Richard Bollman, S.J.

29th SUNDAY, A 2002

Matthew 22:15-21, "The Coin of Tribute"

Notes on Scripture

First thing to say is we will start a new letter from St. Paul,

his first letter, the oldest we have, addressed to the people of Thessalonika.

It comes from about the year 50, and gives a good picture of how the church grew,

not only by Paul’s organizing skills and teaching ability,

but by word of mouth.

Alas, we have two interruptions to the ordinary readings ahead,

for All Souls Day, and the Feast of St. John Lateran, Nov 2 and 9.

But we’ll try to fill in some of the gaps.

Now to the Hebrew prophet with whom we begin,

from Isaiah’s powerful words about the liberation of the exiles from Persia.

It takes some getting used to, because in much of this part of his book

Isaiah declares that God is speaking to King Cyrus of Persia,

that God uses this pagan King as an enlightened liberator,

allowing the people to go with no interference.

Therefore you hear him referred to as called by God

even though he does not know God.

And it is God alone who has made a passage for Cyrus and the exiles

through the hard places.

This comes from a prophetic need to reflect in faith

on the way a foreigner was a benefit to the exiles.

It is part of an enduring question, how shall the community of believers

understand the role of secular politics

in their religious and national destiny as the chosen people.

Is God using these powerful rulers, or is God just allowing things to happen:

should we be happy for their influence, or should we resist.

Jesus takes up this theme in the Gospel,

in response to a question about Roman taxation.

HOMILY:

This Gospel story raises the question of religion and politics

back in the first century.

I can’t help but hear the story against the background of our own national election

where spiritual and moral issues lie submerged under the political slogans.

Much of this is obvious to you and I don’t want to belabor it.

Obviously there’s the call to support life,

to reduce the number of abortions

and pay attention to mothers and healthy children.

You tend to get positions and quick references, but not a real exploration.

I think of the implications of a Catholic just war theory

against the talk about winning wars against terrorists.

A really moral question is whether military wars are winnable

against hidden factions and hatred.

I’ve been discouraged about the cultural slogans about small towns or elitism,

not sure what is intended about real people, except to build suspicion.

All through the election season there’s just a lot of fear and blame and suspicion.

This sort of factionalism was part of Jesus’ world,

Samaritans against Judeans, outcast against the in-crowd.

Who has rights, who hasn’t, who can succeed, and who is thrown out.

I get the impression from the New Testament

that the Christian way of life wanted to raise such questions in Roman society,

but government was way to rigid to talk about human rights or fair opportunities.

Indeed, it’s always hard for any government to contemplate change

in the way things are done.

Obviously people have a right to transparency and truth-telling,

and national security, economic order and promise.

But how do you create change in society itself without anybody bearing the cost?

Meanwhile, the real changes that happen for us occur slowly,

maybe they aren’t even understood at first,

and they come about often inadvertently.

I think for example of the vast change in population happening in our country.

Right here in our own city, we have a sizeable Catholic Latino community now.

And we’re still seeing the repercussions around us in the urban landscape

of what was once called urban Renewal,

a change that renewed some neighborhoods and destroyed others.

What leads to these kinds of changes, and who suffers from the cost.

It would be great for our new elected leaders to help us understand these things.

And that would raise even more important questions

about how we use our resources, what makes life fair and secure and for whom,

and these are the underpinnings, you might say, of our desire to support life.

They reach into the way we sponsor health care and education

and the care of this planet that we hand on to our children.

This is what motivates some Catholics around the country

to try to turn our thoughts away from party politics toward the common good,.

The common good of the human species. Big goals.

And they don’t work themselves out in a climate of fear and blame.

And whoever wins the election, we will still need to work together for these goals.

So I think people of faith need to vote responsibly, yes,

but also isn’t there a call to live from a deep faith,

in a climate of trust, even optimism, expecting that we can do better,

and can meet one another effectively in these big hopes.

Underlying all of revelation through the scriptures

we find a continual desire, on the part of God, to make things new.

Can we lean into that kind of optimism.

Sometimes when I meet young people in the parish or on the campus,

exploring their skills and calling in Central America or Africa,

I think maybe a change is growing up among us,

some new desire for a good and fruitful way of life, as yet unknown,

germinating in us, in the young and old, black and white,

Catholic and Jew and American Muslim, Latino and Asian,

all of us living into a new century of the American experiment.

God calls us to a make our hope bigger than our fear.

The story of the coin of tribute reminds me of these things.

The question about the tax, it was asked for political reasons,

out of a desire to divide the factions of Israeli society.

Those who asked it did not need a new lesson

about how to live according to God’s law in a Roman colony.

They were out to push a personal agenda, to keep Jesus at bay,

to stay on top of the little political world they had some power in.

And probably the question came from fear,

since Jesus’ very presence in the life of that small country

was a destabilizing presence that raised fears:

the great fear that maybe our old faith doesn’t have a political future at all,

and maybe Israel will not succeed on the world stage.

All of this plays in the minds of the questioners.

And remember, the conversation takes place in the capital city, Jerusalem.

It is Holy Week, in about the year 30.

Forty years later, the city would be burned down, the temple in ruins too.

History is on the move.

And so some religious leaders wanted to keep the military powers happy,

and the moneyed rulers happy,

keep them all happy, and hope God would be on our side even so.

And some wanted to take up arms for a military solution.

It was a nasty conversation, really, trying to get Jesus to take sides

and to make enemies. Then they could manipulate him.

Take sides, make enemies. That’s the agenda of the devil,

and Jesus could smell it a mile away, because he had met the devil in the desert.

And yet you can’t just avoid the issues either. It’s hard.

He might have wanted to say, "Oh go take your petty concerns

and sort them out yourselves. I’m going to be dead in a few months."

But surely he knew that our hope must be bigger than our fear.

So I suggest Jesus had thoughts like these.

"Well, here we all are paying taxes, living as Rome asks,

and that’s the truth of it.

It’s like there are some changes good people can make,

and some changes they can’t achieve.

It’s almost like there are some kinds of suffering that just have to come,

and history will move on, through the pain.

"And yet here we all are, made in God’s image, and destined for a high calling,

a renewal of life even through death and fear.

There is a deeper energy here, the power right now of God’s intentions,

a spiritual energy we can’t manipulate, but we might start to trust.

So, give yourself to God, trust who you really are in God’s image,

get with that program that we only half understand.

That’s the real coin to offer, the coin of our souls and bodies and lives.

Don’t be afraid. Live the good truth you can see

but know that God wants all of you and will not let you go."

So much is at stake these days.

Right now our job is to vote responsibly.

But then, after the election, whoever wins,

I think our job as believers in God’s power

is to let go of our fears, and take on a bigger view of history,

and even a deep optimism, a happiness really,

about what is possible and what will indeed come to pass one day

when we learn how to be generous with the cost of things that we want.

Whoever wins, it’s our role to work with those results,

and be guided by our faith as a source of action, power, and healing

for the common good.

You know, the men who questioned Jesus ended up with nothing more to say,

they were so amazed at the big world he lived in,

the kind of religious faith he actually had.

I’m sure it scared them, because they began to plot in earnest to get rid of him.

But the disciples who listened, we ourselves,

have to start remembering the image of God that is on our own souls,

to be confident of our calling, trust it completely.