{"id":2557,"date":"2011-10-18T08:36:49","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T13:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=2557"},"modified":"2011-10-18T09:24:44","modified_gmt":"2011-10-18T14:24:44","slug":"rev-richard-olson-october-162011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2011\/10\/rev-richard-olson-october-162011\/","title":{"rendered":"Rev. Richard Olson, October 16,2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
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16 October 2011, Chilmark Community Church, Matthew 22:15-22<\/span> <\/p>\n

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Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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It is a privilege to be worshiping with you this morning. \u00a0I want to thank Pam for giving me a second chance to preach here. \u00a0The first time I had another commitment. \u00a0So this is a first for me. \u00a0This is such a wonderful room for worship; it seems filled with serenity. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Pam said it would be exciting to have a Lutheran preach. \u00a0Exciting may not be the right adjective, at least for a Swedish Lutheran. \u00a0(Marilyn knows\u00a0Swedes.) \u00a0Exciting not. \u00a0Maybe you heard about the old Swede who loved his wife so dearly he nearly told her.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This will not be the type of sermon I was schooled to preach in seminary 55 years ago. \u00a0It doesn’t have three points.<\/p>\n

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I do hope there is something in today’s gospel passage that has caught your attention. \u00a0These words of Jesus caught enough attention to be remembered and included in the gospels according to Mark, Matthew and Luke. \u00a0Those were his followers. \u00a0As are we who have been rereading and repreaching on this text for nearly 2000 years.<\/span><\/div>\n
By the way, I feel that the fact that the Bible still catches our attention after all these centuries is part of why we call it the God’s Word. \u00a0And that includes the Hebrew Bible from which we read every Sunday. \u00a0It’s something like the phenomenon that Marshall McLuhan described when he said, “The medium is the message.”<\/span><\/div>\n
But it was not only Jesus’ followers who were caught by Jesus’ words. \u00a0It was his adversaries. They were amazed. \u00a0Or as Eugene Peterson renders it, “The Pharisees were speechless. \u00a0They went off shaking their heads.” \u00a0(I commend his translation as a source for your Bible study,)<\/span><\/div>\n
Is there anything more for us in this passage than giving a high-5 to Jesus for pulling a gotchya on those who were out to get him? \u00a0I learned earlier in my ministry from Krister Stendahl that not every biblical passage, not even every recorded word of Jesus is relevant to my situation 2000 years later.<\/span><\/div>\n
In other words, I resist using this passage to counter the Tea Party by arguing that Jesus said, “Pay the tax!” \u00a0Jesus did say that in that situation. \u00a0And if that was all he had said,\u00a0the Pharisees would have gone off saying “Gotchya.”<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They would have succeeded in trapping him. \u00a0Trapping Jesus was their aim one way or the other. \u00a0The Pharisees stance was that Jews should not pay the tax to the Roman occupiers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Where did Jesus a fellow Jew stand? \u00a0Whichever answer he gave would get him in deep trouble with either his compatriots or with the Roman oppressors.<\/div>\n
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However Jesus added something that turned the tables, turned the tables until the stunned adversaries got their act together a few days later (this happened during what we call Holy Week) when they persuaded Pontius Pilate to have Jesus executed. \u00a0And what Jesus added is the link between his words and his crucifixion.<\/span><\/div>\n
It’s also the link between then and now. \u00a0I dare to say this because the gospels go on to report that the crucifixion was not the last act, the ultimate Gotchya in Jesus’ life. \u00a0As we say in the Creed, “And on the third day he was raised from the dead.” \u00a0If his followers had not experienced that we wouldn’t be here this morning recalling the words of Jesus.<\/span><\/div>\n
Jesus answered,\u00a0“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” \u00a0I choose “render” rather than “give” because it carries the sense of giving back. \u00a0I think that’s part of the relationship with Caesar and with God. \u00a0First we have received, we have been given to. \u00a0And it’s in light of that reality that we respond.<\/span><\/div>\n
I know I’m playing with words, responsibly I hope. \u00a0That’s what preachers do. \u00a0We don’t know what word Jesus used. \u00a0He spoke Aramaic and the gospel writers chose a Greek word to render what the Aramaic oral version used. \u00a0And the Greek word has at least four definitions; you could look it up.<\/span><\/div>\n
A fascinating aspect of this encounter is that the Pharisees who resented the Jews’ forced subjection to Roman rule had the coin with Caesar’s image engraved on it. \u00a0Jesus needed to ask to see it. \u00a0He didn’t carry money. \u00a0Or to put it another way he didn’t have the need to respond to Caesar; he didn’t benefit from the Roman economy. \u00a0Could we say that he and his followers were “dropouts”? \u00a0In this regard the Pharisees, for all their opposition to Caesar, were still participating to a degree.<\/span><\/div>\n
They had tried to catch Jesus in an either\/or. \u00a0“Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” \u00a0Jesus responded by saying, “You use Caesar’s currency; pay the tax.” \u00a0Not so bad. They thought they at least could use that answer to disenchant the camp followers who leaned on Jesus’ every word, even if they couldn’t use it to bring Pilate’s law-enforcers down on Jesus.<\/span><\/div>\n
And it was what Jesus said next that never ceases to amaze both his adversaries and his followers. \u00a0“Render unto God what is God’s.” \u00a0This may sound like an imperative, a command to drop out. \u00a0It’s more than that. \u00a0It’s an invitation to drop in on the amazing reality of our being alive. <\/span><\/div>\n
There are imperatives in living, laws to obey, taxes to pay. \u00a0And all of that was true then and is true now. It’s sometimes vexing, sometimes rewarding. And beneath it, above it, all around it, at the center of it is what is God’s– the gift of my life and our life together.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Imperatives were close to central for a Swedish-American kid in Confirmation Class for two years in the mid-40s. \u00a0I memorized Luther’s Small Catechism and later, as a pastor, I expected the next generation of kids to do the same. \u00a0With one change which had helped change my life and I hope the lives of the kids. \u00a0They were being prepared to reaffirm or not their baptism as infants. \u00a0As infants they hadn’t had a choice. \u00a0Now each of them did.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Luther’s Small Catechism does an unfortunate edit on Exodus 20. \u00a0He omits saying “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” \u00a0Luther jumps directly from “I am the Lord your God” to the commands, the imperatives, “you shall, you shall not…”.<\/div>\n
How about the commands, the imperatives, being heard as a response to what God has given. \u00a0“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of slavery.” \u00a0Therefore why would you \u00a0worship another God? \u00a0Why would you cheat, lie, kill, envy? <\/p>\n
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Heard as a grateful response accounts for our being here this morning. \u00a0In gratitude for what we’ve been given, we’re singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving, we’re praying for ourselves and for others, we’re dropping Caesar’s currency in the offering plate for the benefit of others.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One more thing about Jesus’ answer. \u00a0Like many self-important religious types, the Pharisees’ question shows that they saw life in terms of either\/or, Caesar or God.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Jesus, however, connects the two parts of his answer with AND. \u00a0Think that over:<\/div>\n
Caesar and God, both\/and. \u00a0As an option for living life as God’s gift and responding in gratitude I think Jesus has set a good example.
\nAs I said at the beginning, it’s a privilege to be worshiping with you this morning. \u00a0It’s a blessing. \u00a0And the blessing follows us, accompanies us, goes before us, as we go out to encounter life’s either\/ors. \u00a0There is more to life. \u00a0Amen.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 October 2011, Chilmark Community Church, Matthew 22:15-22  Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a privilege to be worshiping with you this morning. \u00a0I want to thank Pam for giving me a second chance to preach here. \u00a0The first time I had another commitment. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2557"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2559,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions\/2559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}