Matthew 22:15-22

Proper 24 (29) - Year A

Jesus certainly had a good response to a trick question about taxes.

In our lives, taxes still present trick questions about how to deal with them when they are so skewed toward "common defense" issues and shorting "general welfare" issues.

One way of approaching this matter is what is commonly called "war tax resistance." My dearly beloved and I have done this in the past and are reconsidering getting back into it.

For more information about this question in today's environment I invite you to go to National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. Today we might ask, "Show us the purpose of the tax," rather than "show us the coin in which the tax is paid."

I have previously referred to the hymn, "Wounded World that Cries for Healing" (#2177, The Faith We Sing). Again the line comes - "...tax and tithe are for a purpose shared to shield the poor and weak...." One can get "common defense" out of the shield imagery but it is in the context of the "general welfare" of the poor and weak, regardless of whether they are close neighbors or neighbors half-way around the world. So, today, in a democracy rather than situation of occupation, Jesus might say, "Wherein the tax cares for 'general welfare' issues, pay it; wherein it does not, don't." And then, just like to his recorded response some 2,000+ years ago, we will have to use our thinking faculties to revisit the question.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/october2002.html

Effusive praise of another is a good way to set a trap. When you find yourself being praised know there is a trap going on - if not from the other directly, from your acceptance of it as your due. It's very presence leads us to responding with a "Whew, I could use a break" and taking a step back from wrestling with seeing and responding in a truthful direction.

When all about you are praising your wisdom, you had better sharpen what wisdom you have to catch your own response to such praise and thus catch part two of the catch.

One praise point is assuming you can choose between a dilemma's horns. They are equally sharp. In turning toward one you leave your backside open for the other to stab at will.

In this story, and again today, hear the wisdom of not choosing a partial choice. Is anything, including Caesar, not GOD's? Is there anything GOD needs to proprietarily claim and can't do without? Its all the emperors clothes tax. Its all GOD's creation. None of it is the president's, its the people's. None of it is GOD's as that way lies idolatry.

It would be interesting to note the various dilemmas we insist on resolving this day and to take a deep breath and say, "Both" and to repeat it, "Neither", and then look around and see what opens up. We might even catch a glimpse of a smiling Jesus nudging Buddha in the ribs and in an aside say, "Listen to that, would you. They caught the catch." and notice out of the corner of our eye the saints and avatars of the various traditions nodding agreement.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/october2005.html

Caesar has a claim on that which is made in his image (money). GOD has a claim on that which is made in the image of GOD (people).

That simple distinction is never very simple. Doesn't GOD have a claim on money through tithe and issues of justice (wages must be paid and driving folks into bankruptcy is immoral). Another way of coming at GOD's claim on taxes is seen through the lens of war tax resistance that claims paying for war is an unjust use of taxes and therefore that amount of tax to be used for the common good should be redirected to an actual common good.

That simple distinction is never very simple. Caesar does claim theological priority over any other system of Godness. Religion is part of the ruling of a people for the benefit of those ruling. A civic obligation is to praise a god that passes ammunition. Seen through these eyes there is no place where the flag should not wave and take precedence over every other religious symbol -- it becomes the meta-religious symbol. (A questioning of this view is in the ELCA column Are Flags Appropriate in Church)

Are you quite adamant about the money/people distinction? What larger issue might this difference represent? On what basis do you draw your line in the sand about these matters?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/october2005.html

Here's the deal G*D .... "Let me know who's with me"; "Show me your glory."

To which G*D says, "Nope." G*D claims all corners -- to make "weal and woe," to be "forgiving and avenging." There will be no bargains struck.

Here's the deal Jesus .... "Do we pay taxes?"

To which Jesus says, "Good try, but nope. Your perception that a question can be composed to both prove your own worth and to diminish your own responsibility will never come 'round right. It will fall of its own weight."

In spending so much time in trying to trap a perceived opponent, there is not sufficient time to get ourselves out of effectively colluding with the oppressors we are in bed with. In this day and age American religious find themselves battling each other and thus avoiding the realities that they are colluding with their own elected oppressors who balk not at preemptive war and keeping insurance from children and everything in between. For another look at this, check out Frank Rich's column, <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18554.htm"> The 'Good Germans' Among Us.</a>

- - -

to set out to trap another
is the surest way to be caught
steering god the way of our ammunition

in thus getting caught
in our own attempt to trap another
we are set up for Jesus' jujitsu theology

when our trap's premise
is exposed we fly head over heels
bowing before our previous blind spot

now comes the revelation
malice's short-run effectiveness
will ever reveal its long-run fallacy

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

Flattery is an excellent entrapment process. It works in both directions. Flatterers become less than themselves, knowing all along that they are untrue. Flatterees becomes more than themselves, ready to stumble, top heavy, with their head bigger than their britches.

The appropriate use of taxes continues to be on of those problematic issues. We can't live with them when they are separated from the commonwealth and we can't live without them as long as we are in community.

Taxes reveal our balance or imbalance between an individual's responsibility for themselves and a community's responsibility for those not up to that task and those infrastructure matters that benefit all.

So, what is a religious obligation to participate in a community beyond said religious' tenets?

Do you use state money? The state does have a claim on it. Charity, helpfulness, love, care, neighbor, widow and child, also have a claim on it for they have a claim on every part of my life, our lives.

This is not a division between G*D and Emperor, it is a question of proportion. G*D works through Emperors as well as against them and so questions of discernment are always in order. Are you going to keep your taxes to a minimum? Voluntarily double them? Use them as a tool of resistance?

The Pharisees left too early and easily. Their amazement protected them from a reconsideration of their own question, showing that starting with flattery keeps learning at bay. They'll be back.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

It doesn’t take much to entrap some of us. The obverse is that it doesn’t take much for some of us to overestimate our ability to trap another.

The Pharisees fell into the second category. The Pharisees understood themselves to be so much in the right that they could send some surrogates to practice on Jesus. 

And so it came to pass that students set out to trap Jesus. They used a standard practice of beginning with flattery. It is one of the temptation techniques that has proven successful over time. A little flattery turns the head, distracts. It doesn’t take much loss of focus before we trap ourself.

“You are so sincere. You are surely in touch with the ways of G*D. You are as truthful as the day is long and filled with integrity from top to bottom.”

“We’re confused, can we pay taxes to the emperor or not?”

When we are awake we can catch the simple questions of life and see beyond them and respond with the complexity they deserve - with another question.

“Ah,” says Jesus, “what do you mean by ‘pay taxes’?”

Rather than think about the question, the stand-ins thought the question too easy and so quickly responded, “Should those who support Mosaic Law support Caesar?”

“Hmmm,” thought Jesus aloud, “Seems like there are many claims of authority. Each claims a right to body, mind, spirit, and resources. After you have sorted out the authorities, you can respond to each appropriately.”

“Oh,” said the pharisaical delegation.

And so it was that the Pharisees were disappointed and waited to see how the Sadducees fared with their trap.

[Note: economic questions are often the ones that trip us up. It is so easy to fear losing whatever perk we have and thus elevate the current socio-political system into that of equivalence to a universal human need. The Occupy Wall Street events cropping up reveal that we are at a time of seeing behind the Ozian curtain of a silent plutocracy we set in place by not being able to critique capitalism and democracy. This duo has lost its rhythm to the point of democracy no longer being able to offset capitalism’s excesses.
   As we enter our equivalent of the disjuncture of economic and political structures at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, a radical critique of our economic, political, and religious decision-making is painfully overdue and necessary.
   To think we can find an easy way out of facing basic common good values is disingenuous. Unfortunately we have no political process readily at hand to assist us to bring an economic system into a constructive conversation with our spiritual/communal needs.
   Prophets don’t need to know what the next rebalancing is going to look like, only that every aspect of our current life has been unbalanced in its own arena and in relationship to every other aspect. This is why they call us back to issues of the common good - not that there is only one way to express that, but without having this background revealed we will simply ping-pong from one foreground extreme to another without learning anything.
   This may be the most important pericope of the year and well worth dealing with every week for another year.]

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/10/matthew-2215-22.html

temptation tests

Political dirty tricks begin with religious dirty dirty tricks. Politicians have learned from the best, people adept at turning their religion into a theocracy long after their G*D has moved on. In other words, from each and every established religion.

This acknowledgment of religious dirty tricks is not to denigrate religion to the point of irrelevancy, but to recognize an eternal tension within every religion between its ideals and implementation. This tension affects every other part of our common lives.

In today’s world, as always, not taking the bait of responding too large to a too large question gives a bit of an edge. When we don’t say more than can be known we participate in clarifying where lies trickery and realism.

Blessings to you in not claiming too much, staying in touch with what you know, and knowing the value of small affirmations. These are all difficult to stay with in the face of big questions and a medium-sized ego, but their value has been shown down through the years.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/10/matthew-2215-22.html