What Caesar owns

Sermon for the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity

You've obviously got the idea by now. "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's." But then you've had that question in your head, "doesn't God own everything?" That means Caesar owns nothing and so we don't need to pay taxes after all! Hooray!

Except Jesus pays the temple tax for Himself and for Peter, so clearly there is something wrong with thinking that we don't have to pay tax because God owns everything.

So what does Jesus mean? Does Caesar actually own something that needs to be paid back?

[PAUSE]

The relationship between the Christian and the World is rather strained. We are to be in the world and not of it. All through His ministry to us, Our Lord makes it clear that material goods don't really mean much when we consider God's love for us. If someone wants our cloak, we give our tunic. If someone wants us to go one mile, we go two. We give them up because they don't matter as much to us as God does.

Of course, clothes, houses, food and money have uses. They are good to have so that the business of living isn't too hard: we are frail human beings after all. Even Our Lord makes use of clothes, houses, food and money because, in His Human Nature, He is as weak and frail as we are. But these things aren't our life. They aren't worth losing a walk with God.

[PAUSE]

We see around us a world raging because of the inequality of money and resources. There are revolutions and rebellions against the rich about whatever they are rich in. Claiming ownership over something material often leads to strife and hatred somewhere along the line. And Jesus tells us that paying taxes is not worth losing sleep over: all is God's and He will give and take away as He pleases. It is our own inmost love for Him that matters. 

[PAUSE]

If God has created us then we are His. The world forgets that. We have to learn to render our very selves to God. To whatever we render ourselves, that is what we worship. Whatever we spend our time, energy, pain and self on, that is the thing we truly worship. Where our treasure is, there our heart is also. Shouldn't our hearts be in the tabernacle with Our Lord?