Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Jubilee Episcopal Church is an incense-swinging, sanctus-bell-ringing, stomp-your-feet- singing ancient way of following Jesus with more than enough room for you to bring your compassion, curiosities, and complete self. We're rooted in NW Austin, Texas, but connect with folks globally in sharing a joyful and inclusive Christian faith. The title comes from a prayer found in Compline, a service in the Book of Common Prayer, where we intercede for Jesus Christ to care and tend for the hurting, the sick, and the weary, but also, to shield the joyous. This prayer is our heartbeat at Jubilee. You'll hear sermons, devotions, and other occasional audio treats here -- including the occasional baby squawk or squeak from our decidedly family-friendly community!
We worship Sundays at 9:30am in person at 12129 FM 620 Ste 310 Austin, TX and online!
Watch Live: https://www.youtube.com/@jubileeatx/streams
Website: https://www.jubileeatx.org
IG: https://www.instagram.com/jubileeatx/
this microphone. Right. As you all know, we're in the midst of a midterm election season. Wouldn't you hate to be a politician running for office now? Wouldn't it be awful to have conversations with those you think are your allies only to find out later they have secretly recorded you and are about to expose your comments to the world, usually out of context. It's happening almost daily. This is the sort of entrapment that is just like the kind Jesus faced repeatedly by those who opposed his message of inclusion. At least some of the In the previous story from last week is related in Matthew's gospel. Jesus told this weird parable about a kingly wedding banquet. The original invitees did not come and in fact they mistreated the messengers. So the king instead invited a motley crew from the streets to feast at the banquet. Now the listening Pharisees probably saw themselves in the mirror of the parable, a judgment on their rejection of John the Baptist and their rejection of Jesus. So they were incensed and they plotted how to trap and take down this rabbi who had repeatedly insulted them. And this was their plan. They joined forces with the Herodians who they normally didn't get along with. The Herodians are the people who supported Herod who was a collaborator with Rome. Boo. But now these unlikely allies united against a common enemy, Jesus of Nazareth. Let's pause for a moment to think how could Jesus be anyone's enemy. This peace loving, compassionate rabbi from a small town who only had healing and God's love on his heart and mind. But seen from the opposite perspective, the courage of Jesus, his moral clarity, his compassion for the poor, and his unwillingness to cow town to the Roman oppressors. Jesus was very threatening to those who had compromised their tactics and soul their souls by collaborating with the Roman oppressors. So they plotted to entrap him. First they flattered, calling him teacher, and then praised him for the very things they hated about him, that he told the truth, that he taught the way of God accurately, and that he treated everyone equally. The trap was laid as they asked him, is it lawful as though what is legal is the most important thing? Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not? They thought their clever trap was a slam dunk. If Jesus rejected the emperor's right to tax the people, the Roman soldiers would whisk him away to prison as a traitor. But if he agreed that Rome had the right to tax the Jewish people, his Israelite followers would desert him in droves. I'm having a little entrapment right here. Jesus, however, took his own good advice that he had previously given to the disciples when he sent them out on a missionary journey. He said, I'm sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Being as wise as a serpent, Jesus sidestepped the Pharisees' trap by first seeing it and calling them out on it. And then he asked the Pharisees to show him the coin used to pay for the Roman tax. Whose head is this? And whose title? Jesus asked. The engraving on the coin was of Caesar, and the title read Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus. Caesar Augustus has previously been declared a god by the Roman Senate. As the Reverend Andrew Thayer tells us in his story, the character of the Roman Augustus would indicate that Tiberius, his son, is literally son of God. And the character of the Roman son of God was that power was dominion, extracting from the poor and downtrodden was permissible, and peace was kept by the sword. Andrew continues, the understanding in the Ancient Near East was that to be someone's son was to declare whom you serve. Then Jesus replied to the Pharisees and Herodians, give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's. In other words, choose whom you will serve. The true God are the one who only claims to be a God. With that, Jesus reversed the trap and the Pharisees were ensnared. Amazed, they shut their mouths and slunk away. This famous passage has been used to justify the division of the world into secular and sacred. According to this belief, some things belong to the world and some to God. This division can be harmful and dangerous and lead to more division like the kind of division we see all around us. Sacred, secular. It's like everything we know gets sorted into two baskets. The church, oh that belongs to God. Politics, no that's the world. Charity, God of course. Prayer, God. Taxes, secular. Property, it's my property, secular. Faith, God. Laws, borders, secular. Jesus said to give to God the things that are God's and the Pharisees reacted with amazement. Maybe they were amazed because they saw what Jesus just did. He not only sidestepped the trap of dividing our allegiance, but pointed them to the greater truth that the whole world belongs to God. The empire may steal or extract from others, but it is only the one creator God who called all things into being and whose breath gives and sustains our lives. Everything comes from God and everything and everyone belongs to God, including you, including me. Give to God the things that are God's and doing so we realize that the whole world is sacred and holy and to be valued. Instead of extracting and ravishing the earth for personal gain, the earth and all her inhabitants are to be tended and cared for as a sacred duty. From this faith perspective, the two baskets are combined. And now politics, property, taxes, borders have a sacred dimension that we can pay attention to as a way of following Jesus. Sometimes clergy are criticized for being political from the pulpit. And I want to be clear to say that clergy should not be partisan from the pulpit because this country was founded on the principle of the separation of church and state so that all would be free to worship as we desire. Clergy should not urge parishioners to vote for this party or that party or this particular candidate. But I would criticize a lot of clergy myself, especially for not having the courage to be more political from the pulpit. After all, politics is just our ethics. And for us Christians, it's our Christian ethics lived out in public for the public. As Christians, we should care how our tax dollars are spent. Since the ethics of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, is to care for people who are poor and marginalized, to care for the immigrant, to care for those in need of healing, then it is most appropriate that we use our voices, our votes, and our influence to ensure that our society, our local, state, federal government, cares for those who are poor and the people who are marginalized, those who are immigrants and everyone in the need of justice and good health care. Since Jesus is the Prince of Peace, then we as followers should exercise and advocate for peace in our communities and across the world, urging the use of diplomacy instead of weaponry to settle disputes. May we approach our ethical decisions not by starting with the question, is it lawful? Now, I'm not urging you to break the law unless a little civil disobedience is necessary. But instead of starting with the question, is it lawful? May we approach ethical dilemmas with the question, is this the way of Jesus? Is this the path of forgiving love? In doing so, may we avoid the world's trap of trying to divide us? Instead of arguing to convince, may we listen to understand? Instead of expecting the worst, may we seek the best in each other? Jesus has showed us that God's love is expansive, big enough to hold all of us with all of our differences in the embrace of God's supporting arms. God's love is welcoming enough to claim us and everyone as belonging, and God's love is generous enough to call us all beloved. In closing from a prayer by the Reverend Ted Loder, let us pray. Come, Lord Jesus, touch me with love, life-giving as light, to quiet my anger a little and gentle my desperation, to soften my fearsome and soothe the knots of my cynicism, to wipe away the tears from my eyes and ease the pains in my body and soul, to reconcile me to myself and then to the people around me, and then nation to nation that none shall learn war anymore, but turn to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and care compassionately for the least of our siblings. Reshape us in your wholeness to be healing persons, Lord. Amen.