Boiling it Down

sermon by Torin Eikler
Matthew 22:15-22 I Thessalonians 1:1-10

Last week Carrie spoke to us all about the nature of community and its importance in the life of people of faith. I suspect, however, that most of us remember it as a sermon about money, and that’s not surprising given our general reluctance to speak about our own income and spending habits and the current climate of fear surrounding economic issues. In fact, a recent survey conducted by the American Psychological Association quantifies, to a degree, America’s absorption with finances. Fully 80% of us acknowledge that we are stressed out about the economy and our personal finances. Half of us are worried about how we will provide for our families’ basic needs or the stability of our employment. 52% report laying awake at night worrying about these issues, and two-thirds of Americans find themselves generally angry or irritable all the time.

The news is full of the wide swings of the stock market, and people seem to be unusually well informed about the successes and failures of the $700 billion bailout strategy. Just last Friday, Carrie and I were at dinner on the way to the Allegheny Conference Pastor-Spouse retreat, and I overheard the conversation at the table behind us. The multigenerational group was talking about the credit market, dwindling retirement funds, and the challenges of living with $4 gasoline. Not surprising, you think? But it is surprising. We may have gotten used to this type of conversation, but six months ago – even two months ago – these kind of conversations were not put on the table along with our hamburgers and chicken parmesan. They may have been common place at the lunch tables of financiers and investors, but I truly doubt that they were a regular part of any of our lives at any time.

Money, it seems, has found its way to the center of our lives and our conversations in a way that it hasn’t been before for most of us.

Of course, money has probably been at or near the center of our lives all along if we’re honest. It has just been hidden in midst of other issues. Carrie and I have often discussed how much of our income we want to designate for savings or giving. And the relative amounts we want to spend on gifts or travel or entertainment was a regular part of our lives – from the annual budget planning we do to our vacation decisions and all the way up to our daily decisions about what to buy at the grocery store. Others, I know, have to balance the cost of activities for our children, our cable subscriptions, and the temperature we choose for our thermostats. What has changed is that money has moved out of the shadows and into the open. No longer content just to be present, it has taken center stage at the coaxing of Wall Street investors – a group of people always looking for a new way to make money – and the government bureaucrats who work at balancing their effect on the overall economy.


Another time in another place, money was put on the center stage by another odd pairing – Herodians and Pharisees. These two groups were usually at odds with each other. The Herodians were content to work with the occupying government of the Romans whatever they were asked to do – as long as there was something in it for them. The Pharisees were concerned much more with doing and saying the right things whether that was in keeping with Roman preferences or not. You can imagine that each group probably looked down on the other and the way of life they had chosen.

Jesus, however, had become enough of a phenomenon among the Jewish people that were an integral part of both the Herodians and the Pharisees respective interests. His message and mission were interfering with the balance of power in upsetting ways. And that, it seems, was enough to get these two groups working together in order to protect the status quo.

The solution they came up with was ingenious. Ask Jesus a difficult question in front of the crowds that followed him and force him to take a dangerous (perhaps even deadly) position. “Teacher, … tell us … Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor, or not?”

The question was perfect. If Jesus said “yes,” he would be allying himself with the Herodians (and most of the people for that matter) in conflict with some of the teachings of Jewish tradition. In that case, his religious orthodoxy and his authority to teach “the way of God in accordance with the truth” could be questioned by the Pharisees. If, on the other hand, he said “no,” he would be taking the righteous road advocated by the Pharisees, but he would also be openly defying the empire. The Herodians could then denounce him as a dangerous traitor seeking to start a rebellion, and he would probably be imprisoned or exiled (and maybe even executed).

Not a bad strategy actually. But, as usual – at least according to the Gospel of Matthew – Jesus found a way out of the trap … and not just any way. The answer Jesus gave not only avoided both pitfalls, it turned the tables on both groups, challenging the assumptions and compromises they had made in order to survive under the occupation.

“Give [to] the emperor the things that are the emperor’s,
and to God the things that are God’s”
(or in the more familiar King James version,)
“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,
and unto God the things that are God’s.”


When I was in high school in N. Manchester, I had a very intelligent but also fairly sheltered friend. And, when we were discussing this passage in youth group one Sunday, he shared that he had never really understood what it meant. “What,” he asked to a good deal of undeserved laughter, “did paying taxes have to do with making glue?” You may think that a strange question, but it really does make sense. My friend had spent all of his life living not too far from a rendering plant, and his only reference for the concept of rendering was the processing of animals into glue and other useful products. Once he learned that “render” also means “give” (as the newer translation makes clear), he quickly understood and took our discussion to a deeper level with another question: “but doesn’t everything belong to God?!”

What it all boils down to, you see, is a simple question of faith and perspective. God, our God, is the creator of all of this world. The beginning and the end of all things. The Alpha and Omega as some eloquent poets put it. In a very real sense – perhaps the most real sense – doesn’t everything belong to God?

That is the question that spoke into the minds of the men who sought to catch Jesus in a trap. That is the question that sent them walking away from him in amazement pondering the answer and what it might mean for them – finding within themselves, I hope, the courage and honesty to acknowledge that “Yes” is the answer to that question asked by my astute friend and implied by Jesus’ own answer.

From that perspective things begin to take on a different look – both the things that make up our lives and the things that we accumulate during them. It all belongs to God, and our task as followers of Christ is to find ways to use those things which have come into our possession – talents, knowledge, and energy as well as money – according to our best understanding of God’s will. And that is not always as easy as it sounds.


We have spent our whole lives, most of us at least, learning a different path from our parents and our society. We have learned a work ethic that keeps us going, going, going … always seeing new things that need to be done. That, in itself, is not bad thing though it can become dangerous for us if we lose the ability to relax and retreat, finding some quiet space within ourselves to commune with God and listen for guidance and inspiration for our living. That same work ethic tends to bring us a certain amount of wealth with is not a bad or evil thing either. But money brings its own challenges. We have been taught that we need it for security and happiness, and no matter how much we know that isn’t true, it is so very hard to let go of our hold on it. As Jesus once said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” And, do not fool yourselves. We are all rich.

We have so much wealth surrounding us that we never really feel that way. Survey after survey tells us that people in America tend to think that life will be easier and they will be happier if they just have 10% more – give or take a bit. But, we have much more than we need.

There are people in this country whose personal wealth is greater than most of the countries in the world. There are more who own more than one home, and most of us have homes that are much bigger than we really need for comfort, let alone survival. Even having the means to own and operate a car places us on a level far above that of about 93% of the people living in this world. And yet, we still feel, somewhere within us, that somehow we need more. Somewhere along the way – a long time ago, I think – we have lost a true sense of what is enough. And, given the way that we look to money to make our lives better and happier, we have clearly put our faith in wealth as much as, if not more than, we have in God.


Now please hear me, I do not say all of this to inspire guilt. Nor am I seeking to take a position as somehow “holier than thou.” Sadly, I am as caught up in the desire for more as any of you with my dreams of flat-screen TVs, hot tubs, and travel to far away places. It is simply true that we are all struggling to hold onto the right perspective and to place our faith in the right place. And that is truly a very difficult thing to do. Even Peter, the rock of the church, despaired when he heard Jesus’ judgment on the rich young ruler, and his words echo the frustration in our own thoughts – or at least mine. “Who, then, can be saved?”

Yet, Jesus response echoes down the ages as well, offering hope: “for God, all things are possible.” If we put our faith in God, then we can find a way forward out of the grip of desire and back into the kingdom of peace, justice, wholeness – and enough. Easy words to say, I know. Much harder words to live as all of us can attest.

It’s such a big thing. How do you do it? Where do you look for a place to begin? What would such a life even look like? I don’t know, but wiser people than I have told me that we can start anywhere.


What, for example, is enough? I recognize, as do we all, that it is not really possible for anyone to live on a few dollars a day in this place at this time. The United States is just too expensive a place and too harsh an environment to live on so little. So, what do we really need to provide shelter and food and health care for ourselves? Is $30,000 dollars a year enough? $45,000? $60,000?

I realize that different circumstances present different needs, but let’s take a family of four – two adults and two children – as an example. Currently, a 3-bedroom home with 2 bathrooms in Morgantown would require at least $8,500 a year in mortgage payments, assuming there was no down payment. The average cost of utilities adds about $3,000. Reasonable health insurance can easily cost $12,000 if it’s not provided by an employer. Food for four, healthy food even, can be had for about $11,000 a year but lets say $15,000 just to be safe. And the cost of owning and operating a vehicle to get to work and food (though I realize that there are other ways to get around) would be about $10,000 give or take a couple thousand.

That puts us at about $50,000. I think we could probably get by on less pretty easily if we were pressed to do so. Many of us probably live quite comfortably on less than that. $50,000 per year is a lot of money. $30,000 is a lot of money for many people in the United States.

What would happen if we limited ourselves to living on no more than $50,000 per year or its equivalent value in benefits? Certainly many of us would have to make some choices about what things and activities to give up. We might have to move to smaller homes, and we may even have to move closer to where we work and shop. But, think about what we could do with the extra money we have left over.

If just two families had an extra $3,000 that they decided to give to the church, we could double our witness budget. If a few of us made an extra $20,000 to put toward a special project, we could make a very good start toward becoming accessible for people who have difficulty with steps. If one or two of us had even more left over, what amazing ministries could we start or support? What messages of peace, love, and justice could we offer to the community? What dreams would come to us as we listened for our part in God’s dream for the world? And, what would the example we make of our lives and our faith community speak into a world that has lost touch with enough.


We could do so much to support each other and work for compassionate justice in the world if we committed to a spending ceiling and dedicated the rest of our money to the dream of God’s Realm. The money wouldn’t even have to come through the church. It could go anywhere and it would change the world. And it doesn’t have to be just our money either. Our gifts and our time are equally important if harder to quantify.

I know that it is never easy to change well learned habits in our lives, and how we deal with money is one of the hardest of all because we put so much faith in it. Yet, in the end, it all boils down to the question faced by the men who challenged Jesus some 2000 years ago – a question we still face today: do we put our faith in money, talent, education, hard work, and all that they can accomplish, or do we put our faith in God and all that God has promised us?