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Jesus & Caesar [Matthew 22:15-22] "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." Moral questions are raised when Caesar and God are in conflict, making it impossible to support one without challenging the other. Vivian Malone Jones died this week. In 1963 this 20-year-old black woman integrated the University of Alabama against a defiant Governor Wallace, an act born of a Civil Rights Movement spearheaded by churches. One year Bishop Tutu thanked our General Convention for supporting economic sanctions against apartheid; the Church engaging the powerful on behalf of the powerless, taking on Caesar on behalf of justice. Harvey Cox was asked to teach a course on Jesus at Harvard as a way of helping students learn to make moral decisions. One day a junior active at Uni-Lu (as they call University Lutheran) asked Cox a question: Referring to Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Bonhoeffer, he asked, "Why does nearly everyone we study in this course end up getting crucified, shot, or hanged?" The student was genuinely inspired by Jesus’ concern for the outcast people of his day, but, he said, "I want to find a satisfying job someday, get married, raise a family, and be a good citizen of this community… of the world…" He wanted to do the right thing, but, as Cox said, "didn’t feel up to confronting the Roman legions." One of the first challenges I faced as a priest hit when I passed age 33, and — in spite of all the stands I had taken on issues - I hadn’t been killed yet! What now? We pray that we "may grow in grace as we grow in years," but I didn’t find much guidance from Jesus on how to do that. A lot of people think they can go to the Bible and find answers to their moral dilemmas - I see many young people wearing bracelets with the initials "WWJD" — "What Would Jesus Do?" "The problem with simply asking (that) is that we grapple with many choices today that Jesus never had to face." Cox wrote, "Jesus never had to endure a series of exhausting job interviews, cope with an unintended pregnancy, or (as far as we know) weigh the consequences of breaking up with a girlfriend… Never had to worry about a fifteen-year-old son he suspected might be taking drugs, or decide how to tell his parents about a sweetheart they would surely not approve of, or agonize over whether to place his failing mother Mary into a retirement community, or consent to disconnecting his father Joseph’s life-support system if the cancer had spread to all his organs." Here’s the crunch: "(Jesus) never delivered an easy answer to a hard question but, in time-honored rabbinical fashion, asked another question or told one of his unforgettable stories. He would not allow people to escape the responsibility of making their own decisions. Instead he enlisted them in a way of thinking that would nurture and extend their moral insight." And that’s our job as preachers: not to give answers, but to help you frame the questions from a gospel perspective. As a priest in America, 2005, I believe Jesus’ ideas about God & Caesar are right on: church and state must be kept separate, even as we in the church hold "the state" accountable, not turn a blind eye to it. I believe we in the Episcopal Church are part of an intelligent moral compass for our nation. As a deputy to next year’s General Convention I raised the issue last week: how do we authentically respond to whatever national/international issues we may face there next June. Within the flurry of e-mail responses, our friend, Tom Woodward, noted, "there is a fine line between partisan politics and religious analysis and prophetic judgment — but we run a great risk, spiritually, if we remain silent because there is a line. Perhaps a better response than avoiding the issues altogether is a simple, ‘I think you are crossing a line here" when we smell partisan politics." And — I would add — I hope our congregation never confuses what is political with what is simply relevant. We Episcopalians must never be shy about speaking to Caesar — or only segments of the church will be heard. "Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, to God what is God." Making sure we are speaking from Jesus’ agenda, not imposing our own, our job is to ask the questions from Jesus’ perspective, assisting you as best we can from Jesus’ viewpoint to make your own moral decisions, remembering that in the kingdom of God, the Spirit moves beyond agreement/disagreement to mutual respect, always with an eye for justice and loving care, and the building up of community. That’s what we try to do here. * When Jesus Came to Harvard by Harvey Cox, Houghton Mifflin, 2004 Copyright: Ernest W. Cockrell 10/16/05
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