{"id":4587,"date":"2021-10-16T20:26:33","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T20:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=4587"},"modified":"2021-10-16T20:26:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-16T20:26:33","slug":"god-and-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/10\/16\/god-and-country\/","title":{"rendered":"God and Country"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Twenty Third Sunday after Trinity| Rev. Rolf Preus| November 8, 2015| Matthew 22:21<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/CFUS-110915.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And [Jesus] said to them, \u201cRender therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar\u2019s, and to God the things that are God\u2019s.\u201d Matthew 22:21<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Fourth Commandment teaches children to honor their father and their mother.&nbsp; There is a promise attached to this commandment: \u201cThat it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.\u201d&nbsp; The authority of the father and the mother in the home is the foundation for every other kind of human authority.&nbsp; This means that we honor our fathers and our mothers when we honor those who serve in the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here in America we are taught that the government derives its just power to govern from the consent of the governed.&nbsp; The people have the right to choose their own government.&nbsp; The slogan, \u201cNo taxation without representation\u201d inspired a generation of Americans to cast off the rule of the British crown and to establish the free and independent United States of America.&nbsp; They gave us a constitution with a bill of rights.&nbsp; We cherish our rights as Americans and we honor those who fight for our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what if the government gives you no voice and no vote?&nbsp; What if it doesn\u2019t respect your God-given rights?&nbsp; Do you still have to obey it?&nbsp; Do you still have to pay your taxes?&nbsp; Jesus says yes.&nbsp; \u201cGive to Caesar the things that are Caesar\u2019s.\u201d&nbsp; Christ\u2019s apostles teach us to honor the government as we would honor servants of God.&nbsp; St. Paul writes in Romans 13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. &nbsp; Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.&nbsp; For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.&nbsp; For he is God\u2019s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God\u2019s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.&nbsp; Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience\u2019 sake.&nbsp; For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God\u2019s ministers attending continually to this very thing.&nbsp; Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus told his disciples to give Caesar what was Caesar\u2019s.&nbsp; St. Paul, Christ\u2019s apostle, told the Christians in Rome to pay their taxes because the government officials are God\u2019s servants.&nbsp; The apostle St. Peter said the same thing.&nbsp; The government that our Lord and his apostles said should be honored was not made up of Christians.&nbsp; It actively promoted idolatry, that is, false worship.&nbsp; That\u2019s why the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar.&nbsp; They were trying to trap him.&nbsp; If Jesus said, \u201cNo, you should not pay taxes to Caesar,\u201d he would make himself guilty of sedition against the government.&nbsp; On the other hand, if he said, \u201cYes, you should pay taxes to Caesar,\u201d he would be saying that they should honor a man who set himself up as a god.&nbsp; That\u2019s what Caesar did.&nbsp; He claimed to be a god.&nbsp; How could any God-fearing person pay him tribute?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus showed the Pharisees their hypocrisy and silenced them by asking them to show him the coin that one was required to pay to Caesar.&nbsp; It was a denarius, which represented about a day\u2019s wage.&nbsp; Jesus asked them whose image and inscription were on the coin they were carrying around.&nbsp; \u201cCaesar\u2019s,\u201d they said.&nbsp; Since Caesar claimed to be a god, the Pharisees who had set out to trap Jesus in his words ended up trapping themselves.&nbsp; They were walking around with idols in their pockets!&nbsp; \u201cRender therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar\u2019s, and to God the things that are God\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The civil government is established by God himself.&nbsp; This doesn\u2019t mean that God is an American or that he subscribes to the American Constitution.&nbsp; God\u2019s Word doesn\u2019t teach us what kind of government should be established among us.&nbsp; The Bible teaches us that whoever the governing authorities are, they are God\u2019s servants and they do what they do as representatives of God.&nbsp; If a man commits a crime, say he robs a store, and he is caught by the police, prosecuted, found guilty, and imprisoned \u2013 it is God who is punishing him for his crime.&nbsp; God works through means.&nbsp; He doesn\u2019t rain bread from heaven as he did in Moses\u2019 day with the manna in the wilderness.&nbsp; He causes the crops to grow, be harvested, processed, marketed, bought, prepared, and served.&nbsp; Through these means God feeds us with our daily bread.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just so, he doesn\u2019t do justice here on earth directly, but through means.&nbsp; Since he works through sinful people the justice isn\u2019t perfect.&nbsp; The civil authorities in this world can only bring an approximation of justice.&nbsp; The rich usually get better justice than the poor.&nbsp; No surprise there.&nbsp; We haven\u2019t ever seen perfect justice but we have seen what happens to countries where the civil authorities lose their ability to govern.&nbsp; Where there is no government able to punish criminals, protect lives and property, the strong and brutal tyrannize over the weak.&nbsp; Look at the vicious savagery that has descended upon Iraq and Syria.&nbsp; There is no viable civil authority to stand in their way.&nbsp; The strong prey on the weak with impunity.&nbsp; Even when the government is incompetent and corrupt and led by vain fools, it is better to have law and order than to live in a jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we give to Caesar what is his.&nbsp; We pay our taxes.&nbsp; We obey the law.&nbsp; Some taxes are unfair.&nbsp; Some laws are stupid.&nbsp; We pay unfair taxes and we obey stupid laws because God wants us to give to Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s.&nbsp; There can be no law and order if everyone chooses for himself which laws to obey and which taxes to pay.&nbsp; Without law and order our lives, our property, and our children are at risk.&nbsp; Obedience to the government is one way to show love to the neighbor.&nbsp; Give to Caesar\u2019s what is Caesar\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And give to God what is God\u2019s.&nbsp; There is a line that Caesar may not cross.&nbsp; The authority of the state is limited, not by the state, but by God.&nbsp; I said not by the state, but by God, because the only legitimate authority the state has is the authority that God gives it.&nbsp; God grants the state authority over the body, but not over the soul.&nbsp; God permits the state to tax us, to punish lawbreakers, to wage just wars, and to do other things that may burden our bodies with obligations we are bound to fulfill.&nbsp; But God does not permit the state to lay any burden on our souls.&nbsp; The power of the state is to make people do what they don\u2019t want to do.&nbsp; That\u2019s its authority.&nbsp; It is coercive.&nbsp; It doesn\u2019t make the unwilling willing.&nbsp; It requires the unwilling to obey the rules or pay the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not so with God\u2019s kingdom.&nbsp; The kingdom that Christ established doesn\u2019t rely on coercion.&nbsp; It doesn\u2019t depend on force.&nbsp; It doesn\u2019t make anybody do anything he doesn\u2019t want to do.&nbsp; Instead, the authority of God\u2019s kingdom, exercised by the Holy Spirit, is to make the unwilling willing.&nbsp; God doesn\u2019t force anyone into his kingdom.&nbsp; The power of God\u2019s kingdom doesn\u2019t come from swords, guns, policemen, or laws.&nbsp; It comes from the crucifixion of the Son of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pontius Pilate may have been a religious cynic and a greasy politician, but there are two things he said that are worth listening to.&nbsp; First, he said he found no fault in Jesus.&nbsp; Second, he ordered a sign to be placed over Jesus while Jesus was being crucified, written in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew that said: \u201cThis is the King of the Jews.\u201d&nbsp; When the Jewish leaders objected and argued that Jesus only claimed to be King of the Jews, Pilate replied \u201cWhat I have written I have written.\u201d&nbsp; Pilate didn\u2019t understand the significance of identifying Jesus as the King of the Jews where Jesus was suffering and dying on a cross.&nbsp; But then the civil authorities rarely do understand the significance of what they do and say.&nbsp; God was in control.&nbsp; God identified Jesus as King precisely where Jesus was gaining the authority to rule over his kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kingdom over which Jesus is the King, doesn\u2019t rely on swords, guns, or weapons of any kind.&nbsp; God\u2019s kingdom relies on the power of Christ\u2019s suffering and death.&nbsp; Who is he who suffers on the cross?&nbsp; Is he not our God, come to earth, for this moment?&nbsp; Is he not our brother, offering up to God the obedience that no earthly government succeeded in procuring?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Compare the two kingdoms.&nbsp; The civil powers that rely on forcing obedience out of the unwilling cannot make anyone righteous.&nbsp; They can only punish the bad guys.&nbsp; They cannot make them good.&nbsp; But the spiritual authority of Jesus is to do what the civil powers cannot do.&nbsp; Jesus does make sinners into saints.&nbsp; He does so by doing the good deeds the sinners could not do, giving them the credit for his obedience, and then suffering the punishment for the sins they did, thus taking that punishment away from them.&nbsp; He obeys.&nbsp; He suffers.&nbsp; This gives him the authority to forgive us all our sins.&nbsp; This gives him the authority to rule over us, not by coercion, not by force, not by threats, but by grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The civil government can make rules for our bodies.&nbsp; Even when they go to extremes in imposing burdensome laws that are neither necessary nor beneficial, we Christians submit to them out of reverence for Christ.&nbsp; For the sake of peace with our neighbors, we obey an unreasonable government.&nbsp; But we don\u2019t permit any human government to govern our consciences, to teach us right from wrong, or to rule over our souls.&nbsp; In commenting on Jesus\u2019 words, \u201cRender unto Caesar the things that are Caesar\u2019s and unto God the things that are God\u2019s,\u201d Martin Luther wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The soul is not under the authority of Caesar; he can neither teach it nor guide it, neither kill it nor give it life, neither bind it nor loose it, neither judge it nor condemn it, neither hold it fast nor release it. (LW 35 111)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we honor our veterans, it is good for us to keep in mind that the freedom for which America has fought can never been anything more than tentative and temporary.&nbsp; For it depends on deterring by force of arms those who would do our nation harm.&nbsp; It cannot change the hearts of our adversaries.&nbsp; It cannot change a single human heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Christ\u2019s kingdom does precisely that.&nbsp; God changes our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.&nbsp; God turns sinners into saints by a twofold miracle.&nbsp; First, he forgives us all our sins and reckons us to be righteous for Christ\u2019s sake.&nbsp; That makes us saints in the eyes of God.&nbsp; Second, he fills us with the Holy Spirit who moves us to do willingly what the civil power can only prod us to do against our will.&nbsp; But instead of mere outward obedience to the civil law, the Holy Spirit changes our desires and our will so that we willingly obey, from the heart, God\u2019s law.&nbsp; He who bore the burden of our sin on the cross says to us,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.&nbsp; Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.&nbsp; For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.&nbsp; Matthew 11:28-30<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There will come a time when America will fall as all nations before her have fallen.\u00a0 But the church of Jesus Christ will never fall.\u00a0 She will abide forever, governed, not by force of arms, but by the Holy Spirit who calls us by the gospel, enlightens us with his gifts, and sanctifies and keeps us in the one true Christian faith. Amen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Twenty Third Sunday after Trinity| Rev. Rolf Preus| November 8, 2015| Matthew 22:21 And [Jesus] said to them, \u201cRender therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar\u2019s, and to God the things that are God\u2019s.\u201d Matthew 22:21 The Fourth Commandment teaches children to honor their father and their mother.&nbsp; There is a promise&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/10\/16\/god-and-country\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,4,85],"tags":[575,238,231],"class_list":["post-4587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","category-trinity-23","tag-matthew-22","tag-rolf-preus","tag-trinity-23"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4589,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4587\/revisions\/4589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}