Prayer
Let those who exercise authority over others defer always to the primacy of conscience; and help us to use rightly the freedom you have given us, that we may fulfill Jesus' teaching, by rendering to others what is rightfully theirs but rendering to God alone the deepest loyalty of our hearts.
From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.
Some Thoughts: Matthew 22:15-22
As we have noted we are in the midst of a confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day.
The passage for this week is the passage on giving to God what is God's. The leaders in the story are trying to get Jesus to make a seditious statement, a revolutionary statement so they can accuse him and dismantle his ministry.
This is a masterful moment of play and humor. It is masterful moment of debate in which Jesus is seen outclassing his verbal opponents. The reality is that all things are God's. So Caesar can think that coin is his and we should indeed give it to him. But the message is clear all things are Gods.
This is not an argument for a division about church and state. Surely, Christians over the years have understood that they have a virtuous citizen role to play in the world of government and politics. But this text is far from being a text that offers a view on the nature of our current debate between religion and the public square.
In this passage Jesus is clear: all things are God's. Even in the subtext as we see the plotting and the future revelation that Jesus is surely to die for his teaching and for his eating with undesirables (as taught in the previous weeks text and lived out by Jesus) we are sure that God will prevail. Even the person hood of Jesus is God's own possession. The workings of the state may indeed crucify and torture but the kingdom will belong to God and to his son Jesus.
So this Sunday, situated in the midst of the fall, is located right in the middle of many a stewardship campaign. And, I think the message Jesus offers his detractors and the people around him is just as applicable today.
Every week we proclaim through the Nicene Creed a particular kind of God. We proclaim and give voice to a God whom we have faith in is the very one who has created all things and for whom all things were made. The whole of creation was ordered and breathed into that it might reflect the glory of God. Our Gospel today reminds us that in fact all things are God's.
This flies into the face of our modern conception of stewardship. We teach and we preach that God gave us all things and so we are to give back to God. That is not the same thing though. When we teach that we change the meaning of the whole text and the whole of scripture.
The reality is that all things are created by God and all things are God's. So the question isn't what am I supposed to do with my 5% or how do I get to my tithe goal.
The chief stewardship question I would challenge you to ask the members of your congregation is this: If all things are God's how does God want me to use everything?
That is a radical notion. Yet it fits with the understanding of creation. It fits with the understanding of Christian stewardship in the New Testament. It is very uncomfortable and it is so culturally foreign to Americans that most people will not preach it and when it is preached most people won't be able to hear it.
If all things are God's how does God want me to use everything?
You see when we get this confused and we then adapt the stewardship notion (the idea that all things are God's and we are God's stewards) then what we get is the idea that the owner has actually given over the property to the steward. That really the steward is the owner. When the steward becomes the owner then there is a new owner, and that owner is not God.
It is a very subtle concept. Perhaps it is so subtle that our authorities challenging Jesus don't even get his joke. You see we can pretend all we want. Yet as we are reminded on ash Wednesday and at every funeral: dust we are dust we shall return. Yep. All things are God's, they are God's now, and they will be God's when we are finished using them.
The very heart of stewardship is understanding that all that we have and all that we are is God's and purposed for God's use. The only stewardship question is how does God want me to use all this stuff!
There is another more sinister stumbling block in this text and that is the one that is sneakily portrayed by the emperor's image. You see we, not wholly unlike the emperor, believe most days we deserve what we have. We deserve what we have, in fact we deserve more than what we have. Remember the one with the most toys wins. That's right. The reality is that most of us Americans are still firmly rooted in the false notion that if we work hard God will bless us, if we believe right God will bless us, if we do the right things God will bless us. Therefore, all the stuff we have is because God blessed us. No matter how you look at it the second most human way of life (behind it is all mine) is the notion that the more I have the better I am.
In varying degrees all humans are hoarders.
We believe if we can have it, possess it, keep it, hide it, collect it, then we are good, safe, whole, and holy.
I love the wake up call that Charles Lane gives in his book Ask, Thank, Tell: Improving stewardship ministry in your congregation. He writes:
We are not unlike the Roman legions occupying the holy land who produced that coin Jesus held many years ago. We occupy our fortresses and we think only of the small offerings we should make to the Lord our God who has created all things, gives them life, and by his hand has brought them into being.
We are invited into a sacred relationship with the gardener, with the vineyard owner, with the one who is God above all Gods, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. And we are given the privilege of serving as stewards for all things come from thee O'Lord, and of thine own have we given thee. All things are God's and we have the honor as stewards to ask how God wishes us to use all things.
Only when we begin here by opening our eyes to our faithful claim of a creator God and our role as stewards may we begin the journey of discernment about how to use God's stuff.
A Little Bit for Everyone
Oremus Online NRSV Text
General Resources for Sunday's Lessons
Textweek Resources for this week's Gospel
The Scripture:
Matthew 22:15-22
15Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” 18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” 21They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
The Lambeth Bible Study Method
The Kaleidescope Institute has reworked the questions somewhat and can be found here.
Question #5: "Briefly identify where this passage touches their life today," can change based upon the lesson. Find lesson oriented questions at this website: http://www.dcdiocese.org/word-working-second-question
Opening Prayer: O Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning. Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them that we may embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. One person reads passage. This person then invites a member of the group to begin the process.
2. Each person briefly identifies the word or phrase that catches their attention then invites another person to share.
3. Each shares the word or phrase until all have shared or passed using the same invitation method.
4. The passage is read a second time, preferably from a different translation. The reader then invites a person in the group to begin the process.
5. Each person briefly identifies where this passage touches their life today, and then invites someone who has not shared yet.
6. The passage is read a third time, also from another translation, and the reader invites a person to start the process.
7. Each person responds to the questions, "What does God want me to do, to be or to change?"
8. The group stands up in a circle and holds hands. One person initiates the prayer “I thank God today for …” and “I ask God today for…” The prayer goes around the circle by squeezing the hand to your right.
9. When the circle is fulfilled, the person who initiated the prayer starts the Lord’s Prayer, “Our father..."
From Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year A, Peter J. Scagnelli, LTP, 1992.
Some Thoughts: Matthew 22:15-22
As we have noted we are in the midst of a confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day.
The passage for this week is the passage on giving to God what is God's. The leaders in the story are trying to get Jesus to make a seditious statement, a revolutionary statement so they can accuse him and dismantle his ministry.
This is not an argument for a division about church and state. Surely, Christians over the years have understood that they have a virtuous citizen role to play in the world of government and politics. But this text is far from being a text that offers a view on the nature of our current debate between religion and the public square.
In this passage Jesus is clear: all things are God's. Even in the subtext as we see the plotting and the future revelation that Jesus is surely to die for his teaching and for his eating with undesirables (as taught in the previous weeks text and lived out by Jesus) we are sure that God will prevail. Even the person hood of Jesus is God's own possession. The workings of the state may indeed crucify and torture but the kingdom will belong to God and to his son Jesus.
So this Sunday, situated in the midst of the fall, is located right in the middle of many a stewardship campaign. And, I think the message Jesus offers his detractors and the people around him is just as applicable today.
Every week we proclaim through the Nicene Creed a particular kind of God. We proclaim and give voice to a God whom we have faith in is the very one who has created all things and for whom all things were made. The whole of creation was ordered and breathed into that it might reflect the glory of God. Our Gospel today reminds us that in fact all things are God's.
This flies into the face of our modern conception of stewardship. We teach and we preach that God gave us all things and so we are to give back to God. That is not the same thing though. When we teach that we change the meaning of the whole text and the whole of scripture.
The reality is that all things are created by God and all things are God's. So the question isn't what am I supposed to do with my 5% or how do I get to my tithe goal.
The chief stewardship question I would challenge you to ask the members of your congregation is this: If all things are God's how does God want me to use everything?
That is a radical notion. Yet it fits with the understanding of creation. It fits with the understanding of Christian stewardship in the New Testament. It is very uncomfortable and it is so culturally foreign to Americans that most people will not preach it and when it is preached most people won't be able to hear it.
If all things are God's how does God want me to use everything?
You see when we get this confused and we then adapt the stewardship notion (the idea that all things are God's and we are God's stewards) then what we get is the idea that the owner has actually given over the property to the steward. That really the steward is the owner. When the steward becomes the owner then there is a new owner, and that owner is not God.
It is a very subtle concept. Perhaps it is so subtle that our authorities challenging Jesus don't even get his joke. You see we can pretend all we want. Yet as we are reminded on ash Wednesday and at every funeral: dust we are dust we shall return. Yep. All things are God's, they are God's now, and they will be God's when we are finished using them.
The very heart of stewardship is understanding that all that we have and all that we are is God's and purposed for God's use. The only stewardship question is how does God want me to use all this stuff!
There is another more sinister stumbling block in this text and that is the one that is sneakily portrayed by the emperor's image. You see we, not wholly unlike the emperor, believe most days we deserve what we have. We deserve what we have, in fact we deserve more than what we have. Remember the one with the most toys wins. That's right. The reality is that most of us Americans are still firmly rooted in the false notion that if we work hard God will bless us, if we believe right God will bless us, if we do the right things God will bless us. Therefore, all the stuff we have is because God blessed us. No matter how you look at it the second most human way of life (behind it is all mine) is the notion that the more I have the better I am.
In varying degrees all humans are hoarders.
We believe if we can have it, possess it, keep it, hide it, collect it, then we are good, safe, whole, and holy.
I love the wake up call that Charles Lane gives in his book Ask, Thank, Tell: Improving stewardship ministry in your congregation. He writes:
Our American culture has trumpeted the "self-made man at least since the time of Horatio Alger. The rags to riches story of a person who has pulled himself or herself up by the bootstraps and made something out of nothing has a long-standing place in our nation's mythology. We tend to take a very individualistic view of "success," ignoring the multitude of complicated factors that have caused one person to achieve wealth and power, while others have not. ...Countless forces over which we have no control have helped make us what we are. The brains and the hard work for which we want to take credit for are God's, and God entrusts them to us.What we have should not focus our attention on how kingly, wealthy, or blessed we are, it should make us ponder and think about how God would have me help others with what I have been given. How do I as a steward of God's stuff understand and enact the kingdom of God?
We are not unlike the Roman legions occupying the holy land who produced that coin Jesus held many years ago. We occupy our fortresses and we think only of the small offerings we should make to the Lord our God who has created all things, gives them life, and by his hand has brought them into being.
We are invited into a sacred relationship with the gardener, with the vineyard owner, with the one who is God above all Gods, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings. And we are given the privilege of serving as stewards for all things come from thee O'Lord, and of thine own have we given thee. All things are God's and we have the honor as stewards to ask how God wishes us to use all things.
Only when we begin here by opening our eyes to our faithful claim of a creator God and our role as stewards may we begin the journey of discernment about how to use God's stuff.
A Little Bit for Everyone
Oremus Online NRSV Text
General Resources for Sunday's Lessons
Textweek Resources for this week's Gospel
The Scripture:
Matthew 22:15-22
15Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” 18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” 21They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
The Lambeth Bible Study Method
This Bible study method was introduced by the African Delegation to the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church. It is known by both names: "Lambeth" and "African." This method is derived from the practice of Lectio Divina. The entire process should take about 30 minutes.
The Kaleidescope Institute has reworked the questions somewhat and can be found here.
Question #5: "Briefly identify where this passage touches their life today," can change based upon the lesson. Find lesson oriented questions at this website: http://www.dcdiocese.org/word-working-second-question
Opening Prayer: O Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning. Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them that we may embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. One person reads passage. This person then invites a member of the group to begin the process.
2. Each person briefly identifies the word or phrase that catches their attention then invites another person to share.
3. Each shares the word or phrase until all have shared or passed using the same invitation method.
4. The passage is read a second time, preferably from a different translation. The reader then invites a person in the group to begin the process.
5. Each person briefly identifies where this passage touches their life today, and then invites someone who has not shared yet.
6. The passage is read a third time, also from another translation, and the reader invites a person to start the process.
7. Each person responds to the questions, "What does God want me to do, to be or to change?"
8. The group stands up in a circle and holds hands. One person initiates the prayer “I thank God today for …” and “I ask God today for…” The prayer goes around the circle by squeezing the hand to your right.
9. When the circle is fulfilled, the person who initiated the prayer starts the Lord’s Prayer, “Our father..."
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