No Body But Yours
Gospel Reflection Matthew 22:15-22
This past spring, we did that book study on Pauli Murray. She’s a pillar of the Episcopal Church, the first black woman ordained. But Pauli had other questions. She wondered about God, She wondered about her gender. She wondered about her blackness. She was the first woman to coin the term Jane Crow a way of drawing attention to both her blackness and her woman-ness. It wasn’t an easy time to be a black woman, but Paul continued to climb. That’s why her image is on the back of a quarter. It’s a way of memorializing her strength, her vision, and her hard work.
Pauli Murray is on the back of a quarter, not all of them, but a few of them.
The emperor’s face was on the front of all the coinage of Jesus’ time. It’s the image of the king, the ruler, the one who makes the laws, the one who does what he wants, the one who rules, the one with absolute authority, the one who can do what he wants without consequences, the one. That very one.
His image was stamped onto the coinage, the money, the way that goods were bought and exchanged, the way that taxes were paid, the way that the economy functioned. You couldn’t forget the emperor when you paid with that coin, just like we can’t forget George or Franklin or Abe when we use quarters or dimes or the almost extinct penny. Their images, stamped on our coinage, says that they are important people in this history of our country, the ones we want to remember, those who served our beautiful country with wisdom and power. At least, that’s our narrative, isn’t it?
We can’t say the same for the emperor during the preaching ministry of Jesus. Emperor Tiberius was one known for scandal and military conquests. He was no favorite, yet he managed to hold onto power for a generation, as he excised his enemies, as grabbed and pushed and killed and politicked. Jews considered even the coinage on which he appeared an idolatry; hence the moneychangers tables. In order to give to the temple, you had to change the coinage from that one with Tiberius’ image to one without an image. Idolatry has always been counter to the way of God.
It’s not so much different today, is it? We can argue that we know that George and Franklin and Abe are only good men, venerated yet not worshipped in our economy. All of that is true. Yet there is an even more insidious truth. Maybe we don’t worship their images, but we do worship the dollar and what it stands for, and by “we” I’m not necessarily calling each of us out this morning, but I am calling our way of life, our culture, and exposing our values.
Here are some things that we often infer about those who “have money.”
They’ve been responsible. They’ve saved, they’ve put their money away for a rainy day, they’ve done right with their money.
They’ve been blessed by God. Because God loves them they have more than enough, they can live the good life, and not worry.
The poor, on the other hand, haven’t done what they need to. They haven’t worked hard enough, they’ve been irresponsible.
God’s economy is so very different. Our way is so often not very helpful.
During the the time of Israel, there was this concept, the year of Jubilee. It happened once every 50 years. Each family or clan had their plot of land, and they’d try to make a living on that. Sometimes things went well and sometimes they didn’t. When things didn’t, they could sell their plot of land to their neighbor, but not forever. Every 50 years was the year of Jubilee, when the land that had been bought and sold went back to the original owners, the one who had to sell when things were hard and they got another chance, another go to try again. You couldn’t buy or sell that land forever. The Year of Jubilee got in the way!
The year of Jubilee. We have a beloved parishioner called Jubilee or Jubee for short in our church. What a lovely name!
God’s economy isn’t about storing up money, about making sure that God has the biggest boats or houses.
God’s economy is about love and about us. It’s care and relationship. It’s family, kinship and I’m not talking just about the people that we are related to. I’m talking about the world, the whole world.
God’s economy is based on people, on living things. God doesn’t need an image on coinage to make a point; God’s love says it all. In Genesis, we are reminded that all humans are made in the image of God, that humans reflect God’s goodness and even God’s greatness. And although animals and pets can’t claim that they are made in God’s image, knowing them and seeing them helps us see God’s goodness. You can’t see a flaming orange tree right now without seeing God and God’s flair.
But back to people, to us. Sure. Humans are greedy, the ones that get it the most wrong, the ones who’ve gotten us into this place where we are so divided we can’t see the image of God in one another, and all we care about — the royal we here — is making money.
Yet humans are also the ones who show us the very best way. They’re the ones who loved me into the kindom, the ones whose weakness is their best part, the ones who loved and care and show with their bodies what it means to be God’s hands and feet in the world today. Teresa of Avila, that amazing nun of the 1500’s, said this.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours.
In our beautiful church, we have this image of Jesus looking at us, with his abnormally large hands and feet. And I know I’m not alone when I say that this image of Jesus has changed me. Each week, I’m reminded that it’s just Jesus who heals and loves and cares and preaches, it also must be me. It’s not just Jesus who loves the sick and the poor and gives freely of resources, it’s us. It’s not just Jesus who is called to love God and neighbor, it’s us.
What would we do differently if we really believed this? How would we live differently? How would we do with our bodies if we lived this out?
A few beginning thoughts.
How might we love our enemies? Is there a way to stop dehumanizing them?
How might we continue to care for the sick and the poor and hungry and those in trouble, the ones we know?
the Peace.
Let me say a little more. By the time I joined the Episcopal Church, the “new prayer book” had been a thing for 20 years, but those who’d worshipped in TEC for their whole lives, those who were a little older, sometimes the Peace was difficult. I heard stories about it in seminary, the old women who wouldn’t stand or offer Peace to anyone, the ones who complained that it broke up the service etc.
The Peace is not a time to catch up with friends or say “hello.” The Peace is an ancient gesture that Jesus gave to his disciples after the resurrection, a blessing wishing God’s wholeness upon the other, a sign of the unity of the body of Christ, and a chance for reconciliation after the Confession and before Communion.
Today, when we practice The Peace, I’d love for you to exchange the Peace with only a few others, maybe three or four at the most. Give a pause, look in their eyes, offer the grace that you’ve been given back to them, and share a handshake, a bow, a hug, or even a simple greeting “Peace be with you.”
And then this week, whenever you touch money, whether it’s the coin or the card, remember God’s economy, where people are the reflection of greatness, the image of the God who loves, the one who came, the one who died, the one who loves.
An early deacon of the church, St. Lawrence showed us what it means to do this with our bodies. It was in the days of persecution of the church. Lawrence was caught and brought before the Caesar. They knew that there were precious cups and plates for Eucharist, the chalice and the paten. They knew there was money to give to the poor. The authorities demanded the riches of the church. They gave him a short time to bring them back.
Lawrence took all of the riches of the church, sold them, gave away the money and then appeared before the authorities. With him came the poor, the hungry, the widows, the orphans, the sick, those in need and trouble. “Here are the riches of the church,” he said.
Christ has no body now but yours…