Homily, Responding to the Invitation to Feast at God’s Table
Twentieth-First Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 24A, 2023
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
Tequesta, FL
The Rev. Derek M Larson, TSSF
Today’s Lectionary Readings:
Exodus 33:12-23
Psalm 99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
God’s kingdom is a feast, and we are all invited to the table. That was our message last week and the beginning of a short series as we prepare ourselves for Giving Sunday this year on November 12th. And this week we continue that series. If last week the message was Receiving God’s Invitation, this week we’re talking about Responding to God’s Invitation. Responding to God’s invitation with the offering of our whole selves.
This week I learned an old phrase, “Don’t take any wooden nickels.” Did you get one of these little wooden pieces when you came in? How many of you have heard that phrase before? I’ve never heard it before! Evidently it means, don’t get conned. Cheated. Duped. Watch out for people trying to take advantage of you. Normally it’s used as a parting word. You say goodbye to a friend going on a big trip and you say, “Have fun! Don’t take any wooden nickels!”
It’s not completely uncommon to see wooden promotional coins like this for stores and restaurants, but there have never been any real U.S. backed wooden coins in our history. They’d be too easy to counterfeit, which is exactly where the phrase comes from. If someone is trying to exchange with you wooden coins, don’t trust them; those coins don’t hold any value.
In our gospel reading today Jesus is asked a question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Which is a particularly loaded question, and purposefully so, given that those who ask it are specifically trying to entrap Jesus.
For the Jewish communities in Jesus’ day the Roman coin used to pay taxes carried a lot of controversy. Not only did it represent the occupation of a foreign power over Israel, but on the coin itself was the image of Cesar with the words “son of God” inscribed below it. And so most Jews were deeply uncomfortable with carrying these coins in their pockets, but to speak out against them, or to refuse to use them would be incredibly dangerous.
And so the question posed to Jesus is a tricky one. If he answered yes, he would be seen as a Roman sympathizer and an idolater. If he said no he would be seen as a zealot and risk arrest by the authorities. Either answer could get him into some serious trouble.
But Jesus is smart and he’s not falling for any tricks. Instead he asks his questioners a question, “whose head is on the coin?” In the Greek its the word, eikon, which is better translated as image. “Whose image is on this coin?” They answer, “the emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”
Now Jesus is doing something very interesting here. Where else in Scripture do we hear the word “image”? In Genesis, right? Right there at the at the beginning. In Genesis 1, at the creation of the universe God says, “Let us create humankind in our image…So God created humankind in his own image. In the image of God he created them.” As studied Jews, this passage would have been at the forefront of his audience’s mind when Jesus spoke these words.
So when Jesus says, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and give to God the things that are God’s,” he is essentially saying, “Cesar’s image might be on the coin, but God’s image is stamped upon humanity. And what is of true value? The emperor can have his wooden nickels, but give to God what is of true value: yourselves.”
In last week’s message I talked about the kingdom of heaven as a feast and that we are all invited to feast at God’s table. And the image of God stamped on each one of us from the beginning is that invitation. God’s invitation is part of our very being. Our very nature. It was given to us at the beginning of time. It’s always been there.
But rather than treasuring that precious invitation from God, so often we exchange it for wooden nickels. We try to find value and worth and purpose in other things—things that aren’t backed by the image of God, but by the image of other things. Things sometimes forced on us by society, like the emperor’s taxes in Jesus’ day, and sometimes things in our own seeking. Things that promise us control or status or security. Power or affirmation or stability. But deep down, things that are no more than empty promises.
And so while we have all received an invitation from God stamped on our very being, the question is how do we respond to that invitation? Do we ignore it as some in last week’s parable did, choosing instead wooden nickels of less value? Or do we respond by the offering of ourselves?
We can know the answer to that question when we look at where we spend our time, our talent, and our treasure. Do we offer those things at the table of God’s feast? Or do we exchange them elsewhere for wooden nickels?
Here at Good Shepherd we have an opportunity together to respond to God’s invitation with the offering of ourselves. There are other places and other ways to do that, but as a community dedicated to God’s mission in the world, we have the opportunity right here to give God what is God’s, by offering our time, and our talent, and our treasure to the communal ministry of this place. Extending faith, hope, and love into our communities.
And so today in this giving season, I invite you to take this little wooden token as a reminder of this message. You’ll notice it doesn’t have a face or an image on it. It doesn’t have an inscription. If you take it to the store, you can’t buy anything with it. But perhaps it will serve as a reminder not to spend ourselves on wooden nickels, but to offer ourselves, stamped with the very image of God, in service to the feast at God’s table. Amen.
Thoughts on Faith 