The Things That are God's

In today’s gospel we see two usually opposed groups come together to try and trick Jesus. On one side we have the Pharisees, with influence over the Jewish community and on the other the Herodians, supporters of the puppet king with an allegiance to Rome. Jesus can’t win this argument- if he says “pay taxes” the already subjugated Jewish people will turn against him, if he say’s “don’t pay taxes” the Herodians will report back to the Romans, through whom Herod maintains his power.

Jesus has no interest in winning or losing arguments and won’t be caught in their trap, but he does need to satisfy his hearers. This is such a famous passage that even now it’s repeated like a proverb “render unto Caesar”, or as we heard in this translation “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s”. This has been manipulated many times over the centuries to support all kinds of economic policy and government legislation, often divorced from the final part of what Jesus said, which is actually the important bit:

“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

The coin is a symbol of The Roman Empire, the oppressor and coloniser. The coin belongs to Caeser because it bears his likeness. If the same theory is applied to what Jesus is telling us belongs to God, it’s that which bears God’s likeness, which of course is us, and all God’s people. All people.

The combined forces of the Pharisees and Herodians tried to trap Jesus in a man-made power system, but throughout the gospels we see Jesus subverting where man thinks power lies to demonstrate where power actually lies, where God’s power lies.

We have God made flesh, made as vulnerable as a newborn baby, born not in the royal palace where the Magi went to look for him but in an out-house where the animals sheltered. 

And now to further disrupt the status quo, Jesus explains that as the emperor’s wealth is in the thing that bear’s his image, God’s wealth is in the thing that bears God’s image. God’s greatest asset is us, the people who bear that image and whose wish is to grow more in that likeness, and give back to God what is God’s. 

Now I know there’s a lot of proud, patriotic people here, and I must admit I’ve been cheering on the England Rugby team in the world cup and enjoying our wins, but patriotism can be toxic, in sport fandom it has, at times, lead to violence and at it’s worst we’ve seen many unjust wars fought throughout the world and centuries. Jesus reminds us today that at the our very core we belong to God, not state, or government, or nation. We may love our country but do we believe God feels the same? 

So many have taken lives or lost lives for believing God was on their side more than that of another nation, but at God’s table, God’s alter, there are no nations. 

Every member of the human race is created in God’s likeness, no matter nationality, ethnicity, culture or religion.

I swore to myself that the one thing I wouldn’t do this week was talk about the Isarel/Palestine conflict. Even those with a deep knowledge about the history of the situation, and great gifts of writing and speaking, can fail to strike the right balance or tone when explaining how we got to where we are now.

My knowledge is very limited but as I read around this week’s gospel I was drawn further and further towards thoughts of the awful events we’ve seen unfold. I think one thing which really struck me is the knowledge that ourselves, the Jewish people of Israel and Palestinian Muslims all have a culture rooted in the creation story in the book of Genesis. We all hold the belief that we’re made in God’s image.

If a day every comes where there are no kingdoms or empires, governments or currencies, God will still be God, and we will still be God’s children.

And yet, despite our commonality the narrative around the atrocities committed on both sides are painfully divisive and many people feel they can’t comment without appearing to be antisemitic, supporting terrorism or defending acts of ethnic cleansing. 

I’m ashamed to admit I knew very little about Gaza and indigenous Palestinians until I started to attend Greenbelt festival a few years ago. 

They partner with an organisation called the Amos Trust and other charities who work in Palestine. Having grown up in the 80s all I knew were the stories of the PLO, Hamas and acts of extreme violence. 

I know there will most likely be very strong feelings in this room about what’s happened and what’s continuing to happen, but the situation isn’t black and white, it’s incredibly messed up but I feel there’s some facts of the situation it may be helpful to understand. 

Recently I came across historian John Bradley-Lestrange, who has a popular social media presence. His area of expertise is Genocide Studies and his channel is called the History Wizard. I’m going to share his attempt to explain the facts of the situation, but before I do if we have disagreements on what I’m about to share, remember that we are brothers and sisters in Christ and I feel we can discern how to disagree well.

He says the following, some of which is paraphrased for clarity:

The average person simply isn’t capable of discussing it without being either wildly antisemitic or supporting the ethnic cleansing that the Israeli government is committing against the Palestinian people. There are some basic facts:

Judaism is an ethno-religion, both a religion and an ethnicity and ethnically Jewish people are indigenous to the lands of Israel. Ethnically Arabic populations are also indigenous to the lands that are currently Israel and Palestine.

There’s a historic and moral necessity for a Jewish homeland because throughout history pretty much every single nation they’ve lived in has tried to eliminate them and because the governments of those nations fail or refuse to take any substrative measure to prevent antisemitism and antisemitic violence there needs to be a place where Jewish people can feel safe without being the victims of genocide. 

The government of Israel has been committing an ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people basically since the nation of Israel reemerged under British mandate in the 1940s.

You can accept the historic necessity for a Jewish homeland whilst also condemning the actions of the Israeli government, you can condemn the actions of the Israeli government without being antisemitic.

Israel has tried to take more land, beyond what was granted in the original mandate, displacing innocent Palestinian people, many of whom have been living on the land for 100s and 100s of years.

Violence in this situation begets more violence, such as Hamas’ massacre of innocent people at a music festival. And kidnapping innocent Jewish people. They are a terrorist organisation. 

There’s fault on both sides, victims on both sides. The lion’s share of the fault is with the Israeli government due to the massive power imbalances involved.

People are angry and scared and rightfully so, but there is no simple solution to such a complicated problem.

 

It breaks my heart to know we are all one people and yet so divided, that the Israeli people and the Palestinian people are brother and sister and yet this situation seems unsolvable.

My encouragement for you, for us all, in the light of todays gospel and the knowledge that each and every person involved in this conflict is a beloved child of God, is to resist the dualistic thinking that saturates our news cycles and print media. To look at the situation with nuance, love and hope. I want to leave the last word today to Palestinian Christians. Even though this statement was issued in 2014 it remains painfully relevant:

“We at Bethlehem Bible College consistently called for a just peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. We always sought a nonviolent resolution to the conflict. As Christians committed to nonviolence, we do not and cannot endorse Hamas’ ideology. However, we believe that the people of Gaza have the right to live in freedom and dignity. This means that the siege over Gaza should be lifted and the borders should be open. The people of Gaza need a chance to live. We oppose Hamas launching rockets at Israeli towns and cities. At the same time, we are shocked by the disproportional and inhuman response by the Israeli military and the disregard of civilian life and especially innocent women and children.

We are grieved by the mounting hate, bigotry and racism in our communities today, and the consequent violence. We are especially grieved when Christians are contributing to the culture of hatred and division, rather than allowing Christ to use them as instruments of peace and reconciliation.

In the face of this, we affirm that we are against killing children and innocent people. We support love not hatred, justice not oppression, equality not bigotry, peaceful solutions not military solutions. Violence will only beget wars, it will bring more pain and destruction for all the nations of the region. Peace-making rooted in justice is the best path forward. Therefore, we commit ourselves to spread a culture of love, peace, and justice in the face of violence, hatred, and oppression.”

Amen.