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“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.” But everything is God’s so what is to be given to the emperor? Genesis is quite clear that all creation exists because of God’s calling it forth- from birds of the sky, cattle and other living things and we humans ourselves. God created everything so where does the emperor fit in as someone due something from us? God created humans to be stewards of all creation – a creation that God said was good, indeed very good. What is to be given to the emperor?

In the years following the Emperor Constantine’s recognition of the church as legitimate in the early 300’s, the church and the state became intertwined. What was good for the state was seen as good for the church and the reverse. The church took care of men’s souls and the empire took care of daily life. A dichotomy between heaven and earth.On Christmas Day in the year 800, Charlemagne was to become the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The story goes that as the Pope began to lower the crown onto Charlemagne’s head, Charlemagne took the crown and put it on his own head, as a symbol that Charlemagne- and therefore his realm- was not subject to the church.Today, when there is a new king or queen in Great Britain, it is the Archbishop of Canterbury who presides and who places the crown upon the head of the monarch. That monarch carries the title- among others- of Defender of the Faith. And that monarch must approve the selection of a new Archbishop of Canterbury. The church and the state are very intertwined.The struggle between the church and the state over who was in control of what – and who was superior to whom- perhaps laid the foundations for what we, in the United States, now refer to as the separation of church and state. Two distinct realms of power and authority. For many, this separation of two aspects of our lives is very important.

Along the way, you’ve probably heard someone say that the church should stay out of politics- and indeed our tax exemption as a church can be revoked should the church speak out in favor of one particular candidate over another. Yes, we can encourage people to vote- but not encourage a vote for any particular candidate.

So what belongs to the emperor as Jesus understood it?The context for today’s Gospel is the existing religious powers seeking to entrap – and therefore discredit the prophet and itinerant preacher Jesus (needless to say they did not accept Jesus as the Messiah). They were concerned with protecting their own power base by putting down a potential threat. Not much different than today where too many see the way forward by stepping on and over others. No wonder it’s lonely at the top for these people – they have denigrated and displaced anyone who stood in their way.

What is Jesus saying – to the Pharisees and others seeking to put him down so they can be raised up – and to us, 21^st century people who live in a country where there has been a deliberate decision to divide the secular and religious aspects of our lives?Whether that is possible is conversation for another day- but how do we resolve the instruction to give to the state what is the state’s with our understanding that all that is belongs to God.

Are we empowered to give to the state what God has given to us in trust?And how do we decide what is to be given?Jesus, as he is often to do, answers a question with a question. Jesus will often point the way but leave it up to us to reason out the answer.An answer that we develop for ourselves has more staying power than one that is imposed on us by others. We have taken the question in and thought about it and come to some decision on an answer that we can live with. The answer is “ours” in a way that having someone else simply say “do this” often doesn’t accomplish.  Jesus wants us to arrive at a decision about how we spend money from the inside out- taking into account our values and our decisions, hopefully informed by our understanding of Scripture. Not simply because “I said so.” Jesus wants us to arrive at a decision about how we spend money from a sense of love and justice and not from fear about what will happen if we don’t spend money in a particular way and for particular purposes.

Our reality is that we live in a society with a secular government who has taken on certain responsibilities.We live in a society that has adopted an income tax code and requirement for payments, whether we agree with how the money is spent or not (unless you want to risk going to jail for tax evasion, which I do not recommend).So certain things, like national defense, oversight of food and drug safety, interstate commerce and the like, we have delegated to the national government. That costs money, so the income taxes and gasoline taxes go from our incomes to the national government to pay for things such as those. Similarly, we have granted certain powers to the state and to the county governments for tasks and functions that we, as a country, believed appropriately belong with a centralized system in order that we might live in reasonable harmony with each other. And, our taxes paid to state and local governments fund those tasks that we as a society have decided are appropriate to be handled by a centralized government.

Most of us, though, have some “discretionary” income left- income after paying our bills that we can do with what we will. So what do we do with what is left. What do we give to God from all that God has given to us? Angela Askew, a retired priest, asks us to note that Jesus did not even carry a coin with him – when confronted by the Pharisees about what was due to whom, Jesus had to ask for a coin to make his point.[1] Jesus was concerned about the realm of God, not the petty politics and governmental structure of his day.

The “Occupy Wall Street” protests, whether you agree with them or not, can help us ask questions about the world within which we live. They ask us to consider our vision for this country and how our resources are spent. Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners, recounts conversations he has had with some of the participants. In his blog, he writes[2]: One of you told me in New York City last week, “This is not a protest, but a think tank.” … I inquired of one of the non-leaders who helped lead the first days of Occupation what most drew him to get involved in the demonstration and he replied, “I want to have children someday, and this is becoming a world not good for children.” Wallis encouraged those he met and talked with to offer practical and concrete suggestions for how we might accomplish change, rather than demonizing those the protesters hold responsible for the world in which we currently live.

Imagine Jesus holding that coin so all around him could see. “Whose image is on this coin? Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Give to God what is God’s.” And earlier in Matthew’s Gospel we heard: “Where your treasure is, there your heart is also” (Mt. 6:21). It might also be understood as where your power is – and how you use what power you have, tells a lot about how you understand your relationship to God and to each other.

Each of us has power- some more, some less. But each of us controls how we interact with others. Whether we build them up or put them down. Whether we treat others with grace and love or whether we ignore them as not worthy of our time and attention. The bulletin insert this week highlights one person’s journey to trusting God when choices have to be made about how financial resources are spent. About the juggling of life’s work which doesn’t pay much in the secular sense with what that person has felt called by God to do in order that our world might, someday, more closely resemble the realm of God. Part of what struck me was the closing paragraph: “We each prayed for the person to our left as a deep acknowledgment that each of us had been heard.”

The questions, the quandaries, the struggles about the right relationship between God and empire did not get resolved. But the questions, the quandaries and the struggles were heard by others who shared that evening. The grappling with what belongs to God and what belongs to the empire continues and I suspect will continue for most of us until the day we die. The guiding question for me is whether my giving accomplishes what the prophet Micah said in the 8^th century before Christ:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)

Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee” (1 Chron. 29:14). Work with Caesar to build a world and a political system that does justice, loves kindness and permits us to walk humbly with our God. Amen.