Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA

by Gregory S. Kaurin, associate pastor

traditional services, 10/20/02

 

Texts: Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon:

Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision

 

Click to go to: homepage – or – sermon menu – or – sermon archive

 

Alice is after the rabbit.  That is the goal of Alice in Wonderland, but it is easy to forget the goal for all the nutty stuff that happens around her.  I don’t pretend to be an English scholar that can find the depths of that story by Lewis Carroll.  I understand from what others have told me that it was written as a political and social satire, as well as a fun little story full of imagination and plays on words.

I enjoy satire, puns and little word games, so I especially enjoy this scene in chapter eight where Alice has sat down with a griffon to listen to the mock turtle tell his history.  Look at the bottom of page 6 in your bulletin and you’ll see a little illustration and excerpt from that scene.  You can see the griffon, the eagle-like creature and little Alice sitting between.  The mock turtle is the one up on the rock.  Mock turtle soup is usually made with veal, so you can understand why the mock turtle in that picture looks half sea turtle and part cow.

He spends much of his time weeping, moaning, and crying over the fact that once, long ago, he was a real turtle. He recalls his schooling under the Tortoise who “taught us,” he says, “the best of educations…Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”  The mock turtle goes on to mention that the school lessons started at ten full hours at first, the next time it was nine hours long, the next eight, and on down from there.  Alice wondered why, and he answers that being called lessons, they obviously needed to “lessen” each time!

This story was written in the late 1800’s.  I think that, among other things, Lewis Carroll was writing about his opinion of education: it once stood for something real, but had been reduced to something much less, like a mock turtle soup, full of reeling and writhing.  More often than addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, youth were being taught ambition, distraction, something called uglification—perhaps just useless piles of information—and last derision, or contempt.

 

So?  What has the mock turtle got do with Jesus, taxes, Christianity… or the price of tea in the Sahara?

I think Alice in Wonderland gives us a fair warning of danger, not only in our own schools, but also in our church, our families and even our workplaces, that in the chasing after the goal, in chasing our rabbits, we let ourselves become distracted by ambitions, by huge ugly piles of stuff, and by cynical derision.  We get distracted …even by legitimate and important things.

 

That has something to do with this gospel lesson.  Jesus saw right through all the insincere words of those Herodians and Pharisees.  These two groups never agreed with each other over anything—especially not the question they brought to Jesus about taxes.  Look at how they asked it, “Is it lawful to pay the emperor’s tax?”  “Lawful.” 

The Herodians had no problem with the tax.  But for the Pharisees, any tax was almost the same, synonymous, with an offering, a financial sacrifice.  It’s true that Rome allowed Jews to have their own religion, and didn’t force them to worship Roman gods.  However, Caesar was often worshipped as a mortal god.  In order to pay this tax, the Jews had to exchange their goods and wealth into the Roman coin that had the emperor’s image or symbol and an inscription that said, “Caesar is Lord!”  Many Pharisees felt that this tax, and that coin, was very close to giving tribute to another idol or god. 

 

To get an idea of ho they felt, I want you to imagine a different kind of United States for a moment.  Imagine that half of us are Christians and the other half worship the Scandinavian god called Thor.  Now imagine that the worshippers of Thor come to power and they strike a new series of coin and bills that have Thor’s hammer on one side, and his image on the other, with an inscription that says, “One nation under Thor.”

Would you, as a Christian, be willing to carry and use that coin for anything?  Would you be willing to pay taxes to support a government that had Thor worshippers at the very top?  I asked that question last week at our Wednesday service at the Parkside West retirement apartments.  About half said that they’d have no problem carrying that coin because it would be meaningless to them.  The other half said they’d probably refuse. 

 

So, you can imagine how split the Jewish people were over this.  God said to worship no other gods, but here was a coin and a tax that seemed to support another idol.  It was a legitimate concern and argument.  And they were divided.  That’s why they thought they could trap Jesus.  They were hoping that if one side couldn’t trap him, the other side could.

They say that politicians make strange bed-fellows.  The Pharisees and Herodians got together with the idea that, if Jesus seemed to say the tax and coin were not lawful, then the Herodians could jump all over him as a trouble-making zealot, trying to make war with Rome.  If Jesus said it was perfectly fine to pay the tax and use the coin, then the Pharisees could cut him down as a Romanizing idol-worshipper. 

It was a legitimate issue, but Jesus threw it back into all of their faces, including the emperor’s.  “Since it’s the emperor’s coin, then let him have it.  But you, you are supposed to be more concerned about giving God his due.  While you argue, fuss and fight over this coin, and use this tax to cut people down and to condemn them, you have completely forgotten the one who is central.  Worship God, give God what belongs to him.”

 

The same goes for us.  There are many legitimate issues that our churches have been arguing, debating and dividing over.  We have and will continue to fight about all kinds of things: abortion, age of baptism, conversion experiences, the role of the Holy Spirit, the rapture, homosexuality, on and on.  These legitimate issues need to be discussed and argued …but even legitimate issues can be devilish distractions.  The devil can use even important issues to pull us away from the center.

We are Christian, first and foremost, not because of what things we do, or what various things we believe.  We are Christian first …and most simply: because we believe that Jesus Christ has forgiven and claimed us for God.  If we don’t keep clear on that center, if we allow ourselves to get to where we are pointing fingers and insisting to each side that “You cannot be a Christian unless you believe in this way or that way,” then our religion has become a mocked-up turtle soup. 

No wonder that when some people look at us Christians from the outside, at all our battles and soap operas, they see ambition …distraction …uglification …and derision.  We can make it look like religion with our hymns and rituals.  It may even have lots of passion and conviction, but if we start casting those words around and pointing those fingers of division and derision, then it is missing the key ingredient that pulls the whole soup together under one name: Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.  The rest is broth.

We can try to insist how important and legitimate these things are, or how defining they are, but I don’t think we’re going to impress the world with our Christian moralities, or our various beliefs.  We will convince others only by showing them the contentment and peace in our lives that we get from walking with the forgiveness of Christ and the love of God at our center.  That is what it will take to convince others that we have what they are looking for: peace and contentment in a world of division and endless hungers.

 

It starts here in this congregation and in your own life.  This is a learning community.  You are a learning disciple, always learning.  The reason you are opened to learn is because you keep Christ central.  His forgiveness is your lifeline to God.  There is nothing in the universe that can take it from you, so you are at peace.  You can discuss even the most difficult issues without judging other people’s souls or worth—because you hang onto something that is more important.  The center is most important, Jesus Christ.  The rest is illustration.

 

One last thing.  Jesus asked them whose image was on the coin.  They answered that it was Caesar’s.  Jesus said, “Give to the emperor the things that are his, and give to God the things that are God’s.”

So, let me finish by asking this question: whose image is on you?  In whose image were you created?  Whose image marked on your forehead forever?  Whose image is on you?  God’s.  Give to God the things that are his.

 

Click to go to: homepage – or – sermon menu – or – sermon archive