YOU BELONG TO GOD

St. Martin’s Atlanta - Oct 16, 2005 - 24-A The Rev’d Derwent A. Suthers Jesus was in a tight spot. Remember he was living in a country occupied by a hated foreign power. If he had said, “Yes, you should pay taxes to Caesar, the Roman emperor,” he would be seen as a collaborator, renouncing his messiahship; if he said, “You should not pay taxes,” the questioners would pass on word to the Romans and he would be arrested as an agitator. Fortunately Jesus, like other people in public life, was skilled at side-stepping tricky or insinuating questions of the press. In this case he simply said, “Bring me a coin used for the tax.” It was a Roman denarius, and of course it had a picture of Caesar’s head on it, the image of the emperor. So he simply said, “Give to Caesar what is his, and to God what is God’s.” He didn’t really answer which is which, but he left us to think about it. Actually, each of us, like a coin, has an image on us. The Bible says that all of us were made in the image of God. In Baptism we give to God the things that are God’s. When we were baptized someone said to us, “You belong to God.” And in baptizing people, as we frequently do at this service, we remind ourselves that we all belong to God. Sometimes this image of God on us gets kind of messed up, dirtied over, even scratched. But the image of God is still there on us; we are God’s coins. And sometimes we have to be kind of cleaned off so you can see that the image is really there. That’s what we do in Baptism, and in another way we do it every Sunday as we confess and pray together and then come forward to receive that wonderful Holy Communion with God and one another. In Baptism we actually use some water to clean the baby, young person or adult. We say, “God, we want your face to shine through this person all his or her life, so that when people see him or her, they may see something of you.” That’s a big order, isn’t it? That’s a big prayer we pray at Baptisms. By baptizing a person we are saying something else too: that basically she or he belongs to God and not to Caesar. With a human being it is opposite from that coin they showed Jesus that had the emperor’s image on it. You see, the emperor was the head of the government, the State, as we sometimes say, “head of state.” We have duties to our country of course: to vote, to pay taxes, yes, sometimes even to serve in special ways like in the armed forces. We serve our country, yes, but we belong to God. We are to try to listen to what God wants us to do, to our conscience, God’s voice within us. That is what is most important, that we obey God as we understand what God wants us to do. And that might not always be popular. It might make us seem different from a lot of other people, but we must be prepared for that if we belong to God. For the early Christians it was dangerous to be baptized and to follow God. Even if they were caught meeting together to worship God they could be hauled off to prison. The state often does not want anyone saying that a person has certain rights and freedom as a child of God that the government cannot take away. When the communists ruled Russia, for example, a lot of churches were closed and people were discouraged from believing in God. And the government even had their own ceremony, like a baptism, to show that children as they were growing up belonged to the Soviet State, to Communism. Hitler was like that, only worse: he even had women giving birth in baby factories for the Fatherland, to provide soldiers to fight his wars. To all this, Christian Baptism says “NO!” We are citizens not just of an earthly country, we are citizens of heaven, and first of all, and last of all, we belong to God. A story about a Russian boy under communism illustrates this. The boy was being tried for refusing to bear arms. Carefully he gave all his reasons, showing that he had thought it all out clearly and had a reason for his convictions. The judge listened to the end and then he said impatiently, “Your position would be logical if the kingdom of God had come. But it hasn’t.” Quickly the boy replied, “It has for me.” This is the Christian’s declaration of allegiance. “It has for me.” We belong to God. The other reading today echoes this truth that we belong to God. Paul is beginning a very happy letter to a group of Christians at a place called Thessalonica. He is very pleased with what they have been doing and says, “We know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that He has chosen you.” God says to all of us who are baptized, “I have chosen you.” So each of us can say, “I am somebody!” I remember Jesse Jackson used to begin worship back in the PUSH days, by getting the congregation to repeat, “I am somebody.” Those Christians at Thessalonica were somebody because they had “turned to God from idols.” Think about that, folks. They didn’t let anything in their busy lives take precedence over the fact that God had called them and they belonged to God. Is that true of us? Here is another story. A pastor was emphasizing to parents of young people who were in a confirmation class, that the young people should be with their families in church on Sunday as a part of their preparation. “I’m afraid we don’t have time for worship,” one mother told the pastor after the meeting. Her words were soothing and gentle, yet they sounded condescending, as if she were explaining something to a not-very-bright child. “We’ve committed to soccer and cheerleading for my youngest son on Sunday mornings. We have a full plate. Maybe in a few years.” This same woman had been adamant that her children be baptized and confirmed. Although she and her family could fit in brief forays into religious rites, other activities were more important than a steady commitment to the church. When you think about it, Jesus’ clever response about rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s, may really mean that nothing belongs to Caesar. Since everything ultimately belongs to Go, what we believe we own or is due to us actually is on loan to us. We are asked not to keep God in some kind of equal balance with all the other demands on our lives, but to make sure that God takes second place to nothing else: “You shall have no other gods before me.” This does not sit well with busy families who appear to fear being involved in fewer activities than their neighbors. Many young parents seem to feel that their children must participate in many activities to be well rounded. But is not a solid religious foundation the key to their child’s maturation? When we place our schedules in God’s hands, we are no longer at the mercy of every request. We are given one day in seven to hold as holy. How liberating it is to be able to say, “No, we can’t attend. We’ll be in church.” (1) All of us belong to God. That is not in question. That fact is defined by our creation and dramatized by our Baptism. But we define ourselves by what we give back to God. Are you willing to belong to God? Are you willing to be a bright coin in God’s hand? Then let God spend you. Listen for what ways God may be calling you to spend yourself. There are sacraments of God, simple ways you can say, “I am yours, God, spend me!” I have mentioned worshipping here together. That is a sacrament of our time, that is all in God’s hands. Tithing – giving ten percent – working toward a serious percent of all God has loaned to us – is a way of saying, “Thank you. I am yours, God, spend me!” That is a sacrament of our wealth. There is a story that when the emperor Constantine became a Christian and was baptized, he commanded all his troops to go into the river to be baptized too. The story is that when they went under, they held their swords above the water, withholding their sword hand with its ability to fight and kill from the dominion of their new Lord, Christ. Some wag once said that if we Episcopalians were baptized by immersion, we would surely be holding our wallets above the water! No, my friends, surely we have grown beyond that and know that all we have is from God including that wallet. Your pledge for the ministry of this parish in the coming year is a good place to begin that sacrament of treasure, and you can go on from there to plan so much giving to causes of need in God’s world. Giving not just of money, of course. Giving of your time to certain people who need you. Giving of your attention, yourself. Listening. Empathizing. Helping as you can. Lifting people up in prayer. Spending the bright coin of yourself that is in God’s hand. For you belong to God, each one of you. You belong to God. (1) The above five paragraphs are adapted from Judith Johnson-Siebold, “Balance Sheet” in The Christian Century, 10-4-05, p.19.