Category: Wednesday Sermon

After church on Sunday morning, Little Johnny suddenly announced to his mother, “Mom, I’ve decided I’m going to be a minister when I grow up.” “That’s okay with us,” his mother said, “But what made you decide to be a minister?” “Well,” Little Johnny replied, “I’ll have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell at folks than it will be to sit still and listen.”

When we were kids, we all had some image of what we wanted to be when we grew up. The Apostle Paul writes, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.” As children and even as adults we have dreams and aspirations of who we want to be, but Paul adds, “When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” That does not mean that we set aside that childlike faith that Scripture speaks of, but it does mean we grow in our understanding of who God is, so that His image may increase in us.

In our Gospel reading today the Pharisees had come to Jesus questioning as to whether or not a person should pay taxes. They wanted to trick him by either getting him into trouble with the people or the Romans. Jesus didn’t fall for it. Instead, he asked to see one of the coins that was in use at the time that was minted with the image of the Emperor stamped on it. Why? Because it was ultimately the Emperor’s coin. His image stamped on the coin was a claim to his ownership. Therefore, when questioned on whether or not to pay taxes, Jesus says, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” It’s Caesar’s coin, so give it to him, but also give to God what is God’s.

It’s one of those parables that can speak to us on many levels. It speaks to us about our relationship to the government, taxes, and even of stewardship, but it also speaks to us about those images we hold of ourselves. That coin had Caesar’s image on it. It represents him and so it represents the world. There are aspects of our lives – of our image – that are representative of the world. We live in it; therefore, we have to live and work with it. Because of this reality, there is really no escaping giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but in doing so, we do not want to exchange our Godly image for a worldly one. As Paul teaches to the Romans, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” into the image of Christ Jesus.

St. Bonaventure declares, “In all your deeds and words you should look upon this Jesus as your model. Do so whether you are walking or keeping silence, or speaking, whether you are alone or with others. He is perfect, and thus you will be not only irreprehensible, but praiseworthy.” You were created in the image of God; therefore, give to God what is His and you will be praiseworthy.

When God created you He stamped you with his image, so just as the coin that bears the image of the Emperor belongs to Emperor, you who bear the image of God belong to God, not in the sense a slave belongs to a master, but as a child belongs to a loving Father.

Yes, give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s. Bear His image in your life.

Desmond Tutu was once asked why he became an Anglican rather than joining some other denomination. He replied that in the days of apartheid, when a black person and a white person met while walking on a footpath, the black person was expected to step into the gutter to allow the white person to pass and nod their head as a gesture of respect. “One day” Tutu says, “when I was just a little boy, my mother and I were walking down the street when a tall white man, dressed in a black suit, came toward us. Before my mother and I could step off the sidewalk, as was expected of us, this man stepped off the sidewalk and, as my mother and I passed, tipped his hat in a gesture of respect to her! I was more than surprised at what had happened and I asked my mother, ‘Why did that white man do that?’ My mother explained, ‘He’s an Anglican priest. He’s a man of God, that’s why he did it.’ When she told me that he was an Anglican priest I decided there and then that I wanted to be an Anglican priest too. And what is more, I wanted to be a man of God.”

It is quite easy today for us to determine a person’s worth based on color of skin, the clothes they wear, level of education, size of house, income, and so on. Like the whites in South Africa during apartheid, they looked at the color of the skin and declared in their hearts, “I am worth more than you.” What struck Desmond Tutu so about the priest was the fact that the priest, by his actions said, “No. This is not true. We are equal.”

The parable of the generous landowner is curious in how it ends – a standoff. You can see the steward standing with hand extended offering the upset worker his denarii and the worker glaring back in his anger. Jesus does not tell us what happens next because he wants us to figure it out on our own. What we must figure out is that the parable is not about the amount of work an individual worker has done. Instead, the parable is about what the landowner and the steward are doing. The parable is about God the Father, God the Son, and the work they are accomplishing.

The landowner kept going to town looking for more workers, just as God the Father keeps coming to us, pursuing us – pursuing his children that we might return to him. The steward, Jesus, pays for each of us. He places that denarii, that coin in our hands and that coin is our salvation. Whether you come early in life or late, the same reward is made available to you. Why is God doing this? Because it is God’s desire that all return to Him.

As Paul states in his first letter to Timothy, “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Or as Peter says in his second epistle, the Lord “is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” We have this tendency to judge others by how we perceive their worth. God, on the other hand, sees all as his beloved children and he desires that all should be saved. To what extent will God go to save His children? You need only to look to the cross to know the answer.

Do you ever wonder if you are making the right decision? Have you ever wondered if the decisions you make are according to the will of God? When it comes to what color socks I’m going to wear, I don’t usually fret over that too much, but when it comes to decisions regarding the church, career, family I want to feel confident that God is with me. The trouble is that there are many factors that play into any of the decisions we make. For example, if someone comes to you and ask your opinion or ask you to help them with a project, what factors enter in? Who they are? What is your relationship to them? Do you even like them? How long will the project take? What might you have to sacrifice in order to help them? On the smaller and more personal issues we will often be on our own, but on the larger ones Jesus gives us some pretty good advice.

Jesus said, “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” So with larger issues we can come together and if we seek the mind of Christ, then He will be with us. However, when two or three Christians get together, do they always come up with the right answer?

Let’s see: Westboro Baptist Church? No. David Koresch and Jim Jones? No and No. Those are obvious though. What about someone that we might think is really spot on, for example, Martin Luther. Was he always right? During his time, he backed the ruling class which led to the death of 100,000 peasants and he also wrote concerning the Jews and referred to them as a “miserable, blind, and senseless people” who, if necessary, must be driven “out like mad dogs.” Many agreed with him at the time, but do you think he was right? Perhaps this is heresy, but given our track record, I’m not at all convinced that we can know the will of God with 100% accuracy; however, I do believe that we can move in the right direction.

It begins with humility, but from there we must learn to discern what is motivating us and what our true intentions are. When it comes to knowing the mind and will of Christ, it is not about assessing the end result, it is about determining the “Why?” behind it.

You decide you want to build a grand cathedral filled with the finest accoutrements. The floors are rose marble. The walls of Granite. The chalice on the altar is pure gold. In and of itself it is a testament to the glory of God and the love of his people, but why did you build it? Was it truly for the glory of God or did you want God and everyone else to see how special you are? How wealthy you are? What a great magnanimous soul you have?

Gandhi wrote, “Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts.”

When two or three of us come together with our hopes and prayers that Christ will truly be with us, we must ask ourselves a few very important questions: is our motivation pure and will it bring glory to God? If we can answer “Yes” to these questions, then we can humbly move forward, all the while continuously assessing our hearts.

The play, Man of La Mancha, is based on the story of Don Quixote. Don Quixote falls for Aldonsa even though she is a prostitute. He begins to woo her with words in an attempt to win her over and refers to her as Dulcinea, “my sweet little one” and My Lady. However, given her hard life, she cannot take such sweet words and eventually becomes angry with him. I was born in a ditch. I have no idea who my father is. I’ve spent most of my life working on my back. She concludes by saying to him, “Blows and abuse I can take and give back again, but tenderness I cannot bear. I’m just a whore.” In God’s eyes, her own eyes, and the eyes of the world around her she thought she knew exactly who she was, a whore.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus takes the twelve off by themselves to Caesarea Philippi. There he asks them a few questions. First, “Who do the people say that I am?” The apostles give him a few answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, or a prophet like Jeremiah. But then Jesus makes the question a bit more personal, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Simon Peter got the gold star that day. He answered the question perfectly and the answer was not one that he could have known himself, but one that was revealed to him by God; however, Peter also could not have known that answer unless he first knew himself. Why? Because you can’t know Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior, unless you know yourself as a sinner – one in need of saving.

Peter, he knew the history of his people as well as his own. Like all those that had gone before him, he was unable to remain holy in the eyes of God. He may not have said, “I am just a whore,” but I suspect that he might have said something close to it and it was only in knowing himself that he knew he needed a savior, and was able to recognize that Savior in Jesus Christ.

When Aldonsa declared to Don Quixote, “I am just a whore,” he responded to her, “The past is over and done. We all stumble on the way to maturity. We all look for love in the wrong arms, happiness in the wrong places. But out of it, you’ve become real. You’ve got a heart of immense compassion for the brokenness of others. You are utterly incapable of hypocrisy and I am deeply in love with you.” Silence follows and finally Aldonsa answers, “From this day forward my name is no longer Aldonsa. I am Dulcinea,” My Lady.

We come before God and say to him, “I am a sinner.. a tax collector.. a whore.. a ___.” We know what we are, and in our confession, Jesus responds to us, “The past is over and done. We all stumble on the way. You are My Father’s child and I am deeply in love with you.” It is in recognizing who we are that, from that day forward, we can say to him, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” and know in our hearts that we are free. Free to love and be loved by God.

Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” With all faith we can answer, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. You are my Savior.” Jesus responds, “My child. My beloved.”