October 22, 2023
Pentecost 21
Lectionary 29
Epiphany, Winnipeg
Exodus 33:12-23
Matthew 22:15-22
You might recall just a few days ago when President Biden went to Israel to offer U.S. support to the government and the military and the people there. The night before he arrived a hospital had been blown up in Gaza leaving hundreds dead. Hamas was quick to blame Israel and Israel insisted that that it was an Islamic Jihad rocket that had misfired and hit the hospital. President Biden chimed in and said that it’s pretty clear that…who is to blame? “The other team” is to blame. I don’t know who bombed that hospital. Nobody in this room does. But a powerful powerful man talked about a war between people like it was some kind of football game.
About a week before that presidential visit a Rabbi named Danya Ruttenberg was writing about all the complexities of this whole thing, where Israelis and Palestinians have been killed and so much awful has been done by all the parties involved and she said this: that one thing we can all do to right off the start is “refuse to root for the safety and lives and rights of human beings like they are sports teams.”
In politics, in war, in morals, in conflict. Far away, close to home. Choose a side, pick a team. And whatever is wrong will always be the other team’s fault. And someone just has to win. And someone else always loses.
In this reading from Matthew that we just heard, Jesus is asked to pick sides. Some Pharisees have sent some of their own disciples, who are friends of the religious authorities, to ask Jesus a simple question. Yes or no. They’ve also sent Herodians, who are friends of King Herod and the political authorities, and together they ask Jesus a simple question: “Is it right to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” Yes or no?
The thing is, it’s a trick question. They’re not interested in getting Jesus’ ideas about taxes. They just want to trap him. It’s like this: if Jesus says, “Yes, it’s OK to pay taxes to the emperor,” then the pro-emperor side will be pleased with the answer. But the revolutionaries and the activist types who want to kick Rome and its emperor out of the country won’t be happy with that answer. Anyone who is poor and can’t afford the taxes that the empire demands will hear that Jesus is supporting the powers that drain their pockets. That’s what happens if Jesus says a simple yes to paying taxes to the emperor. If Jesus says “No, it’s not OK to pay taxes to the emperor,” everybody who doesn’t like the emperor and his armies and taxes will be happy. But the Roman authorities and all the power they hold – power to tax and to crucify - will not be pleased at all. Do you see the bind? He’s got to pick a team; they want a straight answer one way or the other. Yes or no.
But Jesus doesn’t pick a team. Instead, he just gives an answer that’s not really an answer: “Give to the emperor what is emperor’s, and to God what is God’s.” With an answer like that the emperor’s people will say “Well, sure, but doesn’t everything belong to the Emperor? How can you say something belongs to God?” The pro-God people will say, “But doesn’t everything belong to God? How can you say there’s something that belongs to the emperor.” And Jesus will be kind of in the middle, not really committing to saying yes or saying no. Just saying sort of yes but sort of no.
He answers the question but he doesn’t choose sides. Instead, he leaves us without a straight “yes” or “no” answer that we can just pull out whenever we need it. He often doesn’t give a really clear answer. And when he does that he saves us from the temptation to be know-it-alls who can just clobber someone with the right answer all the time. He sets us free from having to have just the right answer right away when questions aren’t always easy or obvious. Jesus doesn’t really give a clear answer, and when he does that he sets us free from having to divide the world and pick a team.
But Jesus is very clear about one thing. The very next time a Pharisee asks Jesus a question, the question is this: “Which commandment is the greatest?” Then Jesus quotes his Bible – Deuteronomy and Leviticus - with a clear answer that the Pharisee already knows: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself. Everything else we’re taught hangs on these two things.”
Love God, and love your neighbour as yourself, and we don’t need to choose between these two.
If you or I find ourselves sort of caught in the middle, or if you’re like me and it’s just tiring and hard to sort out where you stand on issues or events or debates or even conflicts closer to home ….maybe we’re not being indecisive or wishy-washy. Instead, we’re just trying to figure out how to love God with all our mind, and sometimes that is hard work, and maybe sometimes loving God with all our mind might mean we just don’t get a clear answer. Or there’s no “other team.” And if we’re sometimes not sure where we stand or we’re back and forth on who’s right and wrong, maybe we’re just trying to sort out just how to love our neighbour instead of picking teams. How to love our Palestinian neighbour, down the street or on a street in Gaza? And how to love our Israeli neighbour, on the street in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, and their uncle or aunt or cousin who lives just down the street and around the corner from you or me? Or this – even though there is nothing good about what Hamas carried out in Israel a few weeks ago, and even though there is nothing good about homes reduced to rubble again – we still need to sort out somehow how to love our neighbour who happens to be a member of Hamas, or how to love our neighbour who cuts off food and water to Gaza. Not how to be nice about it all, but how to love our neighbour rather than trying to pick the right team and drive the wedge a little deeper.
A few thousand years before Jesus didn’t give a straight answer, God gave Moses an unclear answer too. Over the past few weeks we’ve followed the story that began with God calling Moses to set the people free from slavery. It was difficult and it took time and it cost a lot of lives and suffering, but Moses did lead the people out of slavery. Since being set free they’ve been hungry and thirsty, they’ve felt threatened and afraid, they’ve wished they were back in slavery because at least then they knew what to expect and what was expected of them, they’ve received commandments they don’t quite understand and they’ve been pretty sure that God has abandoned them. And they made a new god out of melted gold. You know. It’s been a really difficult time.
And Moses, is finding it so tiring to try to lead the people and he wishes something would be clear and easy and obvious. So he says, “God, show me your ways.” And God says, “I will be with you.” Moses pushes the point a bit and says, “But don’t just be with me, be with all of us, with all of your people.” God says, “OK, I can do that.” Then Moses tries to push just a little more and he says, “God, show me your glory!” And God says, “OK, look. I’m going to put you in that crack in the rock over there, OK? And I’m going to walk by but I’ll cover your eyes as I walk by. Then I’ll start walking away and then I’ll uncover your eyes. Then you’ll see me, but it will just be a glimpse of my back while I’m walking along.”
You see, Moses wanted to be clear and to see what’s what, but God knows what happens when someone thinks they’ve seen the truth in all its blazing glory. Those are the kind of people who think they know which team is the right one…and they know that you should too. So God shows Moses just enough so that Moses will know that God is, in fact, right there with Moses and his sister Miriam and all those people. Right there when things are hard and when things are terrific, right there when the way seems clear and especially right there when no one knows the answer and every path seems to lead only to trouble. And they will step out of the crack in the rock together and follow their God, our God, into whatever is next in the wilderness. Never really seeing all God’s glory and never getting a full view and clear idea what’s what, but always catching a glimpse here and a vision there that God goes with them. As promised. With a bit of a nudge from Moses.
Just for today, I’m going to suggest that we change our name. Just for today. Our name is Epiphany, and Epiphany means something like a clear vision, or a sudden understanding of what is real or true – like what Moses wanted: a clear vision of God’s glory. It’s a good name for a church, but at the same time we know that life here and life in the world isn’t just full of clear visions and understanding where it all makes sense. So today, let’s change our name to “Cleft in the Rock Lutheran Church.” Here in this cleft in the rock we hear and we speak and sing that we are loved beyond measure and that life wins – Christ is Risen! And then we leave here not on different teams but as one people, one Body of Christ, sent into the world that is not doomed to be a bunch of different teams, but is one beloved world that God is in the work of mending. AMEN.