RCL Year A (Proper 24) - October 19, 2008

The Rev’d Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC

RCL Year A – Proper 24 – October 19, 2008

Exodus 33:12-23
Psalm 99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22

[note: this is a transcription of a dialogue sermon that was given with the children of the parish (and the adults… some of the answers were the children’s, some were the adults]

(showing the children and congregation a quarter)

What have I got here…
A: a coin…

what is this?
A: A coin, a quarter…

Is it a quarter? Can we all agree that this is a quarter?
A: Yes…

Who’s is it? Is it mine? Who does this belong to??
Is it mine? It came out of my pocket… but, is it mine (gives to another)
A: yes

Is it yours? Who does it belong to???…
A: it belongs to God… [child’s answer]

It does? How? Tell me how it belongs to God?
A: God made it… God made the world and the world made that… ([child’s answer] I like children’s theology – they are in the right thinking, they really are…)

This is a quarter… It’s made now of nickel… (probably out of silver at one point in our lives) we pulled the silver out of the mine, right?... and we made it into a quarter, and we use it for what? And we use it to do what? What do we use money for?
A: To pay for stuff…

To pay for stuff! So, what do we use a quarter for?... (not a lot now a days) What do we use money for?
A: We buy toys and candy and stuff…
A: We buy stuff that we need

Pay for stuff… What do we use a quarter for??? (other than to buy bubble gum?)
A: Pay for things… toys, food, bills… etc…

What did we use before we had money…
A: We bartered for stuff… we traded [adult’s answer]

We bartered and traded, right? So this is what happened before we had coins, we bartered and traded for stuff… instead of exchanging money for stuff.

When Jesus was in the temple, right, that is where Jesus was teaching today, he was in the temple… what happened? Do you remember what happened in the story I just read? What happened???

The Pharisees, in the temple now, I might add… The Pharisees presented Jesus with Roman Coin, a denarius (show picture) A Roman Coin… what does that look like?… What is this??
A: A coin…

What does that have on it???
A: persons head and words…
A persons head? And words? It has a persons head and words… the head… that’s Caesar, that was the Roman Emperor, and it the Latin words said, “Caesar the Divine”
And this was in the Jewish temple… ooooo…

Do you think that things like this were allowed in the Jewish temple?
A: NO!

No way! Not a chance! Why is that?
A: Don’t know.

Caesar on the front to the coin (a man’s image on it) and with words on it “Caesar the Divine” – that was considered what? That’s idolatry – idolatry, pure and simple, claiming something else or someone else had some divine power other than God.

So, they had money changers that sat on the outside of the temple…
Do you remember the story about Jesus and the money changers sitting outside of the temple? Jesus was upset at the money changers sitting on the outside of the temple, but He wasn’t upset because they were doing their job and changing money… Jesus, he was upset because they were taking a cut for themselves and lining their pockets…

They had money changers that changed the Roman coins, the denarius that people received for doing their job (a denarius was a days wage)… into this… (show picture of Jewish Shekel) this is what they changed it into…

This is what they changed it into… what is that? Is that another coin??
That’s a Jewish coin.

This is a Jewish coin… called a shekel. A shekel was a unit of weight, before they made coins… because they used it in the barter system… they traded items back and forth and a shekel was originally a unit of weight.. so they made a coin in order to represent a shekel… and then a shekel became what something costs, instead of trading…

Look at this and tell me what’s on that?
A: a hat

No, it’s not a hat…
A: a cup…

A cup? Ever seen one of those in here – in the church? Have y’all ever seen something like that in here??? A cup?

(showed the communion chalice) What is that?

That’s a cup! Isn’t that what we put the wine in? And the other side of the coin, what’s on that, wheat? That’s wheat…. And what do we use wheat for??? To make bread…

So they took the Roman coin at the temple and converted it into the Jewish shekel that didn’t have the image of a person on it… and made it acceptable for use in the temple, because the shekel didn’t claim divinity for something else other than God. So, this is the coin they used in the temple…

But guess what… we’re not Jewish, are we?… So, when we give to God, what do we do…
A: we pray…
A: we are giving God our money…

Are you giving God “your” money? Is it “our” money? Are we giving God our money or giving something that already belongs to God??

But you know what, God knows that we need to live in this world… So God only expects us to give back 10% of what God gives us, and some folks consider that a lot... But we know it’s only a small amount considering the multitude of blessings that God provides for us in our lives.

So, how do we convert this quarter, something that we receive for doing our job, something that is used to pay our taxes, (to the adults) something that is used sometimes as a score card, or a weapon in our lives…. into something that is acceptable to God…

How do we convert this quarter into something that’s acceptable?
A: we keep it…

Do we keep it?
A: we give it away and then they give it to someone else…

I am going to take this image here, this quarter with the image of this dead president’s head… because if we ever take time to look at it, all the money in the U.S. has a dead president’s head on it… Whether it is 10 dollar bill or 100 dollar bill it all has a president’s head… and put it in here.

What have I got here? Is this an envelope? What does it say? Offering? (puts the quarter in the offering envelope) We take that and put it in the collection plate when it comes around… Then what are we doing with it?
A: We are helping other people…

What are! How is that our responsibility as Christians? How do we use it to help other people?… A: Because when we give to help other people we are helping them because they don’t have any money…
A: We helping other people see God…

When we give to the church… we are, in fact, helping others... we are helping other people see God or experience God! It is spreading the kingdom of God… So, why is it that when give to the church, we so often fall into the same mindset that Moses had in the Old Testament lesson?… when he was so bold with God, and said, "God show me your glory!" He commanded God to show him His glory.

So often when we give to the church we are saying, God, show me your glory! We want to see the immediate results of our almighty dollar being worked out…

Instead, when we give money, we should trust that we are building up the kingdom of God. Nothing else… nothing more… nothing less… We are to trust that the money that we give is used to build up the kingdom of God…

So that’s why when we, as a church, make a decision to give money to the diocese, we are spreading the kingdom of God… And when the Diocese gives to the national church, we are spreading the kingdom of God….

And then the us and the diocese and national Church can use our resources to help other people. Sometimes they combine what we give with other offerings to fund its various programs… (for Episcopal Relief and Development, and the United Thank Offering (Presiding Bishop’s Fund)), We are spreading the kingdom of God…

So – when we give money to the church… we are helping to spread the kingdom of God!
Thanks be to God! Amen!