It's uncanny at times how the assigned scripture readings for a given Sunday tie so neatly into what's going on in the world around us ... and just maybe, the world within us. Of course, I'm convinced God has a way of bringing about such seeming coincidences. For instance, if you've paid any attention to the capable and articulate senators vying for the presidency, you know the issue of taxes is high on their agenda! With that in mind, and our Gospel reading as the substance, I've borrowed a sermon title from the great preacher, Peter Marshall. In his sermon, Mr. Jones, Meet the Master, Dr. Marshall wanted to take a regular guy, an ordinary Joe, as it were, and introduce him to the most extraordinary individual any one of us will ever know, Jesus of Nazareth.

I'm going to update the title to reflect the text we just heard within these walls, and the context we just left beyond these walls. So my new title would transform and update Mr. Jones into Joe the Plumber, Meet the Master. I'd be surprised if countless preachers don't work Joe into their sermons this morning precisely because this regular guy, this ordinary Joe, is concerned about taxes in ways similar to that of the Pharisees and the Herodians. So this morning we have the text with taxes, and Joe worries how much he will pay the government, and those questioning Jesus wonder if they should pay taxes at all! But not really.

You see, the Pharisees and Herodians aren't concerned about taxes; they are concerned about Jesus and his growing popularity. And so they ask him one of those "gotcha" questions with the intent of tripping him up and undermining him in front of the crowds. Politics, they say, make strange bedfellows ... and the Pharisees and Herodians are a case in point. Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama are bosom buddies in comparison to the Pharisees and the Herodians! The Pharisees are the ultra-orthodox, religious right of their day. They wanted to make the Torah, the Word of God, into the rule of law. They hated the Roman, who occupied their country. And certainly were not eager to pay taxes which would support their own occupiers! On the other hand, the Herodians were more-or-less secular supporters of King Herod and they cooperated with their Roman overlords. Each saw Jesus the Rabbi as a threat to their own status - and the status quo.

And they formulated a beautiful question, these strange bedfellows, a question with which many are still struggling 2,000 years later: who has the greater claim on your allegiance? God or country? Flip the coin. Heads or tails? If push-comes-to shove, and it often does, who has the higher claim on your life? Our own country tried to solve this dilemma once and for all in 1954 when President Eisenhower inserted the phrase "under God" into our Pledge of Allegiance. We pledge allegiance to our flag, to our nation. However, if our nation is under God, then our higher allegiance is to our God. Jesus, of course, would have no quarrel with that!

So Jesus takes the trick question of his adversaries and turns it back upon them. Jesus requested a coin and then posed a question: "Whose head is this, and whose title?" And I picture Joe the Pharisee replying to Jesus the Rabbi: "The emperor's." And then in this most memorable of phrases, oft repeated, usually in the language of the King James Version, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God, the things which are God's."

You've heard the phrase "values clarification." There are strategies and games with the intent of helping us prioritize what is most important to us. When I came down with Guillain-Barré Syndrome about this time eight years ago, I was facing the prospect of total paralysis. Believe me, it clarified my values, helped me prioritize the elements in my life which were most important. Illness can clarify our values as quickly or more so, than any economic downturn. I've never visited a hospital patient whose 401k was a priority. Perhaps a concern; but not a priority. Values clarification.

What do you value most? God or country. People or things? The preacher, Fred Craddock, illustrates such a moment of values clarification as he tells this story I once shared. Craddock says, "Glenn (Anderson), a seminary classmate from years ago, ministered mostly in China. He was under house arrest in China when the soldiers came one day and said, 'You can return to America ... and you can take two hundred pounds with you.'

"Well, they'd been there for years. Two hundred pounds. They got the scales and started the family arguments: two children, wife, husband. Must have this vase. Well, this is a new typewriter. What about my books? What about this? What about that? And they weighed everything and took it off and weighed this and took it off and weighed this and, finally, right on the dot, two hundred pounds. The soldier asked, 'Ready to go?' 'Yes.' 'Did you weigh everything?' 'Yes.' 'You weighed the kids?' 'No, we didn't.' And the command, 'Weigh the kids.' And in a moment, typewriter and vase and books and all became trash. Trash. It happens." Now that's values clarification in the extreme.

Our gospel text this morning isn't asking us to weigh things on a scale; it is requiring that we weigh things using as the scales, our hearts and our minds. What bears a price tag? What is priceless?

John 3:16 might just be the most well-known verse in the New Testament, "For God so loved the world...." But I'm thinking that Matthew 22:21 might be the most often quoted: "Render unto Caesar...." And this is exactly the intersection of so much disagreement in our own time, in our own country. Caesar means the state, in our case - the United States. We do have an obligation as citizens to pay taxes, with bills bearing the image of Washington, Franklin, Jackson, or Lincoln. "God loves a cheerful giver!" they say. Well Caesar could care less how cheerful you are as you fill out your 1040. When it comes to paying taxes, some of us feel a bit like the great boxer, Joe Louis. When asked by a sportswriter, "Joe, in your career, who hit you the hardest?" Without skipping a beat Louis replied, "Uncle Sam." Whether we are cheerful givers, or reluctant ones, we give to the country. For the greater good of our society, we render unto Caesar ... with the anticipation that our government will provide adequate services for all citizens. We support our government financially, not only because we are required ... but also because we love our country. On the other hand, we support our local congregation, not because we are required, but because we love our God.

My friends (and this phrase may or may not be a political endorsement), my friends, the Bible tells us that we are to love our God above everything ... even above our country. We need to constantly remind ourselves that as citizens we pledge ourselves to "one nation, under God ...," and not "one nation, which is our god." The image of Caesar is upon our coins, but also minted is the reminder, "In God we trust." It is more than a motto ... for the Christian, it is a way of life; yes, even in economic downturns.

Speaking of images, the Bible assures us we have been created in the image of God. We're not sure exactly the full extent of what that means, but one thing is sure. Our God - who is a God of mercy, and justice, and love, and forgiveness, and generosity - God would like to mint those attributes upon each one of us. The oldest among us, to the youngest. And this very day God is going to do a bit of minting. Not a new coin, but a new Christian. Tyler becomes a child of God in the waters of Baptism. It is not the image of God which will be traced upon his forehead, but the image of a cross. If ever we are tempted to complain about our sacrifices to God and country (and that is the proper sequence), well, we are humbled at the sacrifice of God on our behalf ... upon that cross.

In summary, as citizens of this great land of ours, lift the flag high and salute it! But, but the Cross of Christ, lift higher. We render unto Caesar, but in God we trust. And in the sense I draw a weekly salary, the preceding was a paid theological announcement.