Death and Taxes (Sermon Matt 22:15-22)

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

When I was reading the text for this sermon, my first thought (as Im sure many of you will have in a moment) was, oh goody, another sermon on money and tax.

The verse that is the basis for the sermon is from Matthew Chapter 22, verses 15-22, and in particular the second part of verse 21: “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”.

There are two things that are certain in life: Death, and Taxes. And as we will see, both of these certainties are implied in this reading.

In todays reading, the Pharisees sent their disciples along with the Roman authorities to test Jesus. To try and trap him in his own words. They buttered him up with empty words of flattery. They said that his teachings were good and that he taught in truth about the kingdom of heaven. And then, they sprung their question, Should we be paying taxes to Caesar? 

What could Jesus answer??? If he said not to pay taxes he would be arrested for treason against the Roman Empire as many had been not 20 years earlier. And if he said that they must pay taxes he would lose many of his followers and be charged by the Jewish authorities for blasphemy, as he would have been elevating the position of Caesar to an almost god like status (which was in fact the reason for the Roman tax).

But instead of answering in the way both the Romans and the Pharisees expected, he made them think about their motives and who they served. Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. The face and the inscription of the Caesar was on the tax coin, and you could only pay the tax with the Roman coin. But to give to God what is God’s was the emphasis Jesus was getting at. 

So what belongs to God?

In the Psalms, in the prophets, in the 10 Commandments and in the whole Christian Faith, we see that Everything belongs to the Lord. Why? Because He created everything. Everything that we have, is a gift from God. Our life is the Lord’s, our health, our sickness, our wealth, and our poverty, our joy and our sorrow, our time and even our death. All belong to the Lord. 

So what should we render the Lord?... Everything, both the good and the bad belongs to God. Pretty heavy? Yep! But this is what God was showing the pharisees in these verses. He even called them hypocrites because they had forgotten this simple truth, they had forgotten who they were called to be and who they were to serve. Instead of following their calling and serving the Lord, they chased after their own cause, and their worldly agenda. 

How messed up were these Pharisees? They had Jesus right there in front of them, to teach them the truth of the kingdom of God so that they could come to praise and worship Him in spirit and in truth. They had God’s Son right there in their midst and still they didn’t listen.

And yet; how very much like the pharisees are we? And how much more guilty are we than they? We don’t have Jesus sitting next to us, teaching us the way they did... We have Jesus in us! We have the Holy Spirit with us! And we have God our Father for us!... God shows us daily that He is the one true God, that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is because He has given it to us... And yet; still we ask: “what shall we render the Lord”. 

We are to render to God everything that is God’s. Our lives, our time and our possessions. There is nothing we should not give the Lord. For all is His, because He created everything.

This is how we truly fear, love and trust in God above all things.

But still we have Jesus command to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s...

Having heard all that it is to serve God and that we are to give everything to Him. What have we got left to render to Caesar?

We have already answered the question: What is God’s? And we have learnt that everything is His for He created it all. We also learnt that their is nothing in our lives that God does not deserve. So doesn’t this also include our government? 

God has placed governments in our land, to be good stewards of his creation, and to create laws to help and assist us within God’s creation. So, if God has asked us to render to Him all that is His; doesn’t this mean that to serve God we are to serve the government that He has placed in a position of authority over us? It only makes sense then, that paying taxes to Caesar, or to our government is a way that we render to God what is God’s. This is not to say that the government is a god, but that God is ultimately the one who has placed these officials in our land. 

And now we come to the most important question of this reading... We have heard that we are to render to to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. But we all know that we can’t do this, not on our own anyway. We constantly fall into the trap of grumbling about those whom God has chosen to lead and protect us. So how is it possible to truly serve the Lord our God, in spirit and in truth? 

It is only possible because Christ our crucified saviour has given to himself to us. We can only render to God what is God’s because He has first rendered Himself to us. 

At baptism, God gives himself to us with His name and with water. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit we are rendered to God. And this is the exact point I wanted to make with my opening sentence. There are only two things in life that are certain, death and taxes. 

In Baptism, sin is put to death, God drowns the curse of death and makes us truly alive.

Tax as we know is an annual event. Every July we lodge our tax forms and we pray that we have withheld enough tax during the year to prevent a huge tax bill. But unlike tax, we daily sin, and as a result our death needs to be made a daily event. In a way I guess we could call it a sin tax. We need to daily ask God to kill the old sinful self, and daily ask God, our Heavenly Father to forgive us our sins, because we can not pay this tax on our own. 

Death my friends needs to be a daily event. 

When we confess our sins to God and to one another we ask God to forgive us for all the wrong which we have done. We confess that we are born in sin and that we cannot free our selves. And We promise too, that with the help of the Holy Spirit we will live a holy life even as Christ has made us holy. THIS IS OUR DAILY DEATH. 

Our daily rebirth, or, our daily tax return, are the words we hear after we confess our sins. We hear that our Father, has had mercy on us, that He gave his only Son to die for us, and for His sake forgives us our sins.

Both our daily death and our daily rebirth is only possible because of Christ death and resurrection. Through baptism into the Triune God, and through our daily death and rebirth, God renders himself to us. He makes us His children, and as such gives us the ability to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

And the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

Amen

Feeling Sheepish (Sermon Matt 25:31-46)

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, my Lord, my King, my judge and my redeemer. Amen.

Feeling Sheepish

Today, I want to tell you a little bit about me, so you can understand me a little better. I was born into a good Christian family, I was taught the 10 commandments, the Apostles Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer, I went to Sunday School almost every week, until I was in High School and then I did Confirmation, and went to Youth Group as often as I could. 

I have had many jobs, mostly in the Human Resources field. I worked with special needs students. I was an aboriginal educational tutor. I even worked with children with disabilities. 

Four years ago I started studying to become a pastor. Since the start of my studies I began to spend many more moments of every day praying, and reading the bible.

I have never murdered anyone, stolen, lied, committed adultery, and I am a good steward of those things God has given me. I even take all my used clothes to Lutheran Community Care, to clothe the needy.

I like to think that I am a pretty good kind of guy. 

So, when I die what do you think will be on my head stone???

Do you think it will read:

I don’t know about you, but these things, are not the things I want to be remembered for. 

I want to be remembered as a child of God. As one who served Christ without knowing. As one who was gathered with the rest of the sheep to the kingdom made for me since the foundation of the world. I want to be remembered as one who was judged righteous, not by what I did, but by what Christ won for me on the cross.

What do you want to be remembered for???

Friends, I’m sorry. You will not be alright if all you have is your good deeds. Sure they helped people but they alone won’t cut it. Only faith in Christ will save you from the eternal fire.

Jesus says to the unrighteous: I was hungry and you did not feed me, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,  I had no where to sleep and you did not take me in, I was naked and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me.

But why didn’t He warn them? Surely it was within God’s power to let them know that by serving those in need they were serving Him... Surely He could have prevented them from entering the eternal fire of Hell which he prepared, not for them, but for the Devil and all the demons. Why didn’t He step in to help them???

Friends, I’m sorry. God has told you. He continually tells you. Those pulls on your gut as you walk past the needy, that pull on your gut telling you to help. You know, those pulls on your gut which we all ignore at different times. That my friends is the Holy Spirit, tugging at your soul to provide food, drink; shelter; clothing and comfort for Jesus Christ himself.

God had told us, but do we listen???

On the last day. Whether it be at the arrival of Jesus Christ on judgement day, or on the day that we breathe our final breath. On that day, it will be too late. Too late to help the needy, and too late to help yourself. 

In a way judgement day has already begun to take place. Our lack of care for the needy has already begun to show us to be the goats we really are. We see in our selves that we have neglected “the least of these”, and our neglect of the needy shows us our neglect of Christ. And our neglect of Christ, who is the judge, shows us our neglect of the one who sent Him, God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and earth. 

Friends, I’m sorry. The time for excuses is over. It’s too late to make a case for our selves. We have already proven ourselves unworthy. Judgement has been made. We are goats, we all deserve the punishment which God has made, we all deserve the eternal fire. We are goats, and it’s too late to change.

Being Sheepish

Even though God has already passed judgement on the goats. He is not content to let dead goats lie. Even though we deserve the punishment of the unrighteous. Even though we ignored, neglected and forgot “the least of these”. Even though we did not see Him in the least of these. God has not ignored, neglected or forgotten you. 

God sent his Son into this world, not as a king on a glorious throne, but as “the least of these”. 

A baby; not born in a private hospital, but in barn, in an animals feeding troth.  

Not to a well off, highly regarded family, but to a carpenter and his teenage wife. 

Not from Rome or another wealthy city, but from a small poor town called Nazareth in Galilee.  

He was the friend of sinners and outcasts, not of the high and mighty. 

And when he was lifted up and named the King of Israel, it was not with trumpet blasts and stringed instruments, but with a crown of thorns and nails in his hands and feet. 

His throne was not of polished marble, but of crude wood.

Why, oh why, did our heavenly Father send His son into this world? He knew that He would suffer great suffering, and die a horrific death. Why would anyone do that to their own child?

It is because He loved you so much. He did not want you to suffer the punishment of the goats, which He made for the devil and his demons. He wanted you to be able to inherit the kingdom that He created for you from the foundation of the world. He put our salvation above his own life, so that we could come to fear, love and trust in Him.

Jesus offered himself up as the sacrificial lamb, to shed his blood from his throne of wooden suffering, so that He could bring all the nations to Himself, and make them His sheep. 

Jesus suffered the fate that we deserved... to give us a new life. A life that is among His flock of righteous people. 

We don’t need to make a case for ourselves, Christ has made the best and only case that will ensure our salvation. Its not because you are a good person, but because Christ was the perfect person, and He gave up His life for you.

Friends, Thanks be to God for making the case for us.

A few weeks ago, I helped with the funeral service of the oldest member of my vicarage congregation (she was 1 month away from 100). I want you to hear the text for the service. It was from Second Timothy Chapter 4 verses 6 to 8:

⁶ For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 

Do you see the difference between our comments: “Its ok, she was a good person” and “She has fought the good fight. She has finished the race. She has kept the faith”?

It is not by your good work’s that you will be judged among the righteous. As I said earlier: “You will not be alright if all you have is your good deeds. Sure they helped people but good works alone won’t cut it”. Only faith in Christ will save you from the eternal fire.”

This lady has entered eternal life, not because she was a great person (although she was), it wasn’t even because she prayed and read her bible (although she did), it was because God called her to believe in Him. And she dutifully did until her final breath. 

And this is what God calls us to do also. You are called to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength. How can we do this? We can’t. Not on our own anyway. But as mentioned earlier, Christ has sent the Holy Spirit to guide you on your path. He reveals to us the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the naked, the sick and the lonely. And he reveals Christ today through this text. Don’t be uncertain about this Christ is present in “the least of these, his brothers and sisters”. 

And whats more, the more we come to know Christ, the more the Holy Spirit transforms us to be like Christ. And the more like Christ we become the easier it is to help those in need. And even more amazing than all of this is; each time we help “the least of these” in their needs we are given the special opportunity of seeing, serving, and hearing Christ through these his children.

Friends, Thanks be to God for telling us where He is.

My Brothers, my sisters, listen! Its not too late. We don’t need to fear that it is too late. We no longer need to be goats who are worried that we are not good enough to build a good enough case for our salvation. We don’t need to worry about when the judgement will be or who will be present to speak against us. We don’t need to worry that we haven’t seen Jesus in the needy. 

CHRIST HAS ALREADY DONE IT!!! 

Christ has made our case in His blood. He has washed us clean from all sin, in His blood. He has revealed Himself to us in the needy. Christ is our King and our Judge. Christ our King has had the last word. 

WE ARE SAVED. 

WE ARE RIGHTEOUS IN GODS SIGHT;    By    our    faith    in    Him.

The same faith which we freely received at our baptisms, and the same faith that we have renewed in us each and every time we receive Christ’s body and blood.

Because of this forgiveness that Christ has won for us, we can give hope to “the least of these”. It’s not too late for them either. We freely serve the “least of these”. Not for some ulterior motive. Not because our salvation rests upon it. We serve them, because they need our service. And by serving them we are both blessed. They will see Jesus through us. And Jesus promises us that we will see Jesus in them.

Friends, Thanks be to God, “It’s not too late” 

And may the peace of God which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The distance between birth and death can seem to take a lifetime... (Sermon Ecclesiastes 3:1-13)

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every delight under heaven— 

A time to give birth and a time to die; 

A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. 

A time to kill and a time to heal; 

A time to tear down and a time to build up. 

A time to weep and a time to laugh; 

A time to mourn and a time to dance. 

A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; 

A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. 

A time to search and a time to give up as lost; 

A time to keep and a time to throw away. 

A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; 

A time to be silent and a time to speak. 

A time to love and a time to hate; 

A time for war and a time for peace. 

What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? 

I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. 

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, with out which man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. 

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; 

moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God.

Grace and Peace to you from God the Father through Jesus Christ the Lord of all the seasons. Amen

“Are we there yet, Are we there yet, Are we there yet?”, “When will we get there, When will we get there, When will we get there?” “How much longer, How much longer, How much longer?”. 

Have you ever been on a road trip with children and not heard these questions asked over and over and over again? 

For the child on a road trip it is hard to remember where you are coming from or even where your going to. The only thing on your mind is how much longer this awful journey is going to take. The travel seems to far out weigh the destination because of how long the trip is seeming to take.

The life that we have been given is like a road trip. The journey between our birth and our death can seem to take a life time as well. Get it??? It takes a life time to get between birth and death... Ok so it sounded funnier in my head... Oh well.

But what I am trying to say, is that life can seem to take a long time. There are many seasons that we go through during this road trip called life. There are times for rejoicing, and times of planting, reaping, sewing, mending and healing. But there are also times of mourning, weeding, ripping, throwing out and sickness. And the time that is spent in and between these seasons can seem dauntingly long or unbelievably short. But the good news we hear in todays scripture readings is that every season we go through; every obstacle in the road and every exciting destination we see, are already known by God. Because God is the God of our journey, our seasons.

Today of course is New Years Day. A day of celebrating the end of 2011, and the beginning of 2012. I don’t know what last year was like for you. You may have had seasons of joy, and of hardships. Seasons of sicknesses and of health. Maybe even seasons of mourning and of laughter. But no matter how long or short the year may have seemed, we can know this one thing: God knew about these times of gladness and hardship, even before you were born. 

I wonder though how often we have thanked God for each of the seasons He has allowed us to experience? Sure it is easy to acknowledge God’s goodness in the good times, when we are healthy and not struggling too much financially, mentally or spiritually... But what about in those times that seem to suck???

Have there been times in the past year that you have been unwell, or under huge stress? Maybe you lost a family member or a close friend? Maybe everything you intended to do throughout the year fell through; the promises or resolutions you made last New Years Eve failed???  Have you ever even pondered to thank God for these times.

I wonder if you have even possibly wondered where God was at these obstacles in the road??? Or if we have prayed and begged God to answer our “How much longer?”

What about this coming year? What seasons are we going to go through in this leg of our road trip called life? Will there be times when everything seems to be roses and warm fuzzy feelings? What about times of pain, and sickness and weeping?

This year are you going to be content to trust God to be your Lord and guide through out the year? Or are you going to cry out to him “ Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?” Are you going to thank God for all the good roads and the hard roads. 

And seeings how I’m on a bit of a roll, how about we look past 2012, and into the future past 2015, 2020 right up until the end of the world. Are we going to continue our Christian mantra of “How much longer, Are we there yet and When will we get there?”  Or are we going to give thanks to God for His amazing gift of the seasons. Will we ever be content to thank God for both the highways and the four wheel drive tracks?

You see the problem isn’t so much the road trip or the seasons of life. The problem is we see all things as either good or bad. We see birth as good and death as bad; planting as good and weeding as bad; we see weeping as bad and laughing as good and we see mourning as bad and dancing as good. But this not the truth about life. For every season there is a reason. The reason we see weeping as bad is because we prefer the feeling of joy. But there is a very real reason for weeping. God knows that there are times in our lives that we need to cry. The loss of a loved one is a traumatic occasion, and God appoints a time for us to mourn the loss of those near to us. After a time we may be able to look back on the life of that person with rejoicing and even laughter, and you know what, thats ok as well, God has appointed a time for rejoicing and laughter as well. How long will the mourning be for. Well thats not really up to us to decide is it? The Lord of the seasons is in control of the duration of time. But can you imagine a life where it was not ok to mourn or to die or to throw out the undesirable stuff in our lives. Wouldn’t that be boring? 

This is the reason I can say with such certainty that even through the hard times we should be giving thanks. We can give thanks that God has made a time for us to go through the hard times. 

It is not God who makes bad things happen. He doesn’t want us to suffer. He wants us to be happy and to enjoy all the good things He has created for us. But because we live in a world which has fallen to sin, bad things happen, which is exactly the reason He appoints times or seasons for us to recover. Times to be healed, times to be happy, times to mourn, times to tear down and times for building up. The key to every thing we go through, everything mentioned in this poem from Ecclesiastes is that all seasons the good and the hard are a gift from God. There surely is nothing better than for us to rejoice and give thanks to our God on this, our road trip called life.

This week as many of you know Adele and I had a bit of a scare with Ezekiel not being very well. A season we needed to go through in our lives. At the end of his stay in hospital, I found my self at the LLL looking through some tracts to thank some of the people who I called and I know helped us, through prayer, conversation and babysitting. While I was there I found another tract which I am happy to hand out at the end of the service. The reason I am mentioning this is because it perfectly sums up the help we have for the road trip of life. So please hear its message:

Wherever I am -

He’s with me,

Whenever I need Him -

He’s there,

Whatever the day

May bring me -

I’m in His loving care.

For peace, joy and comfort

On Him I can depend -

Jesus, my Constant Companion,

My never failing Friend.

Brothers and Sisters there is a time for everything, theres:  

A time to give birth and a time to die; 

A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. 

A time to kill and a time to heal; 

A time to tear down and a time to build up. 

A time to weep and a time to laugh; 

A time to mourn and a time to dance. 

A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; 

A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. 

A time to search and a time to give up as lost; 

A time to keep and a time to throw away. 

A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; 

A time to be silent and a time to speak. 

A time to love and a time to hate; 

A time for war and a time for peace. 

But throughout all these times, both the good and the hard times. Not just today. Not just throughout this new year. But for the rest of your journey. Jesus Christ your Constant Companion is with you always, throughout all these times. To guide, comfort and lead you on, every moment of your life.

So go forward into 2012 with confidence, knowing that Jesus your saviour, your Lord and your guide is with you. And that the “bad” times during this coming year can be turned into positive experiences which draw us ever closer to our Lord the constant companion on your road trip called life. 

And the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

Amen.