Rector's Sermon - Sunday, October 16, 2005

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Isaiah 45:1–4	Psalm 96:1–9	1 Thessalonians 1:1–10	Matthew 22:15-22

      There is a common, but telling observation that we often get so involved in wrestling with the alligators, that we forget our main purpose was to drain the swamp. Of course if we drained the swamp the population and spread of alligators would take care of itself.

       Everyone knew that the question whether it was lawful or not to pay the tax to Rome, was a diversionary tactical game. If Jesus said no it was not lawful, Jesus would be accused of sedition against Rome. If Jesus said yes, he would be accused of supporting the hated Roman occupation and by implication, the support of graven images. Jesus cleverly avoided the trap, and that probably brought a smile to Jesus' followers. It was Jesus one, the opponents, zero. But it settled nothing; it was only a temporary respite before Jesus' opponents arrested him a few days later in the Garden of Gethsemane and led him away to be tried and executed.

       So while the incident was a fleeting, small victory, I suspect it was preserved in the Gospel accounts for a more important reason. My guess is poor Matthew, as well as Mark and Luke, had already suffered through long arguments over how many candles to have on the altar, what time the service should be, or other such trivial issues that forever divert us from the primary tasks and implications of discipleship. There were, to be sure, important internal issues the early church had to deal with. The integration of Gentiles with Jewish-Christians and the dietary customs of various cultures and religions that people brought with them when they joined the church were two of the most important ones. Yet, it was easy to slip into setting traps for one's opponent and attempting to win at all costs rather than searching for a larger truth, rather than acknowledging that the church was not founded as a forum for debate, but to be a light of God's grace to all nations.

       In our day too, it is more comfortable to fight alligators than to concentrate on the mission God offers us. I've recently been reading a book by Jim Wallis¹ who reminds us that both Jesus and the prophets talked about poverty, the proper use and the idolatry of wealth, and the related issue of social injustice more than any other single subject. He goes on to note that if one were to cut out of a Bible all the passages referring to these subjects, you would have a Bible full of holes. I wonder sometimes, if we have not witnessed to the world a Bible full of holes rather than the real thing. I wonder if in effect we have not spent so much time fighting the alligators on irrelevant, minor controversies and concerns, but have forgotten to drain the swamp. I know I'm as guilty of this as much as anyone.  

       The Gospel writers have Jesus in the midst of those tense last days in Jerusalem offering the future church an ironic warning: Mature discipleship involves discerning the issues that help us discover and enable us to progress to clearer truth, as opposed to getting entrapped by issues that do nothing more than stir up the mud in the pond. It's tempting to modify the Gospel to our own comfort level, where it never conflicts with or pinches deeply anything in our lives. But whenever we succeed to doing so, it will not be the Gospel. While there will be forces always seeking to intrude into our lives, define, and shape our perspective, God won't be controlled by our boundaries.

       Discipleship is not about winning arguments or vilifying opponents. It is about choosing greater values over lesser values. It is about discerning priorities and understanding what is more important and what is less. It is about being unsatisfied with easy half-truths and always struggling for a more comprehensive and deeper truth. That is why I suspect Jesus never did delineate for all time what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. Jesus didn't want disciples to get sidetracked by narrow issues. Jesus doesn't give us a Gospel full of holes. The mission of the church is always to be a light of hope in the world. That is the real work of disciples rather than becoming caught up in debate of peripheral concerns.

  And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.

    ¹Jim Wallis, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it (HarperCollins, 2005).