23rd Sunday After Pentecost - Nearing the End of this Blessed Season of Green

Thoughts to Begin the Sermon

To: Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury Washington, DC 20001

Enclosed is my 2003 Form 1040, together with payment. Please take note of the attached article from USA Today archives. In the article, you will note that the Pentagon paid $171.50 each for hammers and NASA paid $600.00 each for toilet seats.

Please find enclosed in this package four toilet seats (value $2,400.00) and six hammers (value $1,029.00). This is in payment for my total tax due of $3,429.00.

Out of a sense of patriotic duty, and to assist in the political purification of our government, I am also enclosing a 1.5 inch Phillips head screw, for which HUD duly recorded and approved a purchase value of $22.00, as my contribution to fulfill the Presidential Election Fund option on Form 1040.

It has been a pleasure to pay my taxes this year, and I look forward to paying them again next year in accordance with officially established government values.

Sincerely,
Another satisfied taxpayer

Is it lawful for us to pay “taxes”? What is our Christian responsibility as we live out our lives in this nation? Can we live out the command, “Give to the emperor what is his and to God’s what is God’s?” What is Jesus guiding us to do in light of the lessons today?

Applying the Text

(1) The call to living out our lives requires us to be active citizens.

“Whose head is on the coin and what is its title?” We need to identify that we are living out our Christian vocation in the context of a greater world. Christians are asked to be blameless, law abiding citizens. Can we see government as an agent of God?

Can we see past the former identity of a “Christian nation”? Can we still be citizens of such a nation?

We are called to a dual citizenship - We live in this world yet we are not limited by this world. We belong to God and our citizenship is in heaven.

The frustration comes when we are called to be and live out that role as a citizenship. How can our Christian viewpoint and witness be a light to the nations?

(2) Be imitators of the saints who are in our memory and of the Lord who has saved you.

“And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia”

(3) Be guided and assured in the power and presence of the Lord.

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”