Knowing Who’s Who

Sermon

I thought I’d begin with a poem this morning because the world has been in a heavy, scary, grievous place and sometimes the poets have the most to say. This comes from Aurora Levins Morales and is part of a longer poem. It’s called “V’ahavta” which means “you shall love” in Hebrew.

Say these words when you lie down and when you rise up,
When you go out and when you return. In times of mourning
And in times of joy. Inscribe them on your doorposts,
Embroider them on your garments, tattoo them on your shoulders,
Teach them to your children, your neighbors, your enemies,
Recite them in your sleep, here in the cruel shadow of the empire:
Another world is possible.
…..
Imagine rape is unimaginable. Imagine war is a scarcely credible rumor
That the crimes of our age, the grotesque inhumanities of greed,
the sheer and astounding shamelessness of it, the vast fortunes
made by stealing lives, the horrible normalcy it came to have,
is unimaginable to our heirs, the generations of the free.

Don’t waver. Don’t let despair sink its sharp teeth
Into the throat with which you sing. Escalate your dreams.
Make them burn so fiercely that you can follow them down
any dark alleyway of history and not lose your way.
Make them burn clear as a starry drinking gourd
Over the grim fog of exhaustion, and keep walking.

Hold hands. Share water. Keep imagining.
So that we, and the children of our children’s children
may live.
(http://www.auroralevinsmorales.com/blog/vahavta)

We human beings have been imagining another world is possible since we left Eden, and that is as true for us on October 22, 2023, as it was for Jesus that day when the Pharisees and Herodians tried to entrap him. For Jesus and his fellow Judeans, a world without Caesar and his violent power and greed was a dream, because living under the Pax Romana was in many ways a nightmare.

Soldiers could take what they wanted – a cloak, a meal, a home, a woman. Taxes were exorbitant and did nothing but line the pockets of the emperor’s toga with gold. Jesus and his disciples, all who lived in those lands we call Israel and Palestine today, were at the mercy of a power they could never overcome. So it seems either defeatist or practical when Jesus, presented with a Roman coin, tells his would-be trappers to give to the emperor what is the emperor’s and to give to God what is God’s.

Now at this point in the gospel Jesus has already declared that he will die at the hands of the authorities, so in one sense, he has nothing to lose. Some have interpreted this story as Jesus establishing the separation of church and state; others have said that Jesus is being sly, because in his understanding, everything belongs to God, even the gold and copper that made the coins, even the emperor himself. Some have argued that Jesus is fomenting rebellion by claiming there is a God and it isn’t Caesar. And any and all of those things may be true, but I think there is a question we have to ask before we determine what is the emperor’s and what is God’s, and that question is who is the emperor, and who is God?

For Jesus and his contemporaries, the emperor was the one with all the power. The emperor was the one who built roads and aqueducts and hoarded the fish they caught so that there was none left for the fishermen and their families. The emperor was the one who would declare their way of following Jesus illegal. The emperor, with his advisers and soldiers, was the one who kept the people in misery.

For Jesus and his contemporaries, God was the one from whom all blessings flowed. God was the author of life, the creator, the omnipotent, omniscient. God was like a father who would run to welcome home his son who had strayed; God was like a mother who would not abandon her nursing children. In the words of the prophet Isaiah, God was the one who would not forget the people, the one who inscribed them on the palms of the divine hands.

Who would you rather give your life, your stuff, your love, to? The emperor or God? The answer seems obvious, doesn’t it? But we human beings alive on this planet on October 22, 2023, have emperors too, and God, and sometimes it’s not so easy to choose. Most of us think we choose God first; of course! We’re people of faith!

But sometimes we need to actually verify that. Now if I were to look at my calendar, I might see that I spend a lot of time putting God first, except that’s sort of cheating since I’m a pastor and I can claim God time with so much that I do. But outside of work, let’s see—an art show opening, chauffeuring my child, dinners with folks, hearing Barbara Kingsolver, getting a dress altered for my niece’s wedding. If I look at my phone, I can see how many hours a day I spend looking at that little screen and that little electronic emperor claims a lot of my time, which I willingly give.

You might want to look at your calendar or your phone. Or you could look at your bank statement or your credit card bill—how are you spending your coin? For necessities, undoubtedly: food, rent, utilities. But the other stuff? What’s going to God, and what is going to Caesar?

Which begs that question again: who is God, and who is Caesar for us?

Those emperors, those Caesars, are all around us, running amok in the world. They’re the ones who believe and live out the adage that greed is good, that the one who dies with the most toys wins. They’re the ones who wield their power for their own gain and who threaten those who aren’t in their inner circle. They’re the ones who believe that killing children and other innocents is just the price of war, who defy this wisdom from James Baldwin, who wrote, “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe, and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”

Maybe one way to discern who is Caesar and who is God is to look at how they wield their power. Both have power, of course; both have the ability to do what they want, when they want, how they want, and where they want.

Do they use their power to build up or to tear down? Do they use their power to end life or to bring life? Does their power cloud things, confuse things, twist things, or does their power illuminate and clarify?

The question eventually comes to us: do we live as people who are pawns of the emperor or do we live as people who are the children of God? Whatever power you and I might have, how do we use it? How do we as a faith community use our power? Are we building up or tearing down? Do we confuse or illuminate? Do we light a candle or curse the darkness?

Friends, it feels like so much is at stake right now, and if we don’t get our allegiance right, we might get swept out to the sea in the tides. Sorry to mix a few metaphors there, but that’s how I’m feeling. I am so heartbroken by the violence and death in Israel, in Gaza, in Palestine. I hate it so much, and I hate that I feel so very powerless to do anything about it. I’m not a president or prime minister, an ambassador or diplomat. Neither are you. I don’t work for an NGO that can supply aid. Neither do you.

The war in Ukraine wages on, as do conflicts in so many African nations, as does political unrest in Guatemala. In the midst of that, our beloveds die, and our national leadership is in disarray, and people we love get terrible diagnoses, and, and, and….

And still God reigns. And still there is a power that is waging peace in the hearts of regular humans. And still there is a power that loves, that loves all, that loves especially the widow and orphan of whom there are too many these days. And still God is building up, building up, bringing hope and perseverance and justice to life.

But sometimes it’s hard to believe that in the midst of newscasts and social media posts. But you get to decide what you will give to the emperors of the world, and you get to decide what you will give to God. Give your best stuff to God.

If you don’t know how to give your best stuff to God, allow me to share the words of another poet who offers such a way. This is Mahmoud Darwish’s poem, “Think of Others.”

As you prepare your breakfast, think of others
(do not forget the pigeon’s food).
As you wage your wars, think of others
(do not forget those who seek peace).
As you pay your water bill, think of others
(those who are nursed by clouds).
As you return home, to your home, think of others
(do not forget people of the camps).
As you sleep and count the stars, think of others
(those who have nowhere to sleep).
As you express yourself in metaphor, think of others
(those who have lost the right to speak).
As you think of others far away, think of yourself
(say: If only I were a candle in the dark).

Beloved, I do believe that even amid war and the rumor of war, another world is possible, but that will require that all of us who hold onto God put God first and put God’s vulnerable children first.

Give to God what is God’s and another world will not only be possible, it will be.