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What
Belongs to God?
Fr.
George Smiga
15-16
October 2005
Matthew
22: 15 - 21
The
following letter was found in the files on the Internal Revenue
Service. “Dear IRS, my conscience has been bothering me. I
am including a check for $5,000 to pay my back taxes.” At
the bottom of the letter was a postscript, “If my conscience
continues to bother me, I will send the rest.”
None
of us likes to pay taxes. Even though we realize the government
needs to operate, we want to keep taxes low. We want to give
the government the least amount of money we can. Here is where
today's gospel poses such a problem for us. Although the gospel
seems to be about taxes, it is about much more. Jesus' enemies
try to trap him by asking him whether a good Jew should pay
the tax to the emperor or not. The question is a trap. If
he says they should, he will alienate many of his followers
who are opposed to supporting the oppressive Roman Empire
that occupies their land. If he says they should not, he risks
trouble with Rome , which is something you would want to do.
Jesus wiggles out of the trap by asking for a coin and pointing
out that fact that the Emperor's head is on the coin. He then
says you can give that coin to the emperor as long as you
give to God what belongs to God.
Here
is where the story deepens and the trouble begins. “Give to
God what belongs to God.” It sounds innocent when you first
hear it. But what belongs to God? Everything. What do we have
that does not belong to God? Now some people point to this
passage saying that Jesus is proposing equality between the
state and God, like the separation between church and state.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus admits
that the state has some claim on what we have, but he says
that God has a claim on everything. What do we have that does
not belong to God? Our Life? The world around us? Our family?
Our children, our grandchildren, our relationships, our health,
our talents, our future? It is all God's.
Now
this truth is so fundamental that we often overlook it. But
there are only two possibilities. If God does not exist, if
God is not real, then everything we are and everything we
possess have come about by chance. In that case we can do
what we wish with our time and our money. But if God is real,
if God does exist, (and we come together every week professing
that God does), then all that we have is not our own. All
we have has only been entrusted to us to be used for God's
purposes. These are the only possibilities; there is no in-between
option. I have looked through all the scriptures for a loophole
on this. I cannot find one. If God exists then all we have
belongs to God. God has a claim on everything.
Now
of course God loves us and wants us to be happy. Therefore
God expects that a good deal of what has been entrusted to
us will be used for our own benefit. God expects us to use
our time, our money, and our resources to support our family,
to have a comfortable life style, to use for recreation, to
achieve security for the future. God does not begrudge us
using our time, and our money for ourselves.
But
it is the attitude of the thing. You see a Christian cannot
really say, “It is my time and my money to use how I wish.”
A Christian must say, “It is God's time and God's money, entrusted
to me to be used for myself and for others. The word we use
to describe this truth is “stewardship.” Everything we have
has been entrusted to us as stewards to be used for God's
purposes. Now I know that many of us here in this parish understand
the truth of stewardship. It would be impossible for St. Noel
to function as a believing community without the time, the
talent and the money that is given by so many. On a weekly
basis I see how many people donate their time and talent so
that prisoners in the jail can be visited, so that the homebound
can receive communion, so that we may grow as a parish in
religious formation through the GIFT program, so that we may
have a greater awareness of peace and justice. None of this
could happen without a deep sense of stewardship.
I
was deeply impressed a year ago as we were experiencing financial
difficulties. When we presented that need, so many people
examined their own financial contributions and were willing
to give more as a sign of stewardship for all that they had
received from God. Because they made that kind of a decision
and have been faithful to it, we are now in a much better
financial position. A financial report will be coming out
soon and you will be able to judge this for yourselves. I
am convinced that as people continue to appreciate stewardship,
we will be able to grow and deepen as a faith community.
It
would, however, be a mistake to equate what you give here
at St. Noel to what belongs to God. Everything belongs to
God. All that we have been given is to build God's kingdom.
You know in what that kingdom consists. We hear it in God's
word regularly: caring for the poor and vulnerable, protecting
life, protecting the planet, promoting peace and justice,
reaching out in reconciliation. This is God's kingdom, and
we are stewards of that kingdom. God expect us to use what
we have been given and promote God's will on earth.
This
is why today's gospel is so challenging. Unlike the IRS, our
master cannot be deceived. As Christian stewards we must be
ready at any time for God to ask us, “How are you spending
my time? What are you doing with my money? How are you living
the life that I have entrusted to you?”
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