What Is God's

Matthew 22:15-22

The story we hear this morning is one of my favorite gospel stories, because it is just so very Jesus: You ask the man a question – a question that very reasonably has a yes or no answer, and instead of answering it, he turns around and asks you something. And then he teaches – tells a story or pronounces a moral, and it’s a great answer, obviously. It all makes sense now…

Give to the emperor what is the emperor’s…coin of the realm, okay…Give to God what is God’s…got the budget sorted out now…except…Give to God what is God’s… that’s… everything! Wait. waitaminute…Jesus? Jesus, come back here!

what do you mean, give to God what is God’s??

Everything is God’s, how do you give it back? Jesus…wait!

I have had that conversation with Jesus myself, more than once, reading scripture, praying.

“This makes sense, yes, got it….wait, WHAT did you mean?”  I’ve wrestled a lot with today’s question about how exactly you give to God what is (already) God’s. And the closest I have come is, well – remember how Jesus shows the Pharisees and the crowds what belongs to the emperor in this story? 
“Whose image is this?” he says, looking at a Roman coin.

“Well, if the emperor’s image is on it, give it to the emperor.”

So – where do we find the image of God?

Yes, us. You. Me.

We are “made in the image of God.” It’s imprinted, molded in our flesh, our being.

WE are God’s. And Jesus says: “Give to God the things that are God’s.”

So: Give yourself.

Give your relationships with other people, too.
Give your self generously, whole heartedly, without holding back, to God.

That’s a big deal. And while it’s fundamentally a spiritual process, giving yourself to God involves a multitude of practical choices, from the food we choose to eat, to who we spend time with, to the decision between iPhone and Android or paper and plastic.  Choices about financial giving, too.

If you’re giving to the United Way because doing so deepens your relationship with God, that’s part of biblical giving. If you’re giving to the church out of guilt, fear, shame – those motivations that tend to close our hearts, and make us feel further from God – then it’s not biblical giving.

The choice that helps me give myself completely to God these days is to tithe my income to God’s work and mission in the world through this congregation.

I didn’t start out that way. I gave as a child and young adult because I was supposed to, (public radio taught me that) and because I wanted to feel like part of the congregation. It’s just what we do, I thought, and how much doesn't matter.

And then I discovered that I liked giving, and I wanted to do more.

About that time, someone at my church started talking about tithing.

“Ten PERCENT???” said my 25 year old self. “You’ve got to be kidding! That’s a LOT of money!”… but… I could do – maybe? – 2.5? three percent? And it turned out I could.

A year or two later, I thought, well, maybe four percent… until some years later, I realized that five percent had started to feel comfortable.

Because somewhere in there I started to realize: the more I gave, the more open I felt when I prayed, and the more I saw God at work, not just in the church, but at the office, in the grocery, even in world events. I became more aware of the inspiration of the paramedics at a traffic accident than angry at the bad driver whose carelessness made me late for work; it became easier and more life-giving to support a struggling (even irritating) colleague, the beauty of God’s creation just kept washing over me, even on slushy days in the concrete jungle.

I didn't want that to be about money, honestly. And there are always other things at work in our relationship with God. But money is an emotional and spiritual thing, and reluctant though I was to realize it, money was what was filling me with a sense of how God’s grace could flow through me as well as around me.

So I kept trying to give a little more. It wasn’t always easy. There were times when I was angry at the church, days I didn’t much like what God was doing, and times when I felt, well, stupid about how much I was giving, and the way that choice limited other choices that might have made my home or work better, or my family life easier.

There was the year my car was totaled, the insurance was barely enough to cover the towing, and I didn’t know where the money for a new car would come from. So I pulled back a little on my giving. I focused more on my expenses. Until I started to feel I was missing something.

I could feel it getting a little harder to pray. I felt crankier about God. I felt…well, lonelier. Less willing to keep up my relationships with other people, and with God. I began to learn how much love needs intentional generosity to stay healthy, and grow.  There are lots of ways to practice that generosity – practicing with money just helps make it clear and concrete. I took a chance to step up again.

I started to feel like giving money was a way to practice giving my whole self to God, like Jesus talks about today. To stretch the emotional and spiritual muscles I need to seek and embrace God’s will in all the big and little decisions in my life. To practice letting go of the anxiety I so often feel: that there’s not enough of me to go around – to be a daughter and a sister, a friend, a pastor; to do the work I love and the work I just have to do.

So I keep trying to practice unreasonable generosity with my cash and my budget, to keep my spiritual muscles strong and flexible for joyful, loving, abundant choices in daily life— and I admit, it does take me a lot of practice—and to hang on to that sense of the river of God’s grace flowing through me, so that I alone don’t have to be enough.

Maybe for you that sense of grace started flowing when you were giving about one percent, or the first few pennies. Maybe you’ve been giving ten percent for years and still haven’t felt your heart open with that flow of grace that makes you know you’re God’s.

Either way, any way, I think Jesus is asking us all to use financial giving: to Caesar, or to the church to help us give to God what is God’s: To give our bodies and lives, marked with God’s image; to give our whole selves wholeheartedly and joyfully to God.