Our neighbours have a delightful 7yr old, Elijah, normally wreathed in smiles but battling the effects of severe epilepsy. His special needs school is 40 minutes away in Totton. During more normal times as I take turns to drive him there, we count car transporters on the M271 and rather hope for fire engines, but the delight for me is the school. Each child is welcomed daily as though it’s been weeks, the facilities are outstanding and a team of 5 care for 8 children in Elijah’s airy classroom. Stunning! All paid for by taxes. What a privilege to live in a society which forces us to be generous. How proud I am of our Christian heritage which makes ‘giving to Caesar’, our payment of taxes to the government, of such great benefit to the ‘common good’. We increasingly live in a vacuum of belief and new Christians sometimes struggle with the realisation that living for Jesus means complete honesty on the tax front. A post-Alpha couple were chatting recently about the delight of a customer who regularly pays large sums by cash, ‘to keep it out of our books’. No one jumped on them, but the Spirit will slowly show them tax payments both help society to flourish and help them to rely on our totally generous God. Some rail against our Capitalist system but we have a government which is democratically elected, accountable for every penny and criticisable. Praise be. Taxation isn’t enough. We should be giving on top, but 3 weeks ago the UK’s Department for International Development donated a 7 figure grant to an overtly Christian charity I help with which provides healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa. If the ‘Caesars’ of the 21st century are happy to do that, I for one, am happy to pay taxes with alacrity.
25th June – Fiona Kouble – Luke 20
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Fiona Kouble
Sheffield
I have called this reflection – whose image do we bear? If you are fortunate enough to have a five, a 10 or even a 20 pound note in your pocket – you will see the image of our Queen and the statement – I promise to pay the bearer the sum of x number of pounds… The promise that we can use this strange piece of plastic paper to pay for goods, to pay our bills, even our taxes…. The thought that our notes, our coins bear the image of our Queen probably hardly crosses our minds much. But in first century Judea – the image of Caesar on the roman coins was problematic – the Jewish nation were not to use images… and they were being asked to pay taxes to an occupying force Jesus’ opponents used this knowledge to try and trap him. Surely he would either condemn paying the taxes – which would be problematic for the Roman authorities, or perhaps he would endorse these coins, this taxation – against the Jewish laws “Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ We are told that Jesus saw through their trap – and Luke has connected this question to the previous parable of the wicked tenants -where the tenants have refused to pay their dues to the land owner. ‘Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?’ A denarius – a common coin, a labourer’s daily wage, bearing the image of Tiberius and the statement “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, Augustus.” They have to reply “Caesar” 25 He said to them, ‘Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’ They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent. Jesus refuses to support any rebellion against Rome and yet he clearly acknowledges God’s authority and our allegiance is to God first and foremost!! We are reminded throughout scripture that God is the creator God In Acts chapter 17, “The God who made the world and everything in it, In Psalm 8, as the Psalmist rejoices in God’s creation he also marvels that God would allow us mortals to have dominion over the creation under his authority We are told in Genesis 1 – So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. How generous is our God? We are called to bear His image, to care for His creation, whilst recognising that everything comes from Him. Jesus affirms that His people, are to remain responsible citizens of the civic realm. And after all, as King David proclaims in Chronicles, and we say every week in our liturgy – “For all things come from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You” Of course when we look at our coinage our Queen makes no statement of divine sovereignty as Caesar did, so whilst we too, are to pay our taxes to “Caesar”- our highest allegiance, loyalty always goes to God In his book Dethroning Mammon, Archbishop Welby reflects how business decisions can often be based around being tax efficient, how changes in benefit systems need to be watched carefully and he says “[The Church should be saying] that the ultimate aim of taxation is to provide money to enable the state to ensure the dignity, safety, health and education of all citizens, which guarantees our common good…” Welby also says “ …but one thing is essential. The Church should be deeply involved in speaking into society, not because it is always right or has perfect wisdom – far from it! But because it dances to a different time and sees a different vision. Because we have a different ruler on the throne.” When I baptise people and make the sign of the cross on their forehead I often describe this as being marked as a member of Team Jesus – an invisible reminder that in all we do throughout our lives we bear the image and mark of our Saviour … we are to follow Christ To seek Christ To shine His light out in the world around us to love outrageously, to live generously. So how would you be able to respond today – if Jesus was stood in front of you and commanded you “[to give to] God what is God’s.’? What would you choose to give? What decisions might you change?