Implications of Bearing God’s Image | October 22, 2023 Sermon

Give to the emperor what is the emperor’s, and give to God what is God’s—and what is not God’s? Being made in God’s image has implications for how we use the gifts God has trusted to us (stewardship), how we treat others, and even how we view ourselves. We also celebrated two baptisms at this service!

Today’s scripture is from Genesis 1:26-31 and Matthew 22:15-22. Portions of this sermon are from my message six years ago on Imago Dei and Luther’s Two Kingdoms, as well as this message from three years ago on Giving to God What Is God’s, for which I found helpful Libbie Reinking’s October 16, 2020, GodPause devotional, Rolf Jacobsen’s Dear Working Preacher column, this commentary from Raj Nadella, and Will Willimon’s discussion of this text in Will Willimon’s Lectionary Sermon Resource, Year A, Part 2. I’m also drawing from our fall stewardship theme, You Have Heard It Said, from Church Anew. 

Here’s the worship livestream and sermon podcast audio.

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Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

How many of you really get excited about paying taxes? Anyone have April 15 marked with a smiley face on your calendar, or maybe you check your pay stub every week to see how much you can give to the government?

Depending on your political party persuasion, some might see taxes as more necessary for society than others, but I have yet to meet anyone who actually enjoys paying them. And yet you pay them, because you don’t want to get in trouble with the government.

This requirement to pay taxes or get into legal trouble was the same in Jesus’ day, but even more heightened, because the Jewish people had been conquered by the Roman empire, and the taxes they were required to pay went to Rome. Their taxes were a constant reminder that they were a conquered, oppressed people.

So in our Gospel story today, Jesus’ enemies come up with a really good trap for him, a great gotcha question. I love the way they ask it. They start by trying to flatter Jesus, sort of butter him up. ”Teacher, we know that you are sincere, that you teach the way of God in accordance with truth” blah blah blah… Then they get to their trap.

Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Roman emperor or not?

There is no good answer. Obviously, according to the Romans, paying your tax to Caesar is not optional. If Jesus says no, don’t pay the tax, the Herodians will go running to the Romans, who will arrest him for sedition and rebellion.

But if Jesus says yes, you should pay your taxes, then the Pharisees will jump on him and spread the word around Jerusalem that Jesus is a collaborator, a supporter of the pagan Romans.

And actually, it’s even worse. The first commandment God gives the Jews is to have no other gods besides the Lord.

Don’t worship anyone but God, which includes not making any graven images or idols, and what’s right there on the Roman coins?
A picture of Caesar.

Every time the Jewish people have to use Roman money, it just grates at them, especially the Pharisees. It’s a reminder that they’re a subjugated, conquered people, but also it’s a religious violation.

Dr. Rolf Jacobsen explains, “On the ‘heads side’ of the coin was a portrait of the Emperor Tiberius along with the inscription, ‘Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus.’ So, literally, ‘King Tiberius, son of God.’ On the “tails side” of the coin was the image of a woman depicting peace with the words ‘high priest’—referring to the emperor as the high priest of the empire.”

Our money says, “In God we trust” and of course, you can debate whether that’s true or not or whether it belongs on money, but at least our dollar bills don’t say George Washington is the Son of God!

So Jesus’ enemies’ question is a great trap, because whatever Jesus says, he’ll get in trouble. And then he finds a way out of it. “Show me the coin used for the tax” he asks, and notice who’s actually carrying around this piece of Roman propaganda.

Jesus has no coins, but someone in the group challenging him does – there’s a little hypocrisy right there, right?

Jesus points at the coin and says, “Ok, whose head is stamped on here? Whose image is on this piece of metal?”

Well, the emperor’s. It’s an imperial coin.

And Jesus speaks that great line, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” So yes, pay your taxes to the emperor. Give the emperor what belongs to him.

It’s a wonderfully simple response. And it has a whole bunch of implications for us today.

On the most basic level, this story means you and I don’t get a religious exemption from paying our taxes. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

And there’s something here about separation of church and state too, right? The government under which we live gets to have a certain level of authority in the world.

But the government does not get ultimate authority over spiritual things, over the things properly belonging to the realm of the church – and vice versa. We have rights and obligations as citizens of our country, yet we also serve a higher power as we just said in Psalm 99: The Lord is king.

So that’s another level. Another implication from this story has to do with stewardship. We’re going to spend the next four weeks in a series talking about stewardship, so let’s stop and define what the word stewardship means.

Often, churches and pastors—and I catch myself doing this too—we use “stewardship” as Christianese for “money”—specifically, money that ought to be given to the church. And you should give money to the church. That’s part of stewardship. But stewardship is much more than that.

In the first reading from Genesis, we heard about God creating humankind “in our image, according to our likeness.”

And then a verse later it repeats: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
We just talked about this last week in confirmation—the most fundamental fact about God is that God creates. It’s the first article of the apostle’s creed: “I believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth.”

Most importantly for how we relate to God, God creates us. God is our creator. And God creates us in the image of God.

The Latin phrase for this is “Imago Dei” – the image of God. One of our church’s camps is named after this, Imago Dei Village in Clintonville. We bear God’s image.

This morning at Christ the King we celebrated Lilly and Everett’s baptism, and really, this is what baptism is all about. In baptism, God claims you. All the other stuff that builds up and obscures that image is washed away, and in baptism, God declares, “You belong to me. You are my child, and I love you.”

You bear the image of your creator. You belong to the one who created you.

And so if we are to follow Jesus’ instructions and give to God what is God’s, that’s everything. Everything belongs to God. Everything I have is something God created. Everything I am belongs to God.

So often in stewardship campaigns, the question is “How much should I give to God? What percentage of what I make or of what I have should I give to the church, or to other charities?” 5%? The Biblical standard is 10%, which we call tithing. I’ve seen a statistic that the average American Christian gives about 2.5% of their income away.

But of course, that’s entirely the wrong question. The question ought to be, “How much of what God has trusted to me will I keep for myself?” Because remember, it all belongs to God. We are merely caretakers, stewards of what God has trusted to us.

I said we should define stewardship. Here’s the definition:

Stewardship is our call to tend everything God has trusted to us.

Stewardship is how we represent God in the world, how we use the time, talents, and treasures God has blessed us with.

Sometimes people say, “All the church wants is your money.” That’s wrong on a few levels, but one of them is that no, God doesn’t just want your money—God wants your entire life.

You’ve heard it said give to Caesar. That’s not really optional in our society. But Jesus says, “Give to God what is God’s.” And ultimately, it’s all God’s, even the parts we pay to the government.

Imago Dei, this idea that we’re created in God’s image, also has implications for how we treat ourselves. Paul says your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. God sees you as beautiful, no matter what you look like.

God created you and saw it was good. God chooses not to see the junk you carry, the junk that gets piled on you; God sees you as beloved.

Sin might cloud the image of God, but it does not and can not erase it.

I did a graveside funeral on Thursday, and I told the family the promise of Romans 8:38-39: Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, nothing we do, nothing we fail to do, nothing that’s done to us. You belong to Christ, and you are loved.

We could stop there, but this teaching from Jesus has one more pretty big implication we need to dig into, and this one can be hard.

It’s not just us who are bear the imago dei; everyone is created in God’s image. And that has implications for how we treat each other.

It’s been so hard to watch the violence happening in Israel and Gaza over these last two weeks. And it’s not just the violence, which is awful enough, it’s the dehumanization.

I read a powerful editorial in Tuesday’s New York Times from Rabbi Rachel Timoner of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn.

After talking about the horrors of the terror attacks and hostage-taking, she writes, “Israel is now seeking to free the hostages and incapacitate Hamas. Those are necessities, and a cease-fire is not possible until the hostages are home.

And — because we are all created in God’s image — we must also plead, pray and lobby that Israel focuses on those most urgent priorities and stops all indiscriminate attacks on Palestinians.”

“Because we are all created in God’s image.”

The Israeli Defense Minister said after the initial terrorist attacks, “We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.”

That’s part of a long history in many cultures of dehumanizing enemies. The Nazis did it to the Jews. Our nation has at various times done it to Native Americans. Hamas didn’t see those they killed as people, but as obstacles or political bargaining chips.

How would it change the world if we could see all people as bearing the image of God? Of course, that’s easy for me to say, standing here in safety. How dare we tell people whose loved ones have been brutally murdered to hold back from vengeance?

And yet, how can peace come unless we see enemies as human beings worth of life? I don’t have an answer to Middle Eastern conflict, and it’s not my place to try to come up with one.

But I do know that as Christians, we have to see them—whoever “them” is—as made in God’s image, bearing the same image as us. And we are called to give to God what is God’s.

Let’s pray.
God our creator, there is so much broken in the world right now. So many people who are suffering, around the world, and right in our own community. When we are tempted to hate others, open our eyes to see your image in them.

Help us to use everything you have entrusted to us to bless our neighbors, to do good in this world you love. Thank you for claiming us as your own, loving us today and always, in Jesus’ name. Amen