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In our Gospel this morning, we hear the line: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Depending on your version, you may have “Caesar” instead of “emperor”. Never fear, they mean the exact same thing.)
This verse, or at least the first part, has been the justification, by many, for the separation of church and state. By that I don’t mean the freedom given to us in this country to be able to practice our faith however we choose. I mean keeping our church life and our state life completely separate, as if they were two separate things.
I have to confess that this is how I once interpreted this verse because I only really focused on that first part of it. My faith has always been important to me, and in many ways it has always come first. Yet I still separated it from my political thinking at one point in time. It was like there were two separate containers in my life, and while I wanted to see good happen in each, my religious container and political container really didn’t mix. They certainly didn’t influence each other.
That started to change when I served as an AmeriCorps in City Year. City Year involved doing a lot of good in the world, but it also took a lot of hard work to do. Because it wasn’t a faith-based non-profit, I really struggled because of these separate containers in my life. I needed my faith to guide and fuel me, but I didn’t always know how to let my faith do that.
Then I moved out to Montana where my entire life was built around my service to the church, and I saw how everything flourished for me by having my faith front and center, influencing all that I did as well as my entire being. I then began to realize that keeping my church life and my state life separate was not the right thing to do. To really be whole, I needed to put church front and center and let it influence how I felt about everything, including how I approached my political views.
This understanding steams from a more wholistic understanding of what Jesus is saying in the Gospel. When we look closely at the text today, we will see that Jesus tells us not only to “give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s”, but to also “give to God the things that are God’s.” Yes, you should pay your taxes, and I think we might say that for us, giving to the emperor, or rather the state, also means that we are civically engaged, minded, and involved. But we also have to give to God the things that are God’s. What we owe God isn’t just taxes. What we owe God is so much more.
Really, we owe God everything: our time, our talent, our treasure (which, yes means our money. Think Stewardship!), and really our entire lives. That means that even when we are giving what we owe to the state, in doing so we have to serve God first and foremost always.
Now, of course, I’m not going to tell you what political positions to support or who to vote for. But I will tell you that whatever positions you support or whoever you vote for, you need to let your faith guide you. Do not separate your religious and political life. I can tell you from experience that “in that way lies madness.” Instead, let your faith in God guide you in all things. That is giving to God the things that are God, because all things ultimately belong to God.
Our allegiance to our Lord is more important than anything else in our lives. Let it guide you in all other things.