October 16, 2005
Isaiah 45: 1-7; Matthew 22:15-22
Maybe you have heard this alternate version of the Noah story:
And the Lord spoke to Noah and said: "In six months I'm going to make it rain until the whole earth is covered with water and all the evil people are destroyed. But, I want to save a few good people, and two of every kind of living thing on the earth. I am ordering you to build an Ark." And in a flash of lightning he delivered the specifications for an Ark. “Ok", said Noah, trembling in fear and fumbling with the blueprints. "Six months, and it starts to rain," thundered the Lord. "You'd better have my Ark completed, or learn to swim for a very long time."
Six months passed. The skies began to cloud up and rain began to fall. The Lord saw Noah was sitting in his front yard weeping, and there was no Ark. "Noah," shouted the Lord, "Where is my Ark?" A lightning bolt crashed into the ground next to Noah. "Lord, please forgive me!" begged Noah. "I did my best, but there were big problems!" "First I had to get a building permit for the Ark construction project, and your plans did not meet code. So I had to hire an engineer to redraw the plans. Then I got into a big fight over whether or not the Ark needed a fire sprinkler system. My neighbors objected, claiming I was violating zoning by building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission." "Then I started gathering the animals, and got sued by an animal rights group. They objected to me taking only two of each kind." "Just when I got the suit dismissed, EPA notified me that I couldn't complete the Ark with out filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. They didn't take kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of a Supreme Being." "Then the Army Corps of Engineers wanted a map of the proposed new flood plain. I sent them a globe. "The IRS has seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to avoid paying taxes by leaving the country, and I just got a notice from the state that I am prohibited from taking any moose because I didn’t win the lottery." "I really don't think I can finish your Ark for at least another five years, " Noah wailed.
The sky began to clear. The sun began to shine. A rainbow arched across the sky. Noah looked up and smiled. "You mean you're not going to destroy the earth?" Noah asked hopefully. "Not now,” said the Lord thoughtfully, “ but I’m thinking of field testing fire and brimstone on government red tape.”
Doesn’t that all sound like: “I’m from the government, I’m here t help.” But this brings up a serious question. What is our faith relationship with matters of civic society? Do we as people of faith have a role, a responsibility addressing things of the common weal? William Sloan Coffin certainly thought so. In a debate with Henry Kissinger ove rthe place of religion in public life, Coffin closed debate by saying to Kissinger: “My job is to say ‘Let Justice roll down like waters.’ Your job is to take care of the plumbing.” Even so, as we heard from the differing points in today’s scripture readings, if we look to scripture to give us insight into the dance between religion and government, we do not find a clear mandate.
Did you hear the contrast in the two passages of today’s readings? In Isaiah’s words, Cyrus the Great is celebrated as a divinely appointed warrior for God. But in the Matthew reading, there appears to be a line drawn by Jesus as to faith priorities. I find the contrast between these readings fascinating and confusing. Although you will probably have to sift through more history than you care to hear, I invite you to reflect with me on these very different passages.
There is indeed real history behind the Isaiah passage. Following the death of Solomon, political tension in Israel led to a separation of the country into two states: northern Israel and Southern Judah. The two countries warred with each other; enmeshed themselves in foreign entanglements and were separately overcome by Assyria and Babylon with the people being forced into exile. Most of the prophets lived and spoke out during those cataclysmic times. The universal message of the prophets was “trust in God; do justice in your own land; reject that arrogance that makes you feel invincible.” The prophetic message was universally ignored and Israel, then Judah were vanquished. In exile in Babylon the Jews listened with hope as other prophets told them that God had not abandoned them to permanent exile.
No great empire is forever. Assyria had fallen to Babylon and Babylon fell to Persia. Of all the ancient empires and most of the modern states that we have studied, Persia was an exception to the slash and burn norm. Cyrus the Great, was a canny ruler and a person of great integrity. He followed the teachings of Zoroaster who had, around the time of Moses established a compassionate and ethically based monotheistic religion that still exists today. Upon assuming power, Cyrus released the Jews from captivity and invited them to return to Jerusalem, offering them support and assistance as they re-built their holy city. In doing so, Cyrus earned both the loyalty of the returnees and the words of praise that we heard in the Isaiah passage. Isaiah clearly states that Cyrus is doing God’s work even though Cyrus does not know God. Government in this passage, it would appear, is the hand of God.
An entirely different picture is drawn in the passage from Matthew. The interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees reveals a fault line that eventually would lead to an earthquake of rebellion that culminated with the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersal of Jews from their homeland in 135 A.D. As we hear frequently in the gospels, during the time of Jesus’ ministry, tax collectors were among the most despised members of the community. Taxes were a heavy burden and went, not to civic improvements and social services but to the upkeep of the Roman occupation army and the support of the Roman emperor. To have sold out to Rome was considered a betrayal of Judaism so tax collectors were shunned. Not only with their taxes but everywhere that Jews looked they saw reminders of their subservience to Rome. Statues of Venus or of the ‘divine’ Augustus were as prominent as the crosses holding the bodies of condemned rebels. A city in Galilee built to honor Pan, the god of Eroticism and the kings and tetrarchs who made a mockery of their slight Jewish bloodlines contributed to the building pressure of rebellion. The Pharisees shamelessly used that tension to entrap Jesus.
“Render to God that which belongs to God,” Jesus said, “and to Caesar, that which is his.” It was a brilliant answer but not much help in practical terms. So we look to history again and find blurred lines between church and state. Until the reformation, the Pope had as much secular power as he did, religious. When German princes sided with Martin Luther it was as much an effort to get the Pope off their backs as it was genuine spiritual transformation. The English Reformation began when the pope unexpectedly denied Henry VIII’s request for a divorce. The Pilgrims came to Plymouth because the Church of England and the English government were synonymous and antagonistic to any who deviated from their standards.
The founders of our nation were highly cognizant of the religious/government legacy from Europe and in drawing up the Constitution of the United States, wisely defined a new principle called separation of church and state. What that means, as we all know, is that each person had an inalienable right to practice whatever religion he or she chooses and there is no tax on religion. There is no state religion and no preference given to any denomination or belief system. As important as it is, this principle has been a constant challenge to every generation in our history. We love the principle, don’t we? It is one of the defining characteristics of the United States. And yet, despite the constitutional ideal of separation of church and state, many of us grew up in a “Christian Country.” Do you remember the Blue Laws? No grocery stores, no department stores, no shops were open on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Hard to believe that there was a time when Sunday Dinner preceded a walk in the park or a trip to the zoo but no visits to the Mall. Nativity scenes decorated town squares at Christmas and church choirs sang every night around those crčches. On Good Friday schools, businesses and banks closed. Anyone running for any office had to be a practicing person of faith; Baptist in the South; Catholic in Boston or Chicago and Lutheran in Minnesota. Separation of Church and State was honored in theory more than observed in reality. Those seemed like simpler times, didn’t they? We belonged to a large Christian family and everyone knew the vocabulary. Truth be told, we were a dysfunctional family with a large dose of paranoia. It was well known among Protestants that Catholics worshipped statues. Catholics firmly believed that Protestants had abandoned the true church and were all going to hell. And nobody appreciated the Jehovah’s Witnesses ringing doorbells. But we were all united in support of President Eisenhower who put ‘under God’ into the Pledge of Allegiance.
While we Christians celebrated our unique relationship with God, Jews and Buddhists and Muslims and Hindus began to arrive in large numbers. They believed in the Constitution and expected that freedom of religion really meant what it said. When Mosques and Buddhist and Hindu temples began to appear, we the dominant Christian community were forced out of our complacency. We began the hard work of living the separation of church and state that we had proudly proclaimed for over 200 years. It has been hard, hasn’t it? The comfort level that we had enjoyed for all those years was not fair to the newcomers within the increasingly diverse boundaries of our country. What the founding fathers knew and what we are just learning to accept is that in order to protect our right to freedom of religion we must be a secular state
I don’t particularly like the new culture. I don’t like limiting the Good Friday Service to one hour squeezed into the lunch period of a regular business day. I don’t like the Marathon running on Sunday morning and making church going difficult if not impossible. I don’t like Burlington Electric deciding that 10 a.m. on Sunday is a good time to do some work on the corner of South Winooski and Cherry Streets. But that being said, I also don’t like the idea that my Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist neighbors might feel wary of expressing their religious beliefs, or of celebrating their holy days, or feel pressured into removing clothing or head coverings that reflect their belief.
A secular society is a protection for all people of faith and for all people who practice no faith. It is still an uncomfortable fit but it is ultimately the best fit for all of us in this large and diverse American family. This new/old secular society in which we all live should not be a fearful place. We live in a society that is neither black nor white but colored in shades of gray. Perhaps in this gray world we can learn to live our faith, to act out our beliefs in ways that would not have occurred to us in earlier times. Give Caesar his due in paying taxes, obeying the law and being a good citizen. But what is it that we render to God? We may reside in a secular state but we live in God’s realm. In God’s realm are responsible for one another. It is our joyful duty to honor and cherish one another. It is our solemn duty to respect, support and care for the weak, the fragile, the vulnerable. It is our nurturing duty to celebrate the beauty of our world and recognize the danger that we present to our world by human disregard for the environment. In God’s realm there is no red tape or competition for services; there is only love and trust.
Taking the long view, it does not matter how long a Good Friday worship service is supposed to run. It is all about what happens before and after the service. The depth and richness of life that persons of faith convey to the secular society give that society a heart and a conscience. We should not need to paste a sign on our foreheads announcing that we are persons of faith; that we are Christians. We should simply live our daily lives with that depth and richness. In doing so, we proclaim God’s love that blesses even the secular city. Amen.