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1. The document discusses Jesus' response to being questioned about paying taxes to Caesar, noting that while it is lawful to pay taxes, true allegiance is owed to God.
2. It draws a parallel between worn coins that tell a story and people whose lives have been worn down by oppressive systems, yet still hold value in God's kingdom.
3. The core message is that we should offer our whole selves to God in gratitude for God's love, rather than be motivated by fear or self-interest like Jesus' questioners were. All we have comes from God.
Deskripsi Asli:
The Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia
1. The document discusses Jesus' response to being questioned about paying taxes to Caesar, noting that while it is lawful to pay taxes, true allegiance is owed to God.
2. It draws a parallel between worn coins that tell a story and people whose lives have been worn down by oppressive systems, yet still hold value in God's kingdom.
3. The core message is that we should offer our whole selves to God in gratitude for God's love, rather than be motivated by fear or self-interest like Jesus' questioners were. All we have comes from God.
1. The document discusses Jesus' response to being questioned about paying taxes to Caesar, noting that while it is lawful to pay taxes, true allegiance is owed to God.
2. It draws a parallel between worn coins that tell a story and people whose lives have been worn down by oppressive systems, yet still hold value in God's kingdom.
3. The core message is that we should offer our whole selves to God in gratitude for God's love, rather than be motivated by fear or self-interest like Jesus' questioners were. All we have comes from God.
The Cost of Love From an early age I had a fascination with coins, which were oth a !oy and a fr"stration to a ten-year-old oy with a dollar-a-wee# allowance$ %oin collecting, after all, is not an ine&pensi'e hoy, and I(m not s"re that I amassed more than a do)en coins at a time: "*alo nic#els, wheat pennies, all of them deeply worn from all the hands thro"gh which they had passed o'er a h"ndred years or so, more 'al"ale to me eca"se of the groo'es and chips that mar#ed them, each one telling a story$ +he pride of my collection, howe'er, was a half-dime that had elonged to my grandmother, in slightly etter condition than anything else in my tiny collection$ ,i#e the rest of the coins I owned, it was 'al"ale to me eca"se of the way in which it was worn, and I "sed to li#e to hold it in my palm instead of the plastic slee'e I had for it, precisely eca"se I felt I was carrying a piece of my grandmother with me, a woman who had come o'er to this co"ntry with practically nothing, raised a large family and was oth lo'ing and worn, li#e the edges of that coin, someone who had gi'en all that she was so that her children and grandchildren might ha'e a life meas"red in something other than -'e- cent pieces$ .nowing the cost of that #ind of lo'e ma#es it easier to see the /ordian #not that the 0erodians and the Pharisees ha'e laid efore 1es"s this morning$ +he cens"s ta& was something especially loathed y the +emple a"thorities eca"se it co"ld only e paid in 2oman c"rrency, with the image of the emperor as a god and all the lasphemy that image re3ected$ +o ad'ocate against paying the ta& wo"ld ha'e meant certain arrest, while condoning it wo"ld represent a deep etrayal to those at the center of 1es"s( ministry$ 4"t his response as#s a deeper 5"estion of "s than the trap posed y the a"thorities$ 6e are gli ao"t 7rendering "nto %aesar8 when confronted with ills or ta&es that we -nd especially onero"s, "t it is "sef"l to consider the position of 1es"s as he hears the 3attery of his wo"ld-e acc"sers$ 1es"s is, after all, not carrying coins of any #ind9 they ha'e to e prod"ced y the a"thorities themsel'es$ +he c"rrency in which he has een dealing is the li'es of h"man eings, all of "s created in the image of /od, not images of temporal a"thority9 his ministry has een among li'es worn y s"!ection to the 'ery a"thority he is confronting, people li'ing in hope of a world free from the corr"ptions of occ"pational r"le$ In the gathering of people aro"nd this enco"nter, he is o*ering a 'ision of a world where people, with their callo"ses and worn spots, are the legal tender in the #ingdom of /od$ Far from ma#ing a di'ision etween ci'il and religio"s oligations, 1es"s is o*ering a 'ision where all of "s are coins in the di'ine realm, with o"r own scratches and imperfections, the mar#s that ma#e "s in'al"ale in the world he is eginning to create$ +he point of his response is directing "s to what we are willing to o*er to /od, something that he is prepared to demonstrate in a few days !"st o"tside the city walls$ 6hat "ndergirds this e&change is, of co"rse, fear: fear of the threat of the a"thorities, the fear that this /alilean "pstart will o'ert"rn the system that had s"stained ci'il and religio"s go'ernance for years$ And it is precisely that fear that 1es"s is wor#ing against, reminding them that there is a di*erence etween lawf"l oedience and the /od to whom we owe e'erything we are$ 0ypocrisy, oth theirs and o"rs, egins when we fail to ac#nowledge the /od who o*ers "s all we need, the /od who gi'es "s, in Isaiah(s words, the treas"res of dar#ness and riches hidden in secret places$ In the stewardship season that is "pon "s, ao"t which we will hear more today and in the coming wee#s, it is 1es"s( words that point "s to this fact$ All we ha'e, all we are, we owe to /od and it is in that #nowledge that we o*er o"rsel'es, not in coercion "t in gratit"de for the lo'e we are witnessing and helping to ring into the world$ :orothy :ay, who ran the %atholic 6or#er from Mott ;treet in <ew =or# for -fty years with practically no f"nding, had an instr"cti'e response to 1es"s( words$ 6hen as#ed ao"t them, she pa"sed for se'eral moments and then allegedly replied, 7If we were to render "nto /od all the things that are /od(s, there wo"ld e nothing left for %aesar8$ It wo"ld e easy to oser'e that :ay stood o"tside the mechanisms that ma#e o"r world f"nction, where medical ills, college t"ition, e'en the price of heating oil create press"res that wear on all of "s$ 4"t her point is deeper than that$ ;he was reminding all who wo"ld listen that o"r needs are simpler than we reali)e and that it is this an&iety, m"ch li#e the fear that per'ades the -nal wee# of 1es"s in 1er"salem, that "ndermines the pr"ning that wo"ld prod"ce the fr"it of the #ingdom$ 76e don(t want to pay the cost of lo'e8, :ay said9 7we don(t want to e&ercise o"r capacity to lo'e8$ It is a matter of recogni)ing that we owe /od o"r entire eing, that no part of o"r life is e&cl"ded from the gifts of o"rsel'es that we o*er on ehalf of the #ingdom$ As fond as :ay was of reminding people aro"nd her that the coat that hangs in o"r closet elongs to the poor, the cost of lo'e in her terms is the willingness to part with o"r 'ery sel'es on ehalf of a world where o"r material concerns are replaced y the freely-o*ered lo'e of /od$ ;o the response of 1es"s is a deeply-rooted warning against the idolatry that Isaiah is 5"ic# to warn "s ao"t: 7 I am the ,ord, and there is no other8$ 4"t while 1es"s ac#nowledges that it is indeed lawf"l to pay the assessment that the state re5"ires, o"r own idolatry egins when we conf"se what is e&pedient with that which is transformati'e$ +he #ind of compromise at the heart of this morning(s gospel is an e'il orn of s"!"gation $ +he more profo"nd danger is to see the system that perpet"ates that e'il, one that wears down the so"ls of all who participate in it, as an end in itself, a s"stit"te for the 'al"e we place on each other and on the lo'e of /od$ As memers of the people of /od, as stewards of each other, we are ec#oned to foster that lo'e in each other, ac#nowledging the wor# of the faithf"l who ha'e come efore "s, honoring the cost of that lo'e, and ac#nowledging o"r d"al citi)enship as creat"res of o"r own time and place and memers of the #ingdom that is coming into the world$