If you’ve been here regularly, you’ll notice that I haven’t talked about Jesus in a while. For some time, we’ve been with the Israelites wandering in the desert, and so I’ve had to leave Jesus to his own devices. Well, surprise, surprise, when we check in with him this morning, he’s managed to get in hot water. So what else is new? You can’t leave that boy alone for one minute!

Now we learn that the Pharisees and the Herodians have teamed up to trap him. This is big news. It’s as if you were reading an article about a controversial figure and it says, “The Israelis and the Palestinians have joined forces against him.” Big trouble.

The Herodians are followers of Herod, the Jewish puppet ruler whose strings are pulled by Rome. Herodians are collaborators who get their power from the hated Roman occupiers, and are pretty flexible about their religion. Don’t want it to interfere, don’t you know? The people hate the Herodians.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, are very devout Jews who hate the Roman occupation and are absolute sticklers for Jewish purity laws. Not flexible at all.

Now, the hot-button issue that divided the Pharisees and the Herodians was the Roman tax. It was first imposed in the year 6 A.D., and it was met with an immediate revolt by Pharisees and other groups who refused to pay it on the grounds that the Roman coins used to pay the tax violated the First Commandment against worshipping other gods and the Second Commandment against graven images. These coins showed a picture of Caesar with an inscription under it saying — listen for it — “Son of God.” These devout Jews were not having it. The resistance cost 4000 of them their lives, but the tax remained.

So these two groups that despise each other plan to trap Jesus using the very issue that divides them. They’ve come up with the perfect question. They’ll ask him about the tax. If he says, “Pay it,” he’ll be considered a hated collaborator like the Herodians. If he says, “Don’t pay it,” he’ll be open to a charge of rebellion against the Roman Empire, the offense that cost 4000 lives the last time someone tried it. There’s no way out.

I feel guilty about this; I knew I shouldn’t have left him alone for so long!

Anyway, these guys are so confident that they start off with this disgusting false flattery intended to make Jesus look even worse when he fails. “Teacher, we know you are sincere and teach the way of God in accordance with truth—yadah, yadah, yadah.” Don’t you hate it when people start off all flattering and you know it’s just a prelude to a bloodletting?

Finally this unholy alliance springs the trap: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not.” The perfect question. They’ve got him; there’s no way out.

Well, of course, Jesus knows what they’re up to. He says, “You hypocrites, show me the coin used for the tax.” So they show him a coin with a picture of Caesar on it, and he says, “Whose image and whose title do you see,” and of course they say, “The Emperor’s — Caesar’s.”

And then he gives them that amazing, puzzling, two-part answer. First: “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Then, “But give to God the things that are God’s.” “But give to God the things that are God’s.”

The second part of the answer swallows up the first. He not only escapes the perfect trap, but he makes it backfire! He said, “Whose image is on the coin?” And of course it was Caesar’s, so he said give it to Caesar. Then he says, “Give to God that which is God’s,” and now the logic is inescapable: if the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears his image, what belongs to God because it bears God’s image?

They know their Scripture. They know that Genesis tells us that we’re all created in God’s image. God doesn’t mint coins; God makes universes! God makes people! God made them. They bear the image of God, and so Jesus has just given them an answer that not only eludes their trap, but haunts them. “Give to Caesar what belongs to him (and now we’re not even sure what does belong to him), and give to God — your very self.”

This answer is like a spinning coin: on one side are the words “Belongs to Caesar;” on the other is written, “Belongs to God.” And as the coin spins, they realize that they are created in the image of God and belong to God and that even Caesar belongs to God, and Caesar’s money belongs to God, and now, like an optical illusion, as the coin spins faster and faster the truth becomes clearer and clearer and the coin spins so fast that it seems to be standing still and the only message they can see is, “Belongs to God.”

When they realize what Jesus has done to them, their jaws drop, and they skedaddle out of there. They’re upset because Jesus has not only evaded the perfect trap, but also because his answer — “Give to God that which is God’s” — haunts them.

And it haunts us, or at least, it should, because it’s so easy for us to forget what really belongs to God. When I first started giving to the church, I felt pretty good about myself. After all, it was my money; I had earned it, and I was being generous enough to give some of it to God. “How big of me,” I thought. “God,” I secretly felt, “owes me a big ‘Thank you.’”

You see, when money is involved, there are lots of Caesars around, lots of things that try to keep us from learning, or make us forget, that everything belongs to God. Jobs, obligations, fears, they all empower money with god-like status that makes us think it can solve our problems, or at least keep us safe.

Look, I just got back from seeing the Katrina devastation. I know that everyone needs enough money to secure the basic needs of life: food, clothing, housing, transportation, and medical care. But I’ve seen so many times when money has taken on god-like status, so we start thinking that everything belongs to it, and getting it, more and more of it, is the goal of life, so our priorities become skewed, and we think we “need” so much.

I’ve seen that. I’ve worked with people making lots and lots of money, and some, not all, but some of them, you know what they worried about? You know what kept them up at night? You know what they devoted their lives to? You know — money. Their god; their Caesar.

I’ve seen that. And, if I’m honest, I’ve felt that. Lots and lots. I’ve felt the pull, the allure, the seductive way that money can whisper in our ear, “Worship me. Worship me.”

But let me tell you something: remembering that everything is from God — that is liberating. I no longer think that God owes me big time because Charlotte and I give to the church. Now (on good days, at least) I realize that, sure, we work hard for our money, but everything we have to work with, every skill, every talent, every ability, life itself, is from God. Charlotte and I give over ten percent of our gross income. Instead of thinking that God owes us a big, “Thank you!” for our magnanimous generosity, we have come to see that we owe God a big “Thank you” for all that we have — and for the fact that God only wants 10% and lets us keep 90%! I want to tell you from personal experience, that’s a very liberating way to live.

And I also know from personal experience (sadly) that Caesar is not about liberation. Caesar, however, he is manifested in your life, is about bondage. Bondage to fear. Bondage to anxiety. Bondage to serving money and acquisition.

And we all fall into serving Caesar sometimes. I do. But when we do, we are in bondage. You know that; you feel it. [Putting on gold handcuffs.] When we serve Caesar, we wear these golden handcuffs [show handcuffs on wrists]. When we serve Caesar, the gold is so tempting, the whispering so seductive, our fears so real, that we are willing to wear the chains. This link is anxiety — yes — this link is fear — yes — this link is false security — yes— but they are gold — they are gold.

I’m not telling you how much you should give to the church. Some of you are generous, some aren’t. Some can give the 10% tithe; some can give more; some can, realistically, not give that much. (I don’t want anyone to be deprived of the basic needs in life because they give to the church.) But I’m quite sure that everyone can give something. You’ll get pledge cards soon and you’ll be able to put your beliefs into action — or not.

Frankly, I’m not as concerned with how much you give. Yes, the church has financial needs and the vestry will be very concerned with how much you give. But as your priest, I’m more concerned with your attitude toward giving. Because I’m your pastor, and I’m your friend — and I don’t want you to wear these [holding up cuffed wrists] I’ve worn them; sometimes I still do. But I’ve also, by God’s grace, been able to take them off. When you realize that everything comes from God, and you live and give out of gratitude, you can take these symbols of fear off. [Remove right cuff so handcuffs dangle from left wrist].

And that frees you, liberates you, to know that that which is Caesars’ is nothing, and that which is God’s is everything. And you change your priorities, change your life.

And when that happens, it’ll be a good thing that you’ll have your hands free, because you’ll find yourself [holding hands up, with cuffs dangling from left wrist] wanting to hold up your life, your money, your everything as you say, “Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God!”