Taxes are Due, but Jesus is Lord

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

July 4, 2010 

Taxes are Due, but Jesus is Lord

Luke 20:20-26

It was an ordinary day, mid-morning, twenty years ago.

I was in my office at the consulting firm

I worked for in Buffalo

before I moved to New York City

and joined The Economist.

The telephone rang, and when I picked up the receiver

I heard the familiar voice of a classmate from high school.

He was a lawyer in town

and we bumped into one another regularly.

We chatted for a couple of minutes,

typical small talk: how’s business,

how’s the family,

and then he said,

“I’ll tell you why I called.

I am planning to run for Congress,

in the district just south of Buffalo where I live.

I want you to be part of my advisory team

and help me plan my campaign.”

I was surprised by his request.

My involvement in politics up to that point had never gone

beyond the voting booth.

I had never gone to a political rally or meeting,

never put a bumper sticker on my car,

or a sign on my front lawn.

I wasn’t even a member of a political party.

                                   

My friend said, “Let’s have lunch tomorrow

and I’ll tell you why I want to run for Congress.

We met and over the next two hours,

he shared his vision, his hopes, and his dreams with me.

I liked what I heard and agreed to help,

only part-time,

helping with strategy and planning,

as well as advising on business and economic matters,

my areas of expertise.

For the next two months, we did a little planning,

a little strategizing,

but most of my friend’s time

was spent on doing what all those

who seek elective office need to do:

he worked the telephones to raise money.

He was proposing to challenge an incumbent,

and we knew that it would take a lot of money.

After eight weeks of furious effort,

we sat down and looked at where we were.

We agreed that he was not likely to raise the money

he’d need to mount a competitive campaign.

He decided to end his brief campaign then and there,

and my foray into politics came to an end.

Or so I thought.

Jump ahead four years.

I was still in Buffalo, still at the consulting firm.

Once again, an otherwise ordinary morning,

once again, the telephone rang.

This time it was a voice I didn’t know.

But I recognized the caller’s name.

He too was a lawyer,

and he too was considering a run for Congress,

this time in a district just north of Buffalo.

A mutual friend had recommended me to him

as someone who might help him organize a campaign.

We met a couple of days later,

and he shared with me his vision, his ideas,

his hopes and his dreams -

why he wanted to serve in Congress.

Once again, I liked what I heard

and once again I agreed to help, again just part-time. 

He asked me to help build his organization,

and we agreed that the best way for me to start

was to fly down here to Washington,

and go through “Campaign Manager’s College,”

an intensive week-long program

offered by the candidate’s political party.

It was a fascinating five days,

even in the drab setting of a hotel in Crystal City.

At the end of the week,

a dozen of us who’d come together for the program “graduated”,

and went back to the candidates we were working with

to prepare for our campaigns.

But once again,

the lawyer was planning to challenge a long-time incumbent,

a Congressman who had piles of money.

Once again, after eight weeks of furious effort trying to raise money,

the lawyer called a halt to his campaign,

concluding that he could not hope to raise the funds he’d need

to mount an effective challenge.

This time my swim in the pool of politics really did come to an end.

Two months after we shut down the campaign,

I moved to New York City to take a new job,

and then a couple of years later moved to Princeton

to begin my studies at Seminary.

There are few subjects we love to discuss as much as politics,

especially here in the shadow of our nation’s capital.

Passion runs deep in politics,

regardless of party affiliation,

and that’s just as true, sometimes even more so,

among followers of Jesus Christ.

                          

Over the last 30 years there have been a growing number of voices

arguing that disciples of Christ should be actively involved

in every level of politics.

The Dobsons, Perkins and Robertsons

stand firmly behind pulpits or

in front of cameras in their television studios and

call on all Christians to demonstrate

a muscular faith in all settings

but especially in the voting booth.

It has been principally churches

that embrace the term conservative

that have been at the vanguard of this political activism,

many going so far as telling their congregants

who they should vote for,

and just as important, who not to vote for.

They are not bashful:
“a vote for so-and-so is a vote for Jesus”

On the surface, our lesson seems to teach us, though,

that we should keep politics and faith separate and distinct.

Jesus’ quote is so familiar:

“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s

and to God the things that are God’s.”

Or as many of us learned it,

“Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s

and unto God that which is God’s.”

                                   

Matters of the state,

political matters:

they should be kept on one side of a solid wall,

and matters of God, our faith, our discipleship,

they should be kept on the other side -

it sounds like that’s what Jesus is saying.

“Bring your tithe to the Temple,

as Scripture demands,

but when Rome also requires a tax,

pay that, too, just as willingly.”

Jesus was not politically active during his ministry;

he never shined a bright light

on the rampant corruption found everywhere

in the layers of governance imposed by Rome

throughout Judea and the surrounding nations.

He wasn’t trying to overthrow the government,

even though he was seen as a rebel.

He was certainly aware that most of the taxes

collected by Roman authorities

were used to support Rome’s military might,

which was often brutal and oppressive.

But he was also certainly aware that tax money

also went for civic improvement and services;

that taxes back then as now were also a source

of things that benefited the common good.

The Romans built roads,

brought clean water into cities,

and improved sanitation.

But Jesus wasn’t interested in confronting the civil authorities.

His focus was on God,

on obeying his Father in Heaven,

and calling on all who would listen

to obey his Father in Heaven, their Father in Heaven.

He knew that even the Roman emperor,

as powerful as he was,

was still nothing more than a mortal man.

Jesus knew what Scripture taught:

“A king is not saved by his great army,

a warrior is not delivered by his great strength;

The war horse is vain hope for victory.”

(Psalm 33:16)

For God rules over all.

God rules over all.

It is God to whom we owe our primary allegiance,

our primary loyalty.

The King, the state, the nation

any civil authority,

are always secondary.

It was the preacher Fred Craddock

who put it in such a “homey” way:

“Taxes are due,

but Jesus is Lord.”

We live within a civil society,        

and are governed by civil leaders whom follow,

but God is King,

Jesus is Lord.

Today we joyfully celebrate our nation’s birthday.

We are all proud Americans,

patriots every one of us.

But sometimes it is easy to forget that patriotism,

love of our country, as important as they are,

are secondary to our obedience to God in Jesus Christ.

We are first, last, and always followers of Jesus Christ.

        

Peter put it directly and bluntly

as he began his preaching ministry

following the first Pentecost:

“We must obey God

rather than any human authority.”

(Acts 5:29)

From a practical standpoint

that means that try as the Robertsons, the Dobsons

and their colleagues might,        

no political party can claim to be the favored of God,

the party of Jesus.

It was Abraham Lincoln who so wisely reminded us

that the question is not

“…is God on our side,

but are we on God's side?"

We are called to live our faith,

live our lives of discipleship in all places

and all times,

and that includes in the civic arena,

whether we are working to elect a candidate

to a political office,

or simply filling out a ballot on election day.

But living our faith isn’t always easy,

especially when the path our civic leaders call us to follow

doesn’t feel like it is the path Jesus calls us to walk.

War,

care of God’s creation,

helping the homeless, the jobless, the hungry:

These are all issues that call us to exercise our faith in the civic arena.

The issue of immigration reform, which is again

front page news, is only the most recent example

of how challenging it can be to live our faith.

There is legitimate concern among people of all political leanings

about how to handle the problem of illegal immigration.

Everyone agrees that we need comprehensive reform

of our immigration system.

We are a nation of immigrants,

but things are vastly different from the days

more than 100 years ago

when my ancestors came here from Scotland,

got off the boat without going through Ellis Island,

Customs, or needing to apply for a Green Card.

They just found a place to live,

found work, and built a life.

I don’t know what the answer is,

but however we shape reform,

we Christians should speak loudly in favor of reform

that is compassionate,

that is humane,

that is grounded in the grace and love God gives us in Christ.

Scripture tells us,

“When an alien resides with you in your land,

you shall not oppress the alien.

The alien who resides with you shall be to you

as the citizen among you;

you shall love the alien as yourself,….”

(Leviticus 19:33)

Jesus teaches us to “welcome the stranger”.

(Matthew 25:35)

We cannot respond,

“Yes, but this is different.”

Either we live our faith, or we don’t.

The Barmen Declaration,

one of our Confessional statements in our Book of Confessions,

puts so clearly the life we are called to:

“As Jesus Christ is God’s assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins,

so in the same way and with same seriousness

is he also God’s mighty claim upon our whole life.

Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance

from the godless fetters of this world

for a free, grateful service to his creatures.”

(Book of Confessions, 8.14)

This is the life Jesus calls us to:

of free, grateful service to all,

following the one who came not to be served,

but to serve,

at church, at home, at school,

and in the civic arena,

all of us grounded in faith that is free of

dogma, ideology,

imposed creeds,

partisanship, a quest for uniformity.

Rather it is a faith grounded in

compassion, grace,

mercy, love,

and yes, liberty and justice for all.

That made it easy for me twenty years ago

to work with a man who planned a run for Congress

on the Democratic ticket,

and made it just as easy four years later

to work with a man who planned a run for Congress

on the Republican ticket.

For us, even as we go off to picnics today

and watch fireworks tonight
celebrating proudly the 234^th birthday of our nation,

we go as disciples of Jesus Christ,

the one we follow first and last,

the Alpha and Omega,

and our true freedom.

AMEN