Can We Talk? Finding a Third Way

Let’s talk about taxes. After all, we’re only about 2 months from tax day. So, how many of you love paying taxes?

Ok. So, you probably don’t love paying taxes. I get that. But let me ask you:

• Have you have visited a park lately?
• How about a library?
• Did you get to that park or library (or work or anywhere for that matter) using roads?
• Do you know a police officer? Or firefighter? Or first responder? Do you appreciate their service?
• How many of you know a veteran? Do you appreciate their service?
• Do any of the veterans you know benefit from veteran’s services?
• Do you know someone who has survived cancer because of a medical treatment?
• Do you know (or are you) someone who receives a social security check every month?

Well, you have all these services (and much much more) because of the taxes you pay. And if you were to build a park or library or create a police force or fire station or try to serve and protect our country on your own, you would pay far more for one of these than you have paid in taxes throughout your lifetime.

So, yeah, I don’t love paying taxes either, but perspective matters. When I sit down and think about all I get because of paying taxes, I am pretty thankful. Doesn’t mean I want taxes to go up. But, instead of complaining about taxes all the time, I try to practice gratitude.

Well, today let’s talk about taxes in a different way. Let’s hear what Jesus says about taxes. After all, Jesus had to deal with taxes, too. And if you turn to the gospels you can find a few stories about taxes. And they are kinda weird stories:

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away. (Matthew 22:15-22)

Pay taxes or not? It’s a pretty simple, yes-no question, right? Couldn’t Jesus just have said: “Yeah, its fine to pay taxes” OR “No, don’t do it.”

I don’t know if he could have. But I do know he did not give a simple answer. Instead, he answered with a question that put the issue back on to the Pharisees. And they were amazed at Jesus. Did they get their answer? I’m not sure. But they were amazed at what Jesus said to them: Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.

So you tell me, from Jesus answer was is lawful to pay the temple tax? Yes or no?

The answer you think Jesus gave very likely depends on your answer to this question: Was the coin the emperor’s or was it God’s?

You see, how you answer that question determines what you think Jesus said. And folks have been debating what this story means for 2000 years. In part, because they give different answers to the question about the coin.

So maybe the point Jesus was making was deeper than the tax question. Maybe Jesus had turned a simple question about taxes into a lesson about faith and spirituality.

Essentially, Jesus said that whatever you believe about God should dictate how you answer the question. If you believe the coin belonged to Caesar, to the government who made it and issued it, then pay the tax. But if you believe God is the creator of the world and without God there is no coin, no metal from which to make the coin, no government, no emperor, no nothing, then you might see everything as God’s and your possession of it as a mere stewardship and realize you should give the coin to God because everything is God’s to begin with.

We argue about taxes today a lot too. So I think this is a pretty important story that reminds us that the either-or, yes-no answers that the political parties offer us are traps. They take our attention away from God and what God would have us do and focus us on their political agendas.

Jesus has something to say about those agendas. He says you need to look deeper. You need to stop the binary, either or yes no arguments and discover a new option.

Another quick tax story…

When they arrived at Capernaum, the tax men came to Peter and asked, “Does your teacher pay taxes?”
Peter said, “Of course.”
But as soon as they were in the house, Jesus confronted him. “Simon, what do you think? When a king levies taxes, who pays—his children or his subjects?”
He answered, “His subjects.”
Jesus said, “Then the children get off free, right? But so we don’t upset them needlessly, go down to the lake, cast a hook, and pull in the first fish that bites. Open its mouth and you’ll find a coin. Take it and give it to the tax men. It will be enough for both of us.”
(Matthew 17:24-27)

There seems to be confusion over whether Jesus had paid temple tax. Peter said he had. Apparently, he had not seeing as he ends up paying it by the end of the story. But look at Jesus response to the question of whether he had paid his temple tax: He has Peter pull a coin out of a fish’s mouth! And not some special fish. No, a randomly caught fish who would just happen to have a coin in its mouth!

Again Jesus is making us stop thinking about a yes-no, either or answer and inviting us to see a third way of responding to and understanding the issue. A fish has a coin in its mouth for crying out loud!

So here’s a question: Did Jesus pay the tax? Or did the fish? Or did Peter? Or did God? Or did no one pay a tax since the money came from the fish?

Again how you answer the question depends on what you believe. And Jesus invites us to consider what we really believe and think even deeper about what we believe. Jesus helps us consider alternatives to the political positions, arguments, and traps of our day.

And Jesus is always doing this. The story of the Good Samaritan. The story of the woman who committed adultery. The story of Lazarus. The story of the Prodigal Son. I’m not sure there is any simple story in the Bible where Jesus just give a yes-no answer to a politically charged question. He teaches through parables which are designed to make us think deeper and discover new options that we have never considered. Jesus is all about finding a third way.

And notice how he does it? Through talking, through conversation. He doesn’t lecture. He asks questions and invites response in a very calm, respectful way. He follows every practice and idea we have been talking about these past few weeks.

Jesus stances on politics – or anything really – could probably best be summed by his own words:

My kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36)

Or to offer a really good paraphrase:

My Kingdom transcends all worldly political structures. (paraphrase of John 18:36)

Mike Slaughter, a Methodist pastor, has written about his experience with partisan positions in the church in his book Hijacked: Responding to the Partisan Church Divide:

The congressional health-care debates of 2010 intensified the great American political divide. Many of the people in my church were more passionate in venting their anger about health-care reform than they were in telling others the good news about Jesus. I haven’t experienced such partisan political hostility since the civil rights marches in the 1960s and the Vietnam War demonstrations in the 1970s. In one of my sermons during that period of 2010, I simply mentioned the fact that we have a health-care crisis in America. The number of Americans lacking health insurance rose by nearly 8.6 million to 47 million from 2000 to 2006. The increase was driven by the continued erosion in employer-provided health insurance. 13 I didn’t advocate for any of the positions being presented or recommend a left or right political solution. I simply stated, “We have a problem.” You would have thought that I had told folks that Jesus had returned and they had been left behind. Some called me a socialist; others challenged me with the accusation of not defending the Constitution. (I thought we were supposed to be advocating for the Bible, but who knew?) A rather large group left the church for one that aligned more closely with their political hermeneutic. Yes, many of us in the church seek out places of worship that tend to embrace our personal political persuasions. We want to be with people who look and think as we do, economically, socially, and politically.

One of my favorite theologians (Stanley Hauerwas) and Methodist Bishop Will Willimon have stated this in their book Resident Aliens:

We believe both the conservative and liberal church are basically accommodationist (that is, Constantinian) in their social ethic. Both assume wrongly that the American church’s primary social task is to underwrite American democracy. In so doing, they have unwittingly underwritten the moral presuppositions that destroy the church. … We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of God’s kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price.

And remember what Jesus said:

My kingdom is not of this world. My Kingdom transcends all worldly political structures.

Yet it is common practice today that people take a stance on an issues and then come to Jesus to ask: “Aren’t I right? And isn’t that other person wrong?”

Why do we have such a bad habit of finding ways to bring Jesus into our own political worldviews rather than be transformed into his?

We get so wrapped up in ourselves and in our way of doing things. We end up fighting and arguing with those who see things differently. We are proud of our beliefs and commitments. And pride keeps us from humility as we are unwilling to admit the possibility of that we might be wrong about something. So, we criticize and stay away from people who see things differently. And it all ends up very divisive.

For several weeks now I have been asking: Can we talk? Well, through the partisanship and political options of the world, that answer is NO. But with Jesus showing us a way to talk, to listen, and to discover alternatives, third ways of seeing and doing things, the answer is most certainly YES.

Pastor, author, and theologian Jim Wallis says this: “The Bible is neither ‘conservative’ nor ‘liberal’ as we understand those terms in a political context today.” The Bible sounds traditional or conservative on some issues. And it sounds liberal or progressive on others. And the key word here is sounds. Because the Bible always finds an alternative view to the false either or issues we humans create.

This is the third way. It is the way of Jesus. And following Jesus means that we should live not in the yes-no, either-or world of partisan politics, but rather we should learn to live in the kingdom of God which transcends the partisan ways of the worlds. I pray that we will have the faith to follow Jesus into conversations that seek Kingdom alternatives to the divisive answers the world throws at us today.