You don’t have to worry about Caesar getting what belongs to Caesar. Caesar, which is to say the Feds, the Government, the Man, the IRS, the Brass, the Powers-that-be will get what belongs to them. You can be sure of that. They will try to get even something more than what belongs to them. Caesar will get your taxes, take your tolls, draft you in the army, charge you fees, fine you for speeding, demand your allegiance, monitor your insurance, stand for the flag, and in the end tell you how you are to be buried. The reality of a complex society is that Caesar controls huge swathes of society and he gets what he wants whether we like it or not.
What about the other half of the saying of Jesus: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” What exactly belongs to God? What do we need to render unto God? That is not as obvious. Jesus held an ungodly coin in his hand and said that there was another kind of coin, the coin of the kingdom of God. What is the coin we can hand over to God and say, “Here, this is yours.” What belongs to God? I’m reminded of the old story of the three business men trying to decide how much they should tithe to the Church. The first one said, What I do is draw a circle on the ground around me. Then I throw the money up in the air and whatever falls in the circle belongs to me and whatever is outside the circle belongs to God. The second business man said, I do something similar. I draw a circle and throw the money but I give God whatever falls in the circle and I keep whatever is outside the circle. The third man said, I do something just a little bit different. After I draw the circle, I throw the money up in the air and then I shout, “God, you keep whatever you want. What you don’t want let fall back to the ground.”
So what belongs to God? Maybe what belongs to God is our praise, our worship, our adoration. Don’t we sing the “Gloria” at Mass! Glory to God in the highest. To God be the glory. Certainly nothing else deserves our praise and adoration except God. We should praise God who made the stars that spangle the night and the worms that slither through the dirt. We should praise God who arranges the times and seasons so that we need both snow boots and bathing suits. We should praise God who sent Abraham and Sarah, Moses and David, the prophets and eventually Jesus to guide our way. Yes, praise belongs to God – but I don’t believe that is the whole story. After all, every person, in every culture, no matter their religion knows to offer God praise and adoration. But for Jesus God was not far off, sitting on a lofty throne, awaiting our worship. Rather, God is a loving Father woven into our lives. So, yes, praising God is a good thing to do, but I don’t think that is all that Jesus had in mind when he held up the coin.
How about keeping the commandments? Is that what belongs to God? Certainly the commandments written on the stone tablets Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai are God’s description of how we should live of lives. The long tradition among Israel and then in the Church have stressed keeping the commandments as the surest path toward heaven. Jesus himself, when the rich young man asked him what he should do, told him to live the commandments. So commandment keeping is something that the people of God should do. But the example of the rich young man showed us that keeping the commandments is not the whole story. Mercy and compassion are necessary as well. So, yes, let’s certainly keep the commandments but that is not all of what belongs to God. They are not the flip side of the coin.
Maybe service is what belongs to God. We do our religious services – go to Mass, say our prayers, have our devotions. We do our service in the Church – get involved in the various ministries, serve on committees, volunteer for programs. We give our service in the community – feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, working for justice. These are all good and necessary things. But I can’t help but wonder if St. Paul wouldn’t remind us that the real service we owe to God is being people of faith. We are to practice the faith in thought, word and deed but is that what Jesus had in mind when he held that coin?
Let’s think about that coin for a second. What Jesus noticed on the Roman coin was an image and an inscription – Caesar’s. The coin we owe to God has an image and an inscription as well. The image is of each one of us and the inscription says, “child of God.” This is what belongs to God. This is what we must repay – our very selves. God doesn’t want anything else except all that we are. The temptation is to give God dribs and drabs of our life. We give the hour or so to God and the rest of the time we go along our merry way of working, playing, shopping not giving God a second thought. But what belongs to God is every move we make, every step we take. Our whole lives long all we are doing is moving from one piece of holy ground to the next. Every bush if we have the eyes to see it is a burning bush. When Jesus held that coin he reminded us that the only way to repay God is by living as a child of God. We need to walk with the awareness that it was through the grace of God that we put two feet on the ground this morning. We need to speak words that reflect that it is the Holy Spirit of God planted deep within who is making it all possible. We need to love with the blessed assurance of ourselves as beloved of God. That’s the coin of the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus. We are what belongs to God.
