The Image of God

You are probably more familiar with the phrase as it appears in the King James Version of the Bible: "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are Gods." This phrase is probably one of the most familiar in the Bible. I expect that if you went out and asked almost anyone on the street he or she could quote this line and correctly attribute it to Jesus. People might be less sure about which gospel it comes from, but that is understandable because it appears in almost identical form in all three synoptic gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke. This morning we heard it from Matthew’s gospel in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible: "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s."

The popular familiarity of this passage is remarkable. Just think how few quotations from all of written literature could be correctly identified by a significant majority of the population. This pervasive familiarity is all the more striking because Jesus’ words are actually a relatively obscure, "insider" comment. The original meaning of Jesus’ words is hidden in the specific politics of Jesus’ day. To really know what Jesus was talking about you would need to be up on the first century political fortunes and ambitions of the Herodians, the Pharisaic Jews and their relationship to the party of the zealots. Few of us have that expertise.

Nevertheless, we know this phrase; we are familiar with Jesus’ words: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and unto God the things that are God’s." Do these words have any meaning in the 21^st century? What do they mean to us?

Two of the ways in which this phrase is commonly understood today are almost certainly not what Jesus intended. Many people take these words as a Biblical injunction to Christians to pay their taxes. You should pay your taxes, but that was not likely Jesus’ purpose. Other people hear in Jesus’ words a Scriptural justification for the separation of church and state. There are things that are God’s and there are things that are the state’s. Both may be important, but they are different and should not mix. Jesus had never heard of separation of church and state.

Jesus meant to provoke his listeners, to shake them out of their comfortable assumptions. He meant to provoke the religiously self-righteous Pharisees into acknowledging their dependence upon the currency of the empire (even for the transactions of the temple). And Jesus also hoped to provoke the secular listeners in the crowd into acknowledging their dependence upon God and God’s things. Jesus meant to provoke. Are his words still provocative?

"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s." To make his point Jesus took a coin. "Whose image is on the coin?" Jesus asked. "The emperor’s." It was the emperor’s image which identified that which was the emperor’s, that which fell within the sphere of the emperor’s authority. It was the image of Caesar that marked what belonged to Caesar.

Listen to another familiar passage from Scripture, from the first chapter of Genesis: "Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." In his image. We bear upon us, within us, the image of God. If it is the emperor’s image that identifies what is the emperor’s, and if it is God’s image that identifies that which is God’s, then we are those things that are God’s. We are the image of God. Our selves, our souls and bodies.

Render unto God those things that are God’s. This phrase isn’t talking about the tithe, a measly tenth of our monetary income. It isn’t talking about some particular ministry we might volunteer for like the altar guild. It isn’t talking about remembering to thank God for a few, specific, clearly identified gifts we might feel God has given us, like citizenship in an open and democratic country. Jesus is talking about all of our lives—every minute of our time, every fiber of our being, every action that we take, every aspect of our lives. That’s what we should render unto God.

But how? How do we dedicate our whole lives to God?

In part, by living into the image of God that is a part of us. We are made in the image of God. That means that in some mysterious way we are able to participate in God’s own being. We are able, in our own lives, to reflect in the world at least part of what God is and God does. We act with God. For example, each time we create… We act in the image of God each time we create something out of nothing. A work of art, a relationship, a family, a bit of healing or hope brought on by our spoken word of comfort. These things would never be without us and without the image of God’s own creative power within us. When we create we render unto God that which is God’s.

Scripture suggests several other aspects of God’s being which human beings are given the opportunity to share. "God is love," the first letter of John states, "and the one who dwells in love is dwelling in God." To love is to act in the image of God. Similarly, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, "There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds." Human live has the capacity to mirror forth in some limited buy nevertheless very real way the transcendent goodness of God. To be good is to act in the image of God. To love, to be good, is to render unto God that which is God’s.

To create; to love; to show forth goodness. These are just a handful of the infinite ways in which we participate in God’s own being, ways in which we display the image of God, ways in which we render unto God that which is God’s. You will notice that these are all actions. Things to be done. To be made in the image of God is to be given the potential to act as God’s ministers. Today’s gospel commands us to fulfill, to live out that potential. Render unto God the things that are God’s. Render. Give back that which is due. If our lives are the coinage of God’s realm, to render, to give back to God that which is God’s is to live our lives in active ministry. To be a Christian is to devote your entire life to ministry.

There is a story about the Bishop of London which describes the importance of the daily ministry of the laity, of you folks. During a service in which the bishop was ordaining several candidates to the deaconate, the Bishop observed that he was about to demote them, to make them "second-class" Christians. He was going to take them "out of the action," which belongs by the rite of baptism to the laity, and make them "support troops," working behind the lines. In one sense, the Bishop continued, ordinations was not something to rejoice about because it removes from the person being ordained part of the dignity that belongs by right to the baptized—to represent Christ to the world. As people who work primarily in the church, the ordained do not work where it counts most. The Bishop admitted that this interpretation of ordination might be surprising to some (especially those he was ordaining that day), but it was proved by his experience as a bishop (and therefore a fourth-class Christian), and he had learned it from a fifth-class Christian, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

You are first-class Christians. It is your dignity, your duty, your right, your call to minister. To show forth into the world—where it really counts—every day, God’s love and goodness and to bring God’s joyful and hopeful creative spark to light. You are the image of God. Render unto God that which is God’s. Amen.

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