Giving in Faith

In today’s Gospel passage Jesus calmly uses his wits to address his adversaries and their blatant effort to trap him.  The reality of times under Roman Rule was that a coin with Caesar’s image is already Caesar’s. “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s …”, thus avoiding charges of rebellion. The second half of what he says, “…and to God the things that are God’s.” establishes him as loyal to their faith.  Jesus spoke more about the c onstant struggle between commitments to God and to materialism than any other single subject in the Gospels. The way of the world is to treasure power, position, status, and possessions more than anything else. The way of God is to treasure relationship with God and others more than things. It’s not easy, even for people of faith, to seek God first before our “stuff and status.”   

What does it mean to give to God the things that are God’s?  In ancient times it meant blood sacrifice of the best of what they had: firstborns, warriors, virgins. Abraham’s almost-sacrifice of his firstborn son Isaac was the final word from God: no more human sacrifice, here take this ram instead. In Jesus’ time they were sacrificing oxen and lambs and doves in the Temple. 

Jesus changed that because the ability to sacrifice was dependent on material assets rank and status. He shifted the focus to non-material sacrifices like a contrite heart, a thanksgiving prayer, and giving our best to God.   

The early church institutionalized the ancient biblical practice of tithing 10% off the top of what is received to pay for worship and ministries. Today we speak of “first-giving”, which means intentionally planning to give as close to a tithe as possible before other expenditures. Those who know this and practice this act of faith attest to the freedom from the fear of scarcity to the joy of abundance of spiritual as well as material wealth.   

Let us go and do likewise.

Amen.