Scriptural Basis
Matthew 22:15-22 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
The title of today's blog post might catch my readers off guard. The Gospel is about giving to the emperor what belongs to the emperor and to God what belongs to God. What does Manhatten or Affirmation have to do with anything?
I entitled my blog post because the Gospel reading from Matthew is the Scripture referred to by those who composed and signed the Manhattan Declaration. The declaration states that every human life conceived in a woman's womb, and only the marriage of a straight man and woman belong to God. Any laws that support a woman's right to choose for herself, or any marriage that is not the marriage of a heterosexual man and woman are "Cesar's" laws. In the Manhattan Declaration, the authors and those who sign are determined to break the laws of any country, state or municipality to make abortion illegal and be sure that LGBT people cannot share in marriage equality, because they are defending what are God's from the laws of Cesar, those being the governments that make and/or redefine the laws of our land.
The Affirmation Declaration, the person who authored it and those have signed on remark that:
Although The Affirmation Declaration uses a different Scripture, I do believe that the better answer to today's Gospel on the subject of the inclusion of LGBT people and other marginalized persons is more in line than the Manhattan Declaration.
I think before we can totally conclude my analysis of the difference between The Manhattan Declaration vs. The Affirmation Declaration and how today's Gospel points to working for justice, equality and inclusion, we need some additional understanding about what Jesus is actually talking about.
Rev. Michele Morgan, Transitional Priest at St.John's Episcopal Church in Minneapolis gave some outstanding background information to today's Gospel narrative. When the Pharisees talk about the coins to pay tax to the Emperor, they are talking about a coin that is highly offensive to the Jewish people. The coins by which they had to pay the tax had a picture of the Emperor on them, which for the Jewish people meant that the Emperor took the place of God. The very LORD God of whom "there is no other" spoken of in today's reading from Isaiah 45: 1-7. This very idea that they had to use a coin that so offended the Jewish people and reminded them of by whom they had been oppressed and held against their will was so very painful for them.
Yet, when Jesus is questioned about whether it is right to pay the tax to the Emperor, his response is to give to the Emperor what rightfully belongs to him. If the Emperor really believes he is the Sovereign, it is his loss. Therefore, let him have what is his. But what belongs to God, that is worship, praise, adoration and the care of God's people, that belongs to God and therefore don't give to the Emperor all that rightfully belongs to God.
There has been some conversation throughout the centuries on the issue of marriage equality for LGBT persons. In November of 2009 Episcopal Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Diocese of Washington, DC made the following statement in a commentary in The Washington Post.
The issue of whether marriage is by itself an institution brought about by God as suggested is recorded in the Genesis creation story, and various other places are very weak arguments at best. The historical facts tell us that the authors of many of the Biblical texts did not have such language as heterosexuality and homosexuality. Sexuality in their days was more about a stronger human species vs a weaker human species. By itself, the argument does not hold together in light of the history of the Scriptural authors.
When Jesus talks about giving to the Emperor vs giving to God, Jesus is talking about recognizing that God is present in us and in others with whom we share our communities. The emperor may have had his picture on the coin, but the very image and likeness of God is stamped into each human person, including women and LGBT people. Marginalizing LGBT people and women through discriminatory laws, behaviors, rhetoric, and violence is not protecting what is God's from Cesar. It is going beyond seeing Cesar as God. It means that God's call to the love of God, neighbor and self is violated with no cause for concern for the damage we do to God's reputation, let alone the reputation of God's Church. By denying marriage equality rights to LGBT people, what Christianists propose is to keep all the goodness that God gives to every human being regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression is to be with held by the human understanding of Christianist organizations and anti-equality hate groups. The call of Christian Charity spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13 becomes a fifth level concern, while a witch hunt to use the Scriptures as an excuse to scapegoat takes the place of the first and second commandments.
Our Christian Faith asks us to respond to today's Gospel by rendering unto God what rightfully belongs to God. Among them are the recognition of God's creative beauty, and powerful redemption unto eternal salvation of every human person, including the LGBT, women whether they have abortions or not, as well as Muslims, Jewish people, African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and so forth. What belongs to God is recognizing each individual person as a masterpiece of God's hand and that no one is a second class citizen under God's heaven.
In God's eyes, there are no 99% vs 1%. Those who are suffering under the economic oppressions of those holding all the cards of the money on Wall Street, are just as valuable as those making the billion dollar profits. Indeed, God does call on those who make twice as much as what others make, to help reduce the sufferings of those less fortunate than they are. To help low income and middle class families obtain housing, medicine, food, an education, safe roads and bridges, as well as equal rights. When the Christianists of our time egg on the wealthy further oppressing the poor and marginalized by using their money to lobby politicians to protect the wealthy interests ahead of anyone else, it is the Christianists that are selling their soul to Cesar.
When Dominionists want to take over entire governments so that they can outlaw anyone who does not think or act as they do, they are no longer proclaiming the Christian Gospel.
When Christianists and the Tea Party insist on targeting Muslims for exploitation and criminalizing them, the Gospel of Jesus Christ which belongs to God, get's sold to Cesar for 30 pieces of silver, to be a cheap imitation rather than the genuine original.
Today's Gospel challenges us to make the Gospel story of God's salvation in Jesus Christ the living narrative of all God's holy people.
Who is God to us? How does God radiate the splendor of God's all inclusive and unconditional love through us and our behaviors? How do we give to God what is authentically God's through the reality of who we are?
May God help us all to render what belongs to God with the understanding that we are never finished learning about what truly belongs to God, as God's gifts to all humankind.
Prayers
Matthew 22:15-22 (NRSV)
The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus 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.
Blog Reflection
The title of today's blog post might catch my readers off guard. The Gospel is about giving to the emperor what belongs to the emperor and to God what belongs to God. What does Manhatten or Affirmation have to do with anything?
I entitled my blog post because the Gospel reading from Matthew is the Scripture referred to by those who composed and signed the Manhattan Declaration. The declaration states that every human life conceived in a woman's womb, and only the marriage of a straight man and woman belong to God. Any laws that support a woman's right to choose for herself, or any marriage that is not the marriage of a heterosexual man and woman are "Cesar's" laws. In the Manhattan Declaration, the authors and those who sign are determined to break the laws of any country, state or municipality to make abortion illegal and be sure that LGBT people cannot share in marriage equality, because they are defending what are God's from the laws of Cesar, those being the governments that make and/or redefine the laws of our land.
The Affirmation Declaration, the person who authored it and those have signed on remark that:
Although the purpose of the Affirmation Declaration is not to deal with the question of whether or not homosexuality is morally benign or repugnant in God's eyes—such a question is worthy of a detailed examination, rather than a simple pronouncement—we do first and foremost emphatically state that God does affirm homosexuality as a natural state, and homosexuals as His beloved.
We reject the theological abuse of antigay doctrine, which has resulted in the spiritual and physical harm of countless people. Human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, have been made to feel lower than low because of the fear of diversity within our human family, and because of theology founded not upon rightly interpreted Scripture, but upon traditionalism with no substantial basis in sound hermeneutics.
Historically, humans have always had an aversion to diversity. That which is not like the norm has always frightened or offended, and we acknowledge with great regret that the Christian body is not innocent of this charge. But, we also readily acknowledge that God is calling us in this generation to be restorers of the breach—to identify and correct the errors that so many Christians have accepted as foregone conclusions, and to reconcile those who have been ostracized and rejected back to the loving arms of their holy God.
Jesus was well acquainted with the great harm that "spiritual leaders" so easily dispense in the name of God. Our own Scriptures tell us that He was "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." He knew what it was to be around people who claimed to love God, but couldn't stand to look upon people who were created in God's image. He knew what it was like to be held in low esteem just because He did not toe the line that the religious leaders demanded.
We take heart in the knowledge that Christ has been where so many in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (GLBTI) community are. He has gone through the pain of rejection—particularly, the pain of being rejected by the very ones who should have been a wellspring of living water. We are thankful that the God of all comfort has been a keeping power to countless GLBTI Christians, who could, at many times, turn to no one but Him for love, affirmation, and support. We proclaim that He has been enough; but we also unwaveringly declare that He has more in mind for His children than spiritual and emotional isolation—that He desires all of His body of believers to be in fellowship one with the other.
Although The Affirmation Declaration uses a different Scripture, I do believe that the better answer to today's Gospel on the subject of the inclusion of LGBT people and other marginalized persons is more in line than the Manhattan Declaration.
I think before we can totally conclude my analysis of the difference between The Manhattan Declaration vs. The Affirmation Declaration and how today's Gospel points to working for justice, equality and inclusion, we need some additional understanding about what Jesus is actually talking about.
Rev. Michele Morgan, Transitional Priest at St.John's Episcopal Church in Minneapolis gave some outstanding background information to today's Gospel narrative. When the Pharisees talk about the coins to pay tax to the Emperor, they are talking about a coin that is highly offensive to the Jewish people. The coins by which they had to pay the tax had a picture of the Emperor on them, which for the Jewish people meant that the Emperor took the place of God. The very LORD God of whom "there is no other" spoken of in today's reading from Isaiah 45: 1-7. This very idea that they had to use a coin that so offended the Jewish people and reminded them of by whom they had been oppressed and held against their will was so very painful for them.
Yet, when Jesus is questioned about whether it is right to pay the tax to the Emperor, his response is to give to the Emperor what rightfully belongs to him. If the Emperor really believes he is the Sovereign, it is his loss. Therefore, let him have what is his. But what belongs to God, that is worship, praise, adoration and the care of God's people, that belongs to God and therefore don't give to the Emperor all that rightfully belongs to God.
There has been some conversation throughout the centuries on the issue of marriage equality for LGBT persons. In November of 2009 Episcopal Bishop John Bryson Chane of the Diocese of Washington, DC made the following statement in a commentary in The Washington Post.
Christians have always argued about marriage. Jesus criticized the Mosaic law on divorce, saying "What God has joined together let no man separate." But we don't see clergy demanding that the city council make divorce illegal.
Some conservative Christian leaders claim that their understanding of marriage is central to Christian teaching. How do they square that claim with the Apostle Paul's teaching that marriage is an inferior state, one reserved for people who are not able to stay singly celibate and resist the temptation to fornication?
As historian Stephanie Coontz points out, the church did not bless marriages until the third century, or define marriage as a sacrament until 1215. The church embraced many of the assumptions of the patriarchal culture, in which women and marriageable children were assets to be controlled and exploited to the advantage of the man who headed their household. The theology of marriage was heavily influenced by economic and legal considerations; it emphasized procreation, and spoke only secondarily of the "mutual consolation of the spouses."
In the 19th and 20th centuries, however, the relationship of the spouses assumed new importance, as the church came to understand that marriage was a profoundly spiritual relationship in which partners experienced, through mutual affection and self-sacrifice, the unconditional love of God.
The Episcopal Church's 1979 Book of Common Prayer puts it this way: "We believe that the union of husband and wife, in heart, body and mind, is intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God's will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord."
Our evolving understanding of what marriage is leads, of necessity, to a re-examination of who it is for. Most Christian denominations no longer teach that all sex acts must be open to the possibility of procreation, and therefore contraception is permitted. Nor do they hold that infertility precludes marriage. The church has deepened its understanding of the way in which faithful couples experience and embody the love of the creator for creation. In so doing, it has put itself in a position to consider whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.
Theologically, therefore, Christian support for same-sex marriage is not a dramatic break with tradition, but a recognition that the church's understanding of marriage has changed dramatically over 2,000 years.
I have been addressing the sound theological foundation for a new religious understanding of marriage, because it disturbs me greatly to see opposition to marriage for same-sex couples portrayed as the only genuinely religious or Christian position. I am somewhat awed by the breadth of religious belief and life experience reflected among more than 200 clergy colleagues who are publicly supporting marriage equality in D.C.
The issue of whether marriage is by itself an institution brought about by God as suggested is recorded in the Genesis creation story, and various other places are very weak arguments at best. The historical facts tell us that the authors of many of the Biblical texts did not have such language as heterosexuality and homosexuality. Sexuality in their days was more about a stronger human species vs a weaker human species. By itself, the argument does not hold together in light of the history of the Scriptural authors.
When Jesus talks about giving to the Emperor vs giving to God, Jesus is talking about recognizing that God is present in us and in others with whom we share our communities. The emperor may have had his picture on the coin, but the very image and likeness of God is stamped into each human person, including women and LGBT people. Marginalizing LGBT people and women through discriminatory laws, behaviors, rhetoric, and violence is not protecting what is God's from Cesar. It is going beyond seeing Cesar as God. It means that God's call to the love of God, neighbor and self is violated with no cause for concern for the damage we do to God's reputation, let alone the reputation of God's Church. By denying marriage equality rights to LGBT people, what Christianists propose is to keep all the goodness that God gives to every human being regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression is to be with held by the human understanding of Christianist organizations and anti-equality hate groups. The call of Christian Charity spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13 becomes a fifth level concern, while a witch hunt to use the Scriptures as an excuse to scapegoat takes the place of the first and second commandments.
Our Christian Faith asks us to respond to today's Gospel by rendering unto God what rightfully belongs to God. Among them are the recognition of God's creative beauty, and powerful redemption unto eternal salvation of every human person, including the LGBT, women whether they have abortions or not, as well as Muslims, Jewish people, African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and so forth. What belongs to God is recognizing each individual person as a masterpiece of God's hand and that no one is a second class citizen under God's heaven.
In God's eyes, there are no 99% vs 1%. Those who are suffering under the economic oppressions of those holding all the cards of the money on Wall Street, are just as valuable as those making the billion dollar profits. Indeed, God does call on those who make twice as much as what others make, to help reduce the sufferings of those less fortunate than they are. To help low income and middle class families obtain housing, medicine, food, an education, safe roads and bridges, as well as equal rights. When the Christianists of our time egg on the wealthy further oppressing the poor and marginalized by using their money to lobby politicians to protect the wealthy interests ahead of anyone else, it is the Christianists that are selling their soul to Cesar.
When Dominionists want to take over entire governments so that they can outlaw anyone who does not think or act as they do, they are no longer proclaiming the Christian Gospel.
When Christianists and the Tea Party insist on targeting Muslims for exploitation and criminalizing them, the Gospel of Jesus Christ which belongs to God, get's sold to Cesar for 30 pieces of silver, to be a cheap imitation rather than the genuine original.
Today's Gospel challenges us to make the Gospel story of God's salvation in Jesus Christ the living narrative of all God's holy people.
Who is God to us? How does God radiate the splendor of God's all inclusive and unconditional love through us and our behaviors? How do we give to God what is authentically God's through the reality of who we are?
May God help us all to render what belongs to God with the understanding that we are never finished learning about what truly belongs to God, as God's gifts to all humankind.
Prayers
Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 24, Book of Common Prayer, page 235).
A Song of True Motherhood
By Julian of Norwich
God chose to be our mother in all things
and so made the foundation of h is work,
most humbly and most pure, in the Virgin's womb.
God, the perfect wisdom of all,
arrayed himself in this humble place.
Christ came in our poor flesh
to share a mother's care.
Our mothers bear us for pain and for death;
our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life.
Christ carried us within him in love an travail,
until the full time of his passion.
And when all was completed and he had carried us so for joy,
still all this could not satisfy the power of his wonderful love.
All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God,
for the love of Christ works in us;
Christ is the one whom we love.
(Canticle R, Enriching Our Worship 1, Page 40).
No comments:
Post a Comment