Isaiah 45:1-7
Matthew 22:15-22
There is an old admonition: Be careful what you pray for.
So, in today’s collect
what DID we just pray for?
Do we dare go back and check it out?
“Almighty and everlasting God,
Preserve the works of your mercy”…
That’s us.
Preserve us.
Not make everything happy, happy, well and wonderful;
But in other words,
help us to stay alive, intact, free from decay,
Not rancid, sour, putrid, rotten.
And why are we praying to be preserved?
Here’s where the rubber hits the road, as they say.
“That we may persevere with steadfast faith!”
Well, evidently this persevering must not be an easy thing to do,
This keeping on, keeping on, not giving up,
If we need so much help, God’s help even, with it.
And there’s more:
“that we may persevere with steadfast faith
In the confession of your name
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What I hear being prayed in today’s collect
is the acknowledgement that only through the help of Jesus
can we even begin to keep on living with God 1st in our lives
day in and day out;
so much so, that people see and hear and are assured
of our trust in and love of God.
Jesus makes it clear in his teachings
That it IS God in whom we live and move and have our being.
God is the center
The grounding
The surrounding matrix of our lives.
We acknowledge that reality of God as Christians,
But do we really live it
So that others clearly hear and see
Our grounding in God?
Back in the days of the prophet Isaiah
This idea of one God
Was unique to a small group of people
who called themselves Israelites
and who stubbornly persevered in attempting
to hold on to a small pocket of land
they called Israel and Judah.
None of the peoples and nations around them
Subscribed to that kind of religion, worshipping one God.
And even among their own people
Many added other gods to their life insurance policies…
You know: Let’s cover all the bases…
See which god takes the best care of us.
In the Isaiah passage just read, God is talking to Cyrus, a Persian king,
But Isaiah means for God’s words to be heard
By the Israelites who are in exile in Babylon
Where temptations to worship other gods are all around…
A natural fabric of life there.
To Cyrus, Isaiah proclaims:
Look, listen, only God has the power
Even power over other kings and nations.
God speaks through Isaiah saying:
“I am the Lord and there is no other…
Beside me there is no god…
I arm you, though you do not know me.
So that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west,
That there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord and there is no other.
What’s going on here is pretty remarkable.
God is planning to use a Persian king to free the people of Israel
From their oppression under the Babylonian King.
And God did just that and over time the people of Israel
Returned safely to Jerusalem.
This story was a crucial revelation for me as a youngster…
God gets involved in the power struggles of the world.
God really cares,
Really gets involved
Even with people like that Persian king,
who don’t even know or acknowledge our God.
Some 2000 and some years later….
A large portion of the world
Takes this one God idea pretty much for granted.
In our part of the world, at least a lot of us sort of do lip service
To the concept of one God
If there is a god….then there’s probably just one
And that God probably has something to do with creation
And is probably more or less at work in the world
Possibly, maybe, probably….
Which brings us to today’s Gospel,
Jesus’ response to one more trick question.
That in turn invites us to a bold look at ourselves.
Here’s my question for you:
How do you define idolatry?
The definition I find most helpful is:
Excessive attachment, admiration, or infatuation of an object.
And I would broaden that definition to include
Excessive attachment, admiration or infatuation
Of a person, place, thing or even idea.
In other words: the giving to another “something” the love and attention which should be going to God.
For you see,
We were created by God to be excessively attached
And in love and dependent on
That same God that created us
And only that ONE God
And this is not for God’s sake…
God does not need us.
We need God.
We need to know of and recognize and accept our relationship with God
In order to live into the lives that God intended for us.
Part of our instruction manual for life,
Those 10 commandment of so very long ago
Simply states:
- You shall have no other gods but me.
This one commandment is at the center of all the other commandments:
Stealing, envy, lying, adultery, murder, not caring for parents,
Not giving time for God….
Are they not all caused by letting some other person, place, or thing
Become the object of our excessive attachment, admiration, infatuation?
Are they not all caused by idolatry?
Our gospel lesson today
Is NOT about taxes and governments
Whether to pay or not to pay
Or when to obey or not to obey.
Jesus knew that the Pharisees and Herodians were trying to trap him…
They’re playing a game of win or lose…
When asked is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?
They’re meaning religiously lawful.
These two groups within Judaism itself are NOT in agreement on this matter.
You see, Rome has levied a head tax on every Jewish person.
The Pharisees lean toward not paying the tax.
The Herodians, on the other hand
Favor paying the tax.
What’s amazing about Jesus’ response
Which does not answer the question, by the way,
Is that Jesus does not play the game.
He refuses to get caught up in their excessive need
To separate themselves from each other
For one group to be right
The other group wrong.
Sounds very familiar does it not, especially this fall?
And it too, in its own way, is a form of idolatry….
When being in the right camp
On the right side becomes so excessive that it
Takes up the energy and devotion that belongs to God.
The excessive need to be right is a form of idolatry.
Jesus doesn’t go there.
He doesn’t get caught up, swept up into their idolatry.
Jesus says
“Give to God the things that are God’s”
And the bottom line as he knew and the Pharisees knew and the Herodians knew
And we know is:
All is God’s.
Our role is to be the care takers, the stewards, the lovers of God’s creation
This section of Matthew’s gospel,
With its numerous stories of Jesus’ hard time with adversaries and opponents
Ends at verse 34 as Jesus is asked:
“Which command in God’s law is most important?”
Jesus replies:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind…
Another translation puts it this way:
Love the Lord your god with all your passion, prayer and intelligence.
And Jesus quickly adds:
“But there is a second to set alongside the first.
Love others as well as you love yourself.”
In other words
Don’t let your need to be right….
Don’t let your fear of being wrong….
Don’t let any little god
Overpower your love for God….
Taking your energy and attention,
care and compassion
The words that you say
The deeds that you do
Away from the love of God
And the love of neighbor.
The Rub—the Catch 22 for us
Is that the only way that can be accomplished of course
Is with God’s help
So we’re back where we began,
And where we can and best begin every day:
With prayer….
“Almighty and everlasting God, preserve us, the works of your mercy, that we may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your name, growing each day in excessive attachment to and in love and dependency on You, and only you, through Jesus the Christ. Amen
Photo by Ümit Bulut on Unsplash
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