Sound bites can damage your spiritual health
Sermon preached in St Salvator's Chapel, St Andrews on 19th October 2008 by Rev Dr John Drane
Readings: Isaiah 45:1 - 7 and Matthew 22:16 - 22
Sermon
Introduction
The lectionary readings often produce some interesting combinations of Bible passages, and this Sunday's readings certainly fall into that category. In these two passages we have a story of two individuals whose names coincidentally both begin with the letter C: in Isaiah 45, we have Cyrus the Persian emperor, and in Matthew 22 we encounter Caesar. It would require an extraordinary amount of imagination to believe that either of them had anything like the same spiritual outlook as the authors of the Bible, and the terms in which Caesar is described clearly suggest that his reign has nothing at all in common with the message of Jesus. Yet the other one is described as 'anointed' which is the same word as the Hebrews used to designate the Messiah. And the descriptions of both of them provide us with lots of memorable sound-bites. In the case of Cyrus, he is depicted subduing nations, opening doors, levelling mountains, finding treasures in secret places - and on Caesar, there is that memorable statement about giving to Caesar and giving to God.
In today's world we are surrounded by sound-bites - especially from politicians and the media. George W Bush will probably be remembered more for his sound-bites than for anything else. Who can forget May 1 2003, when he stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and proclaimed 'Mission accomplished'? Or his claim in a TV debate in the 2000 primaries, that the political philosopher who had most influenced him was Jesus Christ? 'If only' Then in 2006 Tony Blair's spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, famously closed down a journalist's question about faith with the assertion that, in Britain at least, 'we don't do God'. More recently, Barack Obama has promised the US electorate 'Change you can believe in', while the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, descried herself as 'Just a hockey mom'.
Then there are all the apocalyptic sound-bites we have heard in relation to the collapse of the global economy. A slick statement can encourage us to imagine that the pundits actually know what they are talking about, when in our hearts we know that for the most part they are just playing mind games with us. Though sound-bites have undoubtedly become more widespread through the rapid expansion of the mass media, both the sound-bites and the theatricality of the occasions that produce them have been around for a very long time.
Jesus and Caesar
This is exactly what's going on in this story about Jesus. It's no simple interview, but a grand scheme to trap him into saying something that would finally galvanize opposition to his message. Actually, he'd already said more than enough to make enemies among both the religious and political authorities. But this is so obviously a contrived situation that you wonder how naïve they really were. The Pharisees and the Herodians both come along to congratulate Jesus on his wisdom and insights. It's like the Labour party and the SNP joining forces to say the same thing - you'd just know that something fishy was going on. And Jesus' response demonstrates that. He calls them 'hypocrites', which might sound bad enough - but that was the same word as was used to describe actors in the theatre, people who were playing a part, working to a script. Media commentators and politicians do it all the time. It's like Alex Salmond being called to account by Jeremy Paxman, and thinking to himself, 'I know what your game is, and if I'm to come out of this with some credibility I probably should call your bluff - but it would also be a pretty good idea to play the game as well as I can.'
Jesus does both these things. He plays the game, but he puts a spin on his response that both embarrasses and challenges his hearers. For one thing, being good religious folk who didn't believe in making images of anything - and certainly didn't care for the Romans - the fact that they were carrying coins with the emperor's face on them said a lot about their own inconsistencies. And it was certainly a clever move to suggest that anything with Caesar's picture on it must belong to him. But then Jesus raises another question about what belongs to God. Where do you look to find God's image? Anyone who knew their Old Testament scriptures would know the answer to that question right away, because the very first page of Genesis describes humans (specifically mentioning both women and men) as made in God's image. There was always an obvious challenge there for a patriarchal culture, not to mention other questions about where our ultimate loyalties should lie. But above all, it's actually saying that our encounters with other people are in some way encounters with the divine, which surely places one or two moral and political obligations on us.
Sound-bites have a life of their own
Before we come back to that, recall that sound-bites can have a life of their own. How many of us have written an email that we thought was confidential, only to find it being circulated more widely than we expected, and maybe misunderstood or abused in the process? Or realizing that something that was appropriate to say in one time and place is repeated somewhere else and ends up creating problems no-one could possibly have foreseen? It happens all the time. Whenever politicians are interviewed by Jeremy Paxman the last thing they want is to be reminded of what they had said on previous occasions. And it¿s happened with Jesus as well. I'll not be the only one who's wondered about the mess in the world economy, and thought that if Caesar (aka any government) and God had been on speaking terms then a lot of the greed and envy and selfishness might have been challenged long before now.
Actually, there's nothing new in this either. Once the Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christianity and it became the state faith, big questions were raised about what impact Gospel values might have on state policy, and this sound-bite that was so effective in the cut-and-thrust of religious debate in 1st century Palestine was soon seized upon as a justification for saying that Caesar knows how to run the world, and God should get on with running heaven. And so was born that notion that has so infected Western civilization, of the division between the sacred and the secular. Or, as some Christians might express it more colloquially, being in the world but not of it.
You don't have to look far to see the consequences of all that. It's led Christians into some uncomfortable places. It allowed us to see conversion as something that could be enforced as a political programme, as a consequence of which Christians engaged in all sorts of damaging activities in the heady days of Christendom. More recently, in the 1930s and 40s, something like this outlook prevented any significant opposition to Hitler and the Nazis on the part of the mainline German churches. Of course, we've learned some lessons from all that, and it came as no surprise when the two archbishops of York and Canterbury made a public statement about greed and self-interest in the context of the present financial crisis. Surprisingly, they were criticised for doing so in some quarters, for there is a growing body of opinion that questions whether religious leaders should have the right to say anything at all about civic life in the context of a pluralistic society.
In 2006, the Western Bible Foundation published a version of the Bible to meet the 'growing wish of many churches to be market-oriented and more attractive'. 'Jesus was very inspiring for our inner health', they claimed, 'but we don't need to take his naïve remarks about money seriously. He didn't study economics, obviously.' In this Bible version, the offending passages which raise issues of greed and injustice were not just edited out, but literally cut out - leaving holes (and not much else) in the pages. It was actually a stunt by a group called Time to Turn, but it ended up being too near the truth for comfort. As their spokesperson said, 'no serious Christian takes such texts literally'.
No easy answers
So the question is still here: to whom do disciples of Jesus give their allegiance? God or Caesar? In the end of the day, not only the teaching of Jesus but the entire Bible gives a very simple answer to that question - by saying that it's really a very silly question. Following Jesus is a whole life discipleship, because actually recognizing that people, as people, are made in the image of God, itself suggests social obligations that go well beyond anything that any Caesar has ever come up with.
That's an invitation to a really serious conversation. Not a staged semi-theatrical event like the one between Jesus and the religious leaders of his day. And certainly not one that should be conducted in sound-bites, however attractive they might seem as a way of scoring points in a debate. I've often wondered if Jesus would have said the same things had he known how easily they would be twisted and misunderstood by his followers many centuries later. A smart answer today can have disastrous consequences for tomorrow. It certainly didn't stop Jesus being crucified - and for being some sort of political challenge to Roman authority!
Some things are just too complicated to be addressed through sound-bites. Albert Einstein was a master of the memorable statement, but I doubt that even he could have explained the theory of relativity in ten seconds. Do sound bites damage your spiritual health? Well, if that's all your faith is based on, I think they do. And remember, sermons are full of sound-bites. They can make you think, but they're unlikely to tell the full story. Mine certainly don't! But then, that's also part of the gospel: an invitation to reflect on what it might mean to follow Jesus in the unique circumstances of time, place, and lifestyle in which we all find ourselves today.