Middle schoolers aren’t the only ones who like labels, although that’s probably when it starts for most of us. What we wear, what we drive, the phone we use; these are some of the things that get us noticed by others and gives us at least some of our identity.
In our gospel today, the Pharisees are at it again; they are trying to get Jesus to say the wrong thing so they can build a case against him; and they are clever; no matter what he answers, he’s going to be in trouble. If he answers in a way that says it’s OK to pay the tax, all sorts of people will accuse him of supporting Rome and the occupation that is occurring; if he supports NOT paying the tax, then he’s in trouble with the Romans… he can’t win… which was exactly their plan…
So… Jesus says, since the emperor’s likeness is on the coin, it must belong to the emperor… so, give it back…a very clever answer in a difficult situation.
Being marked or branded, if you will, is one of the things that Jesus is concerned with in this lesson.
What marks or brands do we carry? To whom do we pledge our loyalty with our various brands and marks? I will tell you, that my dad, after much pleading and weeping by me, took me to buy my one and only pair of pro keds… my mother, much to my disappointment, insisted that they had to be white, rather than the red that I wanted, but whatever…. I finally got my wonderful sneakers that were going to make middle school bearable… I was finally going to belong; I was finally going to fit in…
Except that I didn’t… my wonderful sneakers didn’t make any difference; in part, because I was still the same person, and a new pair of shoes wasn’t going to erase years of teasing and not belonging… they weren’t the magic cure I was hoping for… I just became another disillusioned kid wearing a label that didn’t matter.
But there was a brand, a mark that I received around the same time that has made a difference… you know the words that accompany it… they are for me, some of the most beautiful words in our prayerbook: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked as Christ’s own forever”… marked and sealed by holy oil in a simple gesture of a cross placed on a forehead… a cross that cannot be seen… and yet it is the most important mark we wear… it is a mark, a branding, that identifies who we are and to whom we belong; we might even say, it is a mark of Jesus’ likeness on us, so that like the coin that bears the emperor’s likeness, we might bear Jesus likeness…
When I tried to seek happiness through a pair of sneakers, I was sorely disappointed; the more I tried to belong, the worse it got… it was only through the mark of baptism that I was able to find the sense of belonging that my heart and my soul desired. “Marked as Christ’s own forever” have been words that have been both comforting as well as frightening in my life; when I needed a community, a place to belong, it was the church that showed me that I could be loved no matter what I was wearing, or what job I held or didn’t hold at some points; but the church has been for me more than just a place to feel good and belong; the church has been the place where I have learned what it means to be a disciple; and I will say, being a disciple is not something I do very well; it requires me to act; it requires me to risk; it requires me to be confronted by my own complacency and by others who are much better at this whole disciple thing than I am; being marked as Christ’s own forever might also mean that even though people might not see the cross of oil on my head, they might know to whom I belong; at least I hope that I bear his likeness enough that others may know to whom I belong…
The church is where we learn who Jesus is, and how to be more like him; it is the place where we come to bear his likeness by embracing the stories that others have told about him and by realizing where our own stories begin to look like those stories; it is the place where we experience our own transformation as we take him into ourselves in the Eucharist; it is the place where we see him in each other…
My hope for all of us, is that we are for each other, a community that bears a resemblance to Jesus whom we profess to follow; I pray that our actions are the actions of disciples; I pray that when others look at us, they might begin to know something about Jesus; I pray, that we all find ourselves being comforted and being accepted for who we really are… and that in turn, that love and acceptance flows from us to others who need to belong, because all belong in God’s kingdom…
So… what marks do you and I bear? Whose likeness are we made in? Can others see by our words and actions to whom we belong?