Kingdom Politics - Part 1: God is God
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Matthew 22:15-22
[Jesus said,] “Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They 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.”
Matthew 22:19-21
We have a dangerous habit of talking about God and country as if they are one and the same, or at the very least, two sides of the same coin. We like to think that there is no tension between pledging our allegiance to the flag of the United States and pledging our allegiance to Jesus as Lord. After all, this is a Christian nation, or so we’ve been told.
While Christianity may have been the majority religion throughout much of our nation’s history, the constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion in any form, not only Christianity. Many of our laws fall in line with Judeo Christian values and some of the Ten-Commandments, but not all. For example, the state forbids stealing and murder but cannot criminalize religious idolatry, taking the Lord’s name in vain, or making graven images of God or any other deity. People in this country are free to exercise any religion or no religion, and to the degree that their own moral and ethical codes do not harm others, their beliefs and practices cannot be legislated by civil law.
Today, as in Jesus’ day, the state often seeks to use religion for its own purposes, and like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, we are quick to fall in line for the sake of the many benefits our complicity may garner us with the state, such as tax-exemption or social status. As Todd Weir writes,
Power interests like emperors can pressure you to do stuff you don’t believe in… They want to stamp their image on you and sometimes you feel like you can’t escape it.
In asking whose image is on the national currency, Jesus reminds us that we are not stamped with the image of an eagle or an American Flag and we are certainly not stamped with the image of an elephant or a donkey, despite how many would try to pigeonhole us for political gain. Weir continues,
Civil authority is a reality of life, but don’t forget they are not God, and will not triumph if you realize your heart and mind is already minted with the image of the God we know in Jesus the Christ.
In this tense political season where various “emperors” are fighting particularly hard for the loyalty and allegiance of Christians in the form of our votes, we would do well to remember whose image we bear and who is truly sovereign over all. How many of our own Christian brothers and sisters will we destroy in the war between the red and the blue.
Maybe the manipulation, the insults, the anger, the hatred, the fear mongering, the rage and the vitriol of our so-called civic leaders in this season should be a wake up call to remind us that we are citizens of a greater Kingdom, one without national or ethnic borders, one with no parties or platforms or agendas, and one with no elected officials but only the King of Glory who sits on David’s throne forever and ever. Amen.
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
Video of the complete worship service available at http://asburyumc-huntersville.com/live