Guess what? It all belongs to God!

Some verses in preparation for a sermon on Matthew 15:15-22

Apparently, irony is not dead... Jesus and taxes a few weeks before a US election... 

The scribes and Pharisees come to Jesus with a question:

Should we pay our taxes?

Of course, they didn't really want an answer to that question

You can tell by the way they approach the whole shebang...

Oh, Jesus, you're so awesome...

  so wise...

    so in touch with God...

       Just answer our question and we'll let you go

Of course, that's not what they wanted.

They said it from the top

They were laying a trap for him...

They sent people to ambush him...

Hoping the government would move against him...

They just wanted him out of the way.

Jesus wasn't out there preaching against the government

He was just answering the questions asked him

as faithfully as possible.

Pay to Caesar what Caesar is owed...

  Government at its best uses this money

  to make things better for the people it supports.

But pay to God what is God's... 

That's really the question - right?

What belongs to God?

We spin our wheels, worry our minds, stress our hearts

  with the very questions that arise from this encounter.

Does our money belong to God?

Do our jobs belong to God?

Do our families belong to God?

What about our houses and cars and e-readers and gaming systems?

Or our participation in the election process?

Or writing our members of Congress?

Or protesting injustices we see being brought against us 

or our neighbors (who are anyone not us)?

What about wearing a mask when we go out it public?

Does that belong to God?

Here's a hint

An answer I have deduced from 

  rereading the gospel story

  and pondering on the letters of Paul

  and praying the Psalms

  and reflecting on the story of the Jewish people...

It all belongs to God!

And the sooner we start believing that 

  and living it out

  the better off we all will be.

And it's hard.... 

.