The bad boys were trying to trap Jesus. Actually, in the eyes of the society, they were supposed to be the good guys. They were the brightest and best. The Pharisees were people who observed all of the traditional standards and rituals of Judaism. They tithed. They were compassionate. They were moral. They were at the heart of virtue in the culture. The Herodians were politically powerful. Had there been an institution such as the \u201cPresidential Prayer Breakfast\u201d in those days, the Pharisees and the Herodians would have been present. They were the brightest and the best. They were trying to trap Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trap was simple but brilliant. If Jesus answers the questions, \u201cIs it right to pay taxes, to render tribute to Caesar?\u201d with ayes, then the Pharisees had him for committing blasphemy. The ritual priority or holiness laws of the Pharisees forbade a Jew from touching Roman money. Roman coins had the image of Caesar on them. The Romans regarded Caesar as a god. So if Jesus paid tribute or taxes to Caesar, then he would be guilty of both idolatry and blasphemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If, on the other hand, Jesus said, \u201cNo, don\u2019t render tribute, pay taxes, to Caesar,\u201d then the Herodians could turn him in to the Romans authorities as a revolutionary. In short, they thought they had him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus answered by asking for a coin and turning the question around and asking them, \u201cwhose image is on the coin?\u201d They answered, \u201cCaesar\u2019s.\u201d He said, \u201cRender that which is Caesar\u2019s to Caesar and to God that which is God\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christians have been trying to figure out how to do that ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A conservative man said,\u201d I believe it is my duty to God to help protect this nation from the Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A liberal Christian man said, \u201cI just can\u2019t see how a Christian can be a Republican. Oh, I know that it is possible. I even have a Republican friend who is a Christian, but I just don\u2019t understand how it can be that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Christian woman said, \u201cI don\u2019t vote. I think about it and can\u2019t see how voting can honor God. So I just don\u2019t vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another Christian said,\u201d I believe it is my Christian responsibility to vote. I try to vote as intelligently as I can. Frequently it means choosing between the lesser of two evils. One humorist described voting as choosing \u2018the evil of two lessers.\u2019 I think that is funny, but it still hurts. I believe God wants us to do the best we can in an imperfect reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of us are somewhere in the middle, trying to honor God and trying to be good citizens of our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Jesus is saying something deeper. He ends his response with \u201c\u00e2\u0080\u00a6render to God what is God\u2019s.\u201d This suggests to us that there are some ultimate citizenship issues. In the scriptures Jesus makes many references to the \u201cKingdom of God.\u201d We all say that we believe it. In the Creeds we use the phrase \u201cwhose kingdom will have no end.\u201d We have never seen this kingdom. Many contemporary theologians don\u2019t even like the image of kingdom. They feel that it doesn\u2019t speak to us since most of us don\u2019t live in monarchies. Some of them like the phrase, \u201cCommonwealth of God;\u201d others like the phrase \u201cRealm of God.\u201d But whatever term we prefer, there is a sense in us that somehow our ultimate citizenship is not in this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One man, old enough to remember the Nixon Presidency, said, \u201cI supported the President with my vote, influence, and money. Then when the Watergate mess became public and he resigned, I felt betrayed. Then suddenly, I realized that while I get to vote, pay taxes, and enjoy the benefits of being a citizen of this nation, my real citizenship is in heaven. And God will not betray me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus is calling us to our true, ultimate, and permanent citizenship. He makes that possible for us through his life, teaching, death, resurrection, and continuing presence with us. Our true citizenship will be at the heavenly banquet. The seating arrangements at the heavenly banquet are going to be interesting. It is quite possible that a French Huguenot Christian murdered in the St. Bartholomew\u2019s Day Massacre will be seated next to a Roman Catholic Christian who may have been the murderer. It is quite possible that a Roman Catholic who was burned to death in England may be seated across the table from one of our Anglican Christian forebears responsible for the burning. Stalin, who was baptized and even went to theological seminary, may be at that banquet. Most of the soldiers who slaughtered each other in our Civil War were Christians. Most of the Russians, Germans, Austrian, Serbs, Italians, French, English, and North Americans who slaughtered each other in World War I were Christian and undoubtedly will be gathered at the heavenly banquet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ticket into the heavenly banquet is salvation, by grace, through faith. It is not connected to our works, either good or bad. It is a free gift from God. The passport to heaven is not something of this world. We receive it when we surrender to the love of God and claim Jesus as Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to voting, you are on your own. Do the best you can for the best reasons you can summon up from the political debates, speeches, and televised sound bites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when it comes to heaven \u2014 be with God! We know that this is true; we know that this is where we really belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This sermon was written by J. Hugh Magers<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The bad boys were trying to trap Jesus. Actually, in the eyes of the society, they were supposed to be the good guys. They were the brightest and best. The Pharisees were people who observed all of the traditional standards and rituals of Judaism. They tithed. They were compassionate. They were moral. They were at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,1953],"tags":[110],"class_list":["post-511635","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-24a"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":1953,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":110,"label":"Proper 24A"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477091,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/511635\/revisions\/3477091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}