Two Sides of the Coin

 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  The cliché phrase is: there are two sides to every coin.  Some use this phrase to talk about how there are different points of view.  Others use the phrase as some Manichean view that good and evil are balanced.  The first is an important consideration.  The second is just wrong.  But I want to use this phrase as the two ways to approach growth in holiness and preparation for heaven.

    The one side of the coin, we’ll call this one tails, is the things that we shouldn’t do.  We might call it a via negativa.  St. Paul outlines these in his epistle to the Galatians today.  He is basically saying, “Don’t be immoral, impure, licentious, worship false gods, do sorcery, hate others, encourage rivalry, jealousy, or fury, be selfish, divide others, envy others, drink too much, etc.”  He’s telling us all the things we shouldn’t do.  And he makes clear the reason for what he warns us against: “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  So this is pretty serious stuff.  
    This via negativa is important, and is one valid way of approaching holiness.  We need to know the things that we shouldn’t do because they are contrary to God’s law, natural law, or legitimate human law.  Think about it like driving: you need to know that you can’t drive through an intersection at a red light or at a stop sign, or you can’t drive the wrong way down the road.  Such things will get you (and others) injured or maybe even killed.  It’s not like we just tell 16 year olds to drive safely, and then give them the keys to the car without letting them know there are things they should not do.  A world without the word no while driving is like driving in Flint sometimes, where some people just run red lights and stop signs or speed because they do whatever they feel like.
    Or, think about it with the image of food.  We teach children what to eat and what not to eat, not merely in a dietary sense (eat healthy foods, avoid junk food), but even in the sense of foods that might do you harm.  We don’t simply say, “Just make sure you’re eating the right types of food,” and then let a kid chomp down on some raw chicken, or let the child figure out that bread which looks like it’s growing green fur is not a good thing to eat.  We tell that person there are things which should not be eaten at all, and things which need to be cooked before we can eat them.  The no that we teach kids and young adults when it comes to food can end up saving their lives.  
    But let’s say that you’ve handled the negatives well.  You stop at red lights and you don’t eat moldy bread.  Still, you feel like there is more.  That’s because there is.  The other side of the coin, we’ll call it heads, is the positive things that we do.  St. Paul talks about these, too: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”  You might say that you don’t struggle with sexual sins, or bouts of rage, or seeking to divide people, or worshiping false gods.  Good!  How are you at loving others, especially those who don’t treat you well?  Can you maintain peace and joy when things don’t go your way, and you cant’s understand the customer service agent on the other end of the phone?  How do you give to others, whether your time, talent, or treasure?  
    These things to which we say yes are important, too.  There is an ease to driving when we know how, beyond simply the “don’t do these things.”  It can become enjoyable, even relaxing, in the right context.  Or a good cook can go beyond not eating raw chicken or moldy bread.  He or she knows how to combine different flavors, how long to cook the meat to keep the flavor but avoid sickness, and how to provide not only sustenance, but enjoyment in dining.  This past Friday I buried a Polish woman who loved to cook traditional Polish foods.  As her child and grandchildren got older, they wanted to know how to make the food she did.  But the struggle was that the amount of spices she used were not measured by spoons or cups, but by shakes and pinches.  The dough was ready when it felt a certain way between her fingers.  She had moved beyond the restrictions of what not to do, to making those foods without much consideration because she knew how to in the core of her being.
    We priests can often preach about what not to do, and that’s important, especially for those who are young in the faith.  But as we mature in the faith, we also need to emphasize the things to do, the ways that we can say yes to God, not simply no to sin.  
    And this can even be seen in our Lord’s teaching on worrying.  He tells us not to worry about what we are to eat, drink, or wear.  God, He tells us, will take care of us.  The no, in this case, is no to worrying.  The yes in this case is to seeking the will of God.  But contained within those are other things to avoid and things to pursue.  Don’t buy a new toy, when you haven’t paid for your basic necessities according to your vocation.  Do pray to God when you want to make a big purchase.  Don’t become a penny-pincher whose only concern is material stability, where money or mammon becomes a false god.  Do trust in God with your life and security, and have confidence in giving to those who are in need.  Christ knew when to walk through fields of grain, and He knew when to go to Martha and Mary’s house for a good meal.  The Apostles kept a small money bag for their needs, but also trusted that God would somehow provide at the feeding of the 5,000.  
    Lastly, the negatives don’t go away because we are advancing in the positives.  Some things are always wrong, no matter how much we’re progressing in our relationship with God.  It’s not like we can say that we’ve progressed so far in kindness, that we can be as divisive as possible on occasion.  Or that we so love God that a few times of adultery won’t make a difference.  We need both no and yes in order to live holy lives.  
    Consider today where you are at in your relationship with God.  Do you still need to focus on what not to do?  Or can you focus on what to do and doing that better each day?  That probably depends on the area of your life, as you will have some where you simply focus on what not do, while in other areas you can grow more deeply in what to do.  And don’t try to do it by yourself.  All of this is made possibly only by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who with the Father and the Son live and reign for ever and ever.  Amen. 

What Belongs to God

 Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  So, this is the Gospel passage where we start talking about politics and religion, church and state, and how the two intersect, how they should or shouldn’t intersect, what’s right in politics, what’s wrong in politics, etc.  Politics, though now considered a dirty word in some arenas, is a good thing, as it is the science of running the polis, the city (in Greek).  But I don’t know about you, but it seems like politics is all we talk about any more, even as a church.
    Don’t get me wrong: the Gospel has political implications.  If we truly believe in Jesus and follow Him, there are some things we cannot support, and some things that we must support.  But our Lord’s point is much greater than what we owe to government, and what we owe to God.
    Let’s start with the fact that, although the Herodians had tried to trap our Lord in a trap, He set one of His own.  And though Christ didn’t fall into the trap, the Herodians were quite easily ensnared.  What was that trap?  Well, to begin with, you have to go back one chapter to realize where our Lord is.  He was in the Temple.  He had entered into Jerusalem, had left for Bethany, and then had returned.  And the traps that the Pharisees are laying for Him are everywhere!  But the Savior ducks and weaves, and lands a few punches (metaphorically speaking) of His own.  

Denarius with the image of Marcus Aurelius

    So, in the temple, the Herodians are asked to pull out a Roman coin.  We don’t think much of it, because we carry money around with us everywhere.  But, because there was a commandment about not having a graven images, a good Jew would have never brought a Roman coin into the Temple, because that was bringing the image of a pagan god (the emperor) into the house of the true God.  That’s why there were money changers in the Temple: you had to exchange your pagan coins–that, outside the Temple were necessary for daily business–for Jewish coins that did not break the Law.  So the Herodians are actually shown to be breaking the law by having those Roman coins with them.  
    But further, there’s this point about giving God what belongs to God.  A good Jew, going back to Genesis 1 and 2, would ascribe everything as a good creation of God.  Certainly, we wouldn’t talk this way about artifacts (like coins) that were man-made.  But break the coin down to its constitutive parts, and you get metals, which are fancy rocks, which are part of the earth, which God created.  And the skill of mining those fancy rocks was given by God by the creation of a rational brain in humans.  And the strength needed to flatten out the fancy rocks and shape them in such a way was also given, at least indirectly, by God.  Everything came from God.  God loaned, as it were, everything to mankind, making man and woman the stewards of creation.  So everything really belongs to God.
    So are we to give God everything?  In a word, yes!  When God asks for something, He’s not asking for a gift from us, or asking us to be benevolent and generous.  He is asking for what is rightfully His.  A steward was never the owner of the property of the household, though he could buy and sell.  A steward always did business realizing that the goods which he bought and sold truly belonged to the Master, for which he would have to account.  So nothing is, strictly speaking, ours.  This is where St. Thomas Aquinas gets the idea, repeated throughout the ages and dating back to the church fathers, that while we can own private property–we can possess things for ourselves–there is a universal destination of goods.  As St. Basil the Great says, “The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”  He can only say that if everything, ultimately, belongs to God.  
    Consecrated men and women live this out radically (at the root) by not owning private property.  I was recently at dinner with a family whose son is a religious brother.  This topic came up about owning all things in common, and, as happens, the question of common underwear came up.  Of course, people use their own underwear (at least in most congregations).  But, this brother was quick to point out that the underwear was not, technically, his; it belongs to the community.  For we seculars, whether priests or married, we can’t simply say that the universal destination of goods are only for consecrated men and women.  According to our vocation, we also are called to make sure that others, especially in the household of faith, are not in need while we are in excess.
    But offering God everything does not stop at what is tangible.  God desires and deserves everything, and that means everything.  The joy that we have when we are praised for a job well done should be given back to God.  The sorrow we have when we don’t do as well as a job as we wanted should also be given back to God.  And everything in-between.  
    God desires our all.  Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, states: 

For all [the laity’s] works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne–all these become "spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  Together with the offering of the Lord’s body, they are most fittingly offered in the celebration of the Eucharist.

Everything you do as laity, and everything I do as a priest, is meant to be offered to God, because, in the end, everything comes from God; it is His.  The only thing we do on our own is sin, and even that God wants, so that He can, by His grace, heal us and transform us.  
    As with any Scripture, there are many ways to apply today’s Gospel.  But today the Lord invites us to truly give Him our all, united with the bread and wine which I offer on your behalf to the Eternal Father, through Christ the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Offer to God your everything, and you will find that you have lost nothing, but gained everything, because God, as our loving Father, withholds nothing of what we need.  So give to God what belongs to God: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.