at the moment and think that these can be very helpful things in my life right now, I do see how we almost put too much weight on these types of relationships. Don't get me wrong, I think that boundaries is very appropriate in any relationship. However sometimes I think that stressing these kinds of relationships as the most appropriate type of relationships to really talk in can also become an excuse for letting friendship merely be at the surface level. Trying to find a significant other and a therapist almost becomes an excuse not to really share things with another person. I think that encouraging these contexts as the only appropriate places takes away from authentic community. I think that there is a certain level of sadness that I have that I realize that this is what it is going to take for me to feel sane in the PLTS community this year. I feel like I have an awesome advisor and I appreciate the friendship of the young man who was at Luther with me this summer. I am very thankful for these people however I want a wider sense of community than this.

I want to share some of my experiences, I am not one to want to put anyone in a negative light by any means. I am a beleiver for taking responsibility for my end of a situation as well, but that does not take away the fact that people say and do things that are hurtful as well. These are some of the things that had made me feel this way.

I do not know when this happened but for some reason I am a much more confident, assertive person this year. I was hoping that this would be to my advantage but I have had a lot of interactions that indicate that my not just taking other people's opinion for fact. But what am I supposed to do when in discussing cross cultural experiences and mentioning I did not go to Africa because I didn't have the money to even though it was my first choice the person I was talking to merely said to me that it takes living simply and taking out loans to do these sort of things. It felt like this person was being naive about what financial situations can really be like. I try to enjoy life but I also am really strict about living within my means as well. And I also knew that I would do summer school this past summer, and I had the unexpected expenses of foot surgery and repairing my car breaks as well. But this person was presenting their argument in a way that made it come off like anyone can do this and I did not want to say anything that would provoke an unnecessary argument.

On another occasion with the discussion of my doing a fourth year internship I mentioned that it felt counterintuitive not to be on internship this year in many ways. I really understand the logic of it as my brain is on overload and I am ready to serve. This person looked to me and said that it is about kairos, not chronos. This means looking at time in seasons and not chronology. It was as though there was an eagerness to give advice and not an interest in asking why I felt this way.

On another occasion, in a discussion on baptism with someone, I mentioned that I do not beleive you need to be baptized in order to be saved. This person looked at me and said, "I hope you did not tell your candidacy committe this." I did not say anything beyond that. However with more conversation it would have come out that I do beleive in the sacraments because they are a communal reminder of what God has done for us. I find it problematic to think that baptism is necessary for salvation if this is about what God has done for us.

One evening I went out with someone I met on Craigslist. I did not pursue it beyond that evening but I had fun. A dorm parent figure asked if the person I was going out with was a Christian. I said no I did not think so. They responded saying that this is a conversation I really should have with someone that I would date. While ideally I would date a Lutheran, I am open to dating people with all kinds of beleifs. Also, I realized if I was being judged on whether or not the person I was about to see was a Christian, then a person would not understand the reasons why I want to be in ministry in the first place.

And recently, I had a conversation with someone about marriage. This person mentioned that they thought it would be natural that marriage would be for life if both parties took seriously their calling as Christians in respect for their neighbor because marriage is really a vocation. While I can be really quiet at times, I am not a shy person. This takes both parties having this philosophy to work, I said. I also mentioned that this does not account for the fact that people grow apart, that people do not always act out of love for each other. What about the fact that we are sinners and the fact that we live in a broken world, I could not help but ask. At this comment, this person just got up and walked away.

In all of these cases, I have tried to act respectfully of the other person and be myself. Maybe the final case I was a little more aggressive, but I found that theology very problematic on many levels and I could not back away from it. In all of these cases, I was trying to offer something of myself in this situation. And all I received was judgement, not grace. I am aware that we are all plagued by sin and that we live in a sense of brokeness that can effect the relationships around us. However I refuse to be apologetic for or back away from who I am. It is probably the most stressful that all of these interactions have taken place in the context of the kitchen that I use in the dorms. I do not feel like I live in an accepting community this year at all which is stressful. And I think of this Simon and Garfunkel song with the line people hearing without listening. I feel like a lot of that goes on. I do not think that anyone ever totally gets this, but I think that some are better at hearing and listening than others are. I do not like to speak ill of other people and I am a beleiver in taking responsibility for my end of a relationship. However a person can only stand so much of this sometimes. I am beginning to feel like a lost voice in the wilderness of Berkeley. I know ministry is not easy but I feel like there should be more of a spirit of cooperation and striving for understanding than there is. I am feeling lonely this year.