RENDERING TO CAESAR

            Jesus told His followers to render to Caesar – the secular authority – what rightfully belonged to it, and to God what rightfully belonged to Him.  He did not tell us to bail on culture, but to address that culture.  He said to give Caesar what was His due – and that does not always coincide with his desire.  Yet if God cannot command ultimate loyalty and obedience He is not God.  In places like ancient Corinth that meant participating in the worship of idols – the ultimate sin for Christians and Jews because it is the ultimate insult to our God and King, who does not share His glory.  But it is not good for anyone, because it often leads to practical evils ranging from ritual prostitution to ritual murder. In other words, the Christians were doing a service to their neighbors by blowing the whistle.  They lacked – then and now – the power to do more than exhort and example, in keeping with a God born in a manger.  But it renders a contemporary parallel when American Christians not only refuse to participate in practices like abortion and alternatives to authentic marriage, but decline to enable or pay for them as well – whatever mandates may come from a secular authority such as Health and Human Services or Obamacare.

            We respect civil authority whether or not it reflects our values.  Our Bible instructs us to do as much in Romans 13 and 14.  We are called to submit to them and to give them whatever is due between taxes and honor in 13.  We are called to make every effort to promote peace through loving and supporting those with whom we may disagree in 14.  But we are mandated to draw the line when integrity before God is at risk – when His direct command is at stake – such as the situation in Acts 4-5, when the Apostles are ordered to stop teaching and healing in the Name of this Jesus the authorities recently crucified.  At that point Caesar has had his due; all refers to God from this point on.  And the rub is that we make the determination based on God’s revealed will, not the state’s law.  Others need not agree; they need not follow, but for us Christians the pecking order is not negotiable.

            So how do we determine what is consistent with God’s will and what is at best a counterfeit – a knock-off?  It is not that hard, if we seek to be both humble and resolute.

            Treasury agents are trained to spot counterfeit money by becoming steeped in the characteristics of real money – not counterfeit – so that anything less they are given becomes quickly recognizable.  It is recognizable because they are so familiar with the real thing that anything else is obviously deficient.  Some years ago – in the same spirit – my wife was trained by Hawaiian Christians to make an offer hula to the Lord.  Hula is a beautiful and sensual expression of humanity in movement that – in an indefinable way – reaches its pinnacle when offered to the God who made and sustains our humanity.  Having seen and experienced the real thing I can be impressed with the skill and agility that is hula offered to the tourists, but I would never mistake it for the real thing.  It simply does not measure up.

            The Gospel is not about sexual practices, abortion, marriage, or anything reducible to an issue, but its residue is seen in the moral decisions we make.  We either participate in the really real, and it shows in what we do, or we are the deficient ones.  For those who would point out that we do the same things we condemn in others, we plead guilty – it is called sin and we have no immunity.  Indeed, we of all people need to knock that stuff off – that is called repentance – and the time for it is now.  But for better or worse we are called to be salt and light – to address each other first and the culture after.  America’s Constitution permits this and the Word of God compels us.