“Belonging” – sermon on October 19, 2014
Exodus 33: 12-23 Moses said to God, “Look, you tell me, ‘Lead this people,’ but you don’t let me know whom you’re going to send with me. You tell me, ‘I know you well and you are special to me.’ If I am so special to you, let me in on your plans. That way, I will continue being special to you. Don’t forget, this is your people, your responsibility.” God said, “My presence will go with you. I’ll see the journey to the end.”
Moses said, “If your presence doesn’t take the lead here, call this trip off right now. How else will it be known that you’re with me in this, with me and your people? Are you traveling with us or not? How else will we know that we’re special, I and your people, among all other people on this planet Earth?” God said to Moses: “All right. Just as you say; this also I will do, for I know you well and you are special to me. I know you by name.” Moses said, “Please. Let me see your Glory.”
God said, “I will make my Goodness pass right in front of you; I’ll call out the name, God, right before you. I’ll treat well whomever I want to treat well and I’ll be kind to whomever I want to be kind.” God continued, “But you may not see my face. No one can see me and live.” God said, “Look, here is a place right beside me. Put yourself on this rock. When my Glory passes by, I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. Then I’ll take my hand away and you’ll see my back. But you won’t see my face.”
Matthew 22: 15-22 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 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.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
“Belonging” – sermon on October 19, 2014 by Reverend Doreen Oughton
When my son was very young, his dad and I used to do this thing with him that we called, “my boy.” When one of us was holding him, the other would go up and pull gently on him, saying “he’s my boy” and the other would tug back, “no, he’s my boy.” It got so Andrew would run up and ask us to play “my boy” and one would grab him under the arms, the other take his feet, and we’d tug away. He loved it.
This week’s readings got me thinking about what it means to belong to somebody or something. Have you heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? It is a theory that human beings can’t focus on some needs unless others are met – that there is a certain order in which we will be motivated. The most basic needs are physiological. We need to keep our bodies going. If we don’t have enough food, water, air or sleep, we can’t really focus on anything else. Once those bodily needs are met, we will seek a sense of safety and the security – an income, a home, health insurance, like that. And then the very next thing we need is a sense of belonging. Without that, we cannot really build up any self-esteem, confidence, respect for and from others, or achievement. And all that is the precursor to the marks of self-actualization such as creativity, morality, spontaneity and problem-solving. To know that one belongs is key to knowing who one is and to becoming wholly and fully who one is meant to be.
When we talk about a thing belonging to us, it is about possession, and that implies a certain freedom. Ideally we would take care of the things we own, but we don’t have to. The things that belong to us are ours to do with what we like – break, throw away, hide in a closet, allow to decay. Or we can clean them, polish them, frame them, show them off, cherish them. But when we talk about people belonging to us, it carries a commitment. We do not mean ownership here, but relationship. We can’t just do what we want with a person who belongs to us, because we have to consider the needs of that person. Elia belongs to Brian and Brielle, and they have promised to help fulfill the needs of her soul, mind and body, and to allow her the freedom to learn and grow. And as much as Elia belongs to them, they belong to Elia, and to Zach and Drew, and to each other, and to their parents and siblings, right? And even, in some way, they all belong to us. And in this same baptismal ceremony, we have declared that Elia belongs to God. And this Children’s Sabbath asks us to consider that all children everywhere belong to us as well as God. We all have a responsibility for them, and for each other.
The reading from Exodus has Moses talking to God about how he and the Israelites belong to God. Last week we heard about how these people that belong to God were impatient when Moses was away for too long and insisted on having a new god fashioned for them out of their gold. God is mad, and Moses is mad, and things are tense. I relate so much to Moses here. I feel his question – how do I know I am following your will if I don’t know the plan. I mean I can imagine how discouraged he was to have the people fall so far. He’d done everything the way God asked him to, he attributed his leadership to God’s call and guidance, and it didn’t seem to be working out so well. So he is questioning if he got it right. Is this / was this the plan? Are you still with us? Are you going to stay with us? I need some assurance. I need to see your glory. Wow me. Give me something I can hang on to. And God shows as much as God thinks Moses can handle and still stay alive. Most bibles translate what Moses sees as God’s back, but the Hebrew is more nuanced, it’s more like an indicator of where God was, like the wake of a boat. The most glory we can handle is to see where God just was. Maybe in our prayers of invocation we ought to be asking not for God’s presence, but for God’s wake, leading us a trail to follow.
Anyway, moving on to the Gospel reading. The notions of belonging here are very different from what we’ve been talking about, because along with the “belonging” comes this idea of giving back. The coin with Caesar’s image on it belongs to Caesar and may be given back to Caesar. But what belongs to God ought to be given to God. It’s very confounding to me. Now maybe Jesus was not trying to say something instructive so much as he was just getting out of the trap set by his disingenuous questioners. And that, he did very effectively. He not only called the Herodians and Pharisees hypocrites, he revealed them as such when they pulled out the Roman coin he asked for, which was sacrilegious to have in the Temple. They desperately wanted him gone, and were plotting to arrest him. They didn’t want to do it themselves because he was so popular with the crowds. If their trap worked, either the Romans would arrest him for his seditious statements, or the crowd would turn on him and they could arrest him. Instead they all walked away amazed.
What amazes me is how often Jesus declines to give clear instructions about things. We had Moses up on the mountain with God for a month getting all kinds of laws about the most minute details of living, and Jesus just speaks in parables, tells stories with no clear ending, and answers questions with questions. So in that spirit, I’m not going to tell you what this passage means, but will share with you some of the observations and questions I have. So the coin is an object which has been lent from Caesar, and will be called back. But what about the creations that belong to God? Are they on loan and will be reclaimed? If so, who are they loaned to – us? Or are we part of what is being loaned, and to what or who? Is death the way we are given back? Or is life something we pay forward? And of course this passage, with its declaration that an imprint implies ownership, brings up all kinds of wondering about God’s imprint of ownership. What marks something or someone as belonging to God? Could we see it, or only it’s wake, an indicator that God was just there?
