Our world right now is in such social upheaval that many of us have no idea who is in charge, who will save us, how we will carry on, whether to laugh or cry.
We desperately grope for some external power to tell us what to do, how to be. We listen addictively to the NEWS. Isn’t the President going to tell us what to do? We curl up with some wise book, become blind to its words smudged up and blurred on a page. We call or text or email a friend or family, get no answer. We go shopping, because money has power to save. Some even say it “talks.”
Jesus, the New Testament Christian hero, talked a lot about money. He wasn’t against it. He knew it was necessary to pay taxes. In fact, he told people to respect Caesar’s coinage, identified by the emperor’ s own image on its face (just like President George Washington’s face on our quarter). But this is not the coinage of God. I have heard, even preached myself, many a pious sermon about the value of paying your “taxes”—in other words pledge your money to the parish church. Money buys respect, authority, a place in the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s a deal, right?
NO.
At times like ours right now, power and violence are tightly conjoined, and when you add money to the list you create a conflagration—a large hellish fire, a vicious trinity.
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Jesus recommended paying “taxes” to God. He meant to pray, laying bare your own heart, fears, your desires, your hopes, and your powerlessness.
You can pray even if you don't believe in a god or anyone else's God/G-d/Godde/HigherPower. When you "pray" you enter the depths of your own soul, therein accessing your own compassion—the heart of love for the world beyond your reach. This you give?
YES.
