When It Reigns

Sermon - When it Reigns

Matthew 22:15-22

Pr. Paul Cannon

Grace and Peace, Bethany Lutheran Church, from God our creator, the Holy Spirit that connects us, and Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord,

I was really in the mood this week to preach on something happy.  This whole last week and half of my life has really been a comedy of errors.  

It all kind of started last week on our way into the city to see a play, when our GPS had us driving in circles.  My in-laws were in town, and traffic was backed up terribly on the highways, so Google Maps told us that it would be faster to get off the freeways and use some city roads roads instead.  

I’ll never believe Google Maps again.  At one point, we literally came full circle, and passed the same school...twice.

Then last Sunday, my Cincinnati Bengals were poised to kick a game-winning 36 yard field goal in overtime to win the game … and the kicker missed it!  The game ended in a tie, which somehow felt worse than a ls

Then on Monday, when the office had the day off, I went with my wife, my brother and his wife and a few friends to go apple picking.  But when we were sitting down for lunch that day, I threw out a disk in my lower back.

It was one of those weeks that reminded me of the great quote from Mel Brook’s, Young Frankenstein, when one character says to the other “It could be worse!”  And the other one asks, “How?” And he says, “It could be raining!”

And I mean that literally, because right after I threw out my back, like in the movie, it started raining.

It was one of those weeks.

Yes, I could have really used something happy and light to preach about this week, but instead I got the story that has to do with taxes...When it rains...it pours.

Some religious leaders come up to Jesus, with a question that they hope is going to be a wedge issue - because no matter how Jesus answered it, it was going to make some folks mad.  

“Hey Jesus,” they asked him, “Should we pay our taxes?”  Nothing like a question about politics to get folks mad at you.

But Jesus answers in a roundabout way.  He asks one of them to take out a coin, and asks them who’s picture is on it.  And they answer him that it was the face of the emperor on the coin.

So Jesus tells them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”

Good answer.

Let’s think about those words.  What belongs to the Caesar? The coin does.  It has Caesar’s image on it.  It must belong to him.

But the more interesting question is, what belongs to God?  Really.  What belongs to God?  If Caesar owns the coin because his image is on it, then where is God’s image?  

Genesis 1:27, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

We bear God’s image.  We belong to God.  “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.”  

Don’t just give of the coin, Jesus insists, give of yourself.  But, what do you give to the God who has everything?  What do you give back to the God who gave you everything, including the coin?  

If you are given everything, then maybe we should give back everything - time, talent, money, resources - all that stuff, yes.  But it’s really much deeper than that.  You give back your heart to God.  

Remember those three great Christian values we heard about in our reading from Thessalonians today? Faith, hope and love?  Those are the things that God truly desires from us.  That should be our offering to God every day.

And that’s a lot to ask, I know.  Because sometimes, we have weeks like I had this past week.  You get lost.  You feel like you are losing at life.  You find yourself in pain.  And then it starts to rain on you...literally or figuratively. When it rains, it pours.

Those days you don’t feel particularly loving.  Those are the days you don’t feel hopeful.  Those are the days you don’t feel faithful.  But it’s particularly when it’s hard - when life is pouring on you - that it matters most.  Your teenager is fighting with you at home?  Love them even more.  Struggling with your faith?  Go pray and talk to God about it.

And hope...hope is something that I think we could all use a dose of these days.  It’s been a tough couple months, here at Bethany. I know more than most. We said goodbye to a Pastor this summer.  We’ve had our fair share of change and conflict.  And at times it feels like we are getting rained on.

But all of this - all of us - belong to God.  We bear God’s image.  And where God is present, there is all kinds of hope.  And so hope is what God asks us to give back.

This summer on our mission trip, every night all the church groups would return from a long day of serving.  We would gather for worship.  And our site leaders from Youth Works, would lead us all in an exercise of hope that they just called “Yay God.”  

And these exhausted kids, who had every right to complain after a week of manual labor and sleeping on floors, would raise their hands, and offer for the group, where they had seen God that day. And when they finished, everybody would snap their fingers...and say...Yay God.  

Sometimes they would lift up somebody who went the extra mile to help that day. Yay God (snap).  Sometimes they would lift up the way they saw God at work in the faces of the community.  Yay God! (snap)  Other times it was the way that God was accomplishing work - fixing broken homes, spending time with the sick, the old and the young.  Yay God! (snap)

They were moments of hope.  They were “Yay God” moments.

We have those too.  This week, I got a call in the evening at home from an unknown number, which is usually a bad sign.  But it was Sharon Saunders, who we’ve been praying for, to tell me that the doctors hadn’t found any cancer at her latest bouts with Chemo. Yay God. (snap)

In our God, we find hope in the most peculiar places - none more peculiar than the cross.  Through an instrument of capital punishment, as Christians, we proclaim our greatest hope for life.

That’s what I would like us all to do today. We need to start practicing a little bit of hope in the rainy times.  We need some “Yay God” here at Bethany and in our lives. 

Think of a "Yay God" moment in your life. Write it down.  Give thanks to God even in tough times.

You’ll be amazed at the incredible ways that God is working in and among you despite all the stuff that’s happened this past year.  There is so much hope - too much, to not be hopeful in our God.

There are days, and sometimes weeks and even years where it rains, and when it rains, it pours.  But as those who bear the image of God, it is our job offer hope back to this world  - especially in the rainy times.  So let faith, love and hope be your offerings.  Because in our God, faith, love and hope reign eternal.  

Yay God.