|
Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
|
||
|
Unto Caesar? |
||
|
Matthew
22:21 Twenty-third
Sunday after Trinity November
7, 2010 Our
Lord's words address an important and vexing issue which always faces
Christians living in this world; namely, what is our duty toward the civil
government, and what is the civil government's duty towards us?
It is the old question that has been so much discussed in our own
country, especially lately; the relationship between Church and state. It
has been pointed out, and rightly so, that the idea of separation between
Church and state is not found in the U.S. Constitution, and there is no
way to "find" it there without completely misrepresenting the
meaning of the document. The
First Amendment was not written to keep the state free of interference by
the Church. It was written to keep the state out of the Church.
It was written to safeguard our freedom to follow God as He reveals
Himself in the Bible, rather than the dictates of men.
So we, as Christians, have every right, and responsibility, to
express our views, and to attempt to put them into practice in the state. Having
said that, I hurry on to say that separation of Church and state is found
in a much higher and much more important document than the U.S.
Constitution; the Holy Bible. If
you look at Matthew 22:21 you will see there written the words of Christ;
"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto
God the things that are God's."
Clearly Christ is saying there is a sphere of influence and
authority that is definitely given to government, and which is different
from that given to the Church, and, somehow, we have to find a way to live
and function in that sphere without compromising the will of God.. I
think the first thing we have to say, in a sermon on this issue is that
government, like the Church, is God's idea. Turn in your Bibles to Romans
13:1-2. "Let
every soul be subject unto the higher powers.
For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained
of God. Whosoever therefore
resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist
shall receive to themselves damnation." What
are these "higher powers" and "the powers that be?"
They are the leaders and rulers in the civil government, and the
main point of these verses is that civil government is ordained of God.
Imagine that. I think
many people today, even Christians, would be as shocked to hear that as
these Pharisees were at the words of Jesus.
I think most people, including most Christians, think government is
a human invention, and nothing more than a social contract.
But government is ordained and established by God.
Government would have been necessary even if humanity had remained
in our original perfection. If
we had never fallen into sin, we would still need some organisation to
coordinate transportation and shipping and where airplanes fly and which
side of the road we drive on and where roads are built and where bridges
are built, and, maybe one day, where and how spaceports are built, and
when spaceships arrive and depart so they don't run into each other, and
who owns what parcel of land, and a host of other things.
Even a perfect world needs a government.
But a fallen world needs a government even more. In a fallen world
people often follow their sinful inclinations, and, following them, bring
harm to others, so we need a way to deal with bad guys. Government is
God's appointed way of dealing with bad guys.
But there is another very important point here; government is
established to defend the lives and rights of the people.
Our rights are given by God, and the power given to the state is
given to enable it to defend us. Look
at Romans 13:4: "For
he," that is the governor, "is the minister of God to thee for
good. But if thou do that
which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is
the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth
evil." The
primary purpose of government, in this fallen world, is to punish those
who harm others. It is a revenger. It
exists to execute wrath on the bad guys.
If this sounds wonderfully familiar to us as citizens of the United
States it is because the founders of our nation understood this and wrote
it into our founding documents. "To
secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed."
The Bible is the foundation of our government. It is from the Bible that our founders received the
understanding that we are all created equal and are endowed by the Creator
with certain inalienable rights and that government exists to secure our
rights. These
are important points, but I want to move into another area for the next
few moments, and talk about what we are to "render unto Caesar."
In other words, what is the Christian's responsibility to the
government? I will not have
time to go into these deeply, but I want to emphasise three things,
prayer, support, and obedience. It
is our duty to pray for our government and our civil leaders.
Look with me at 1 Timothy 2:1-3. Notice that the Bible doesn't tell
us to just pray for the good rulers.
It is probably the bad ones that need our prayers most, and when we
see our leaders going astray from the clear teachings of Scripture and
plain old good sense, it is our duty to pray for them diligently, long,
and often. It
is our duty to support the government.
I am not talking here about endorsing its policies or being a
"moral support" to its officers.
I am talking about what Jesus was talking about when He said,
"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's."
Remember that the issue He was addressing was tribute, which we
would call, "taxes." And
the question was, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar? Is it right to pay taxes to support the government?
And Christ's answer is a bold yes.
He does not enter into a discussion on the fact that Rome has
invaded Israel. He does not
talk about the merit, or lack of merit, in the Roman government.
He simply recognises that, with all its faults, the Roman
government is still providing a measure of peace and protection, and that
it is the responsibility of the people to provide for the finances of
their government. It
is also our duty to obey the laws of our land.
We are to obey the government.
This, of course always comes with a qualification, for we can only
obey the government as long as its laws are not contrary to the laws of
God. So, things like speed limits and stop signs, for example, are well
within the scope of the government's authority and should be obeyed by us
as a matter of conscience. This brings me to my last point for today. In the United States, you are the government. You are Caesar. Obviously you are not a monarch. In fact, most of us are pretty far down the list of those who have power and influence in this country. But we are on the list. So part of "rendering unto Caesar" is taking up our own responsibilities and doing our part. May God give us grace to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God, that which is God's. Amen.
|
||
Copyright © 2006 Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church. All rights reserved For website information contact: E-mail Webmaster |
||
http://www.holytrinityanglicanorthodoxchurch.org/HolyTrinityHello.htm