God’s Sausage: Finding Hope Admidst the Failures of Our Governing Institutions

Robert Muller, who served recently as assistant secretary general of the United Nations, came from Alsace-Lorraine. His family and friends still living there have experienced five national changes since the end of the second world war. As a young soldier, he lost all of his comrades in battle and was grateful to survive. So he dedicated the rest of his life to peacemaking and went to work for the UN, working there for fifty years. When he began, he was pessimistic about the possibility of peace, given his wartime experience. But he said that five decades of working at the UN had transformed his point of view. He now identifies himself as a seventy-five year old optimist. He points to the miracle of the European Union, that has emerged barely three generations after the wreckage of Europe he left…

When I consider the example of Robert Muller, I’m reminded that many of us have wondered whether the UN would ever live up to its founding vision. Like making sausage and legislation in congress, or in diocesan convention on Saturday, it’s better not to observe the process closely. Suffice it to say that the UN is an arena of contention. Yet what nations may have meant for their self-interest, God can also use for good, the EU being the case in point. And now, the various and relatively new multinational institutions are being challenged, not only to live up to their founding visions, but to transcend them, in the service of a greater good, a greater whole.

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Recently I saw a rerun on KTEH that first aired in 1999. It was a series called the Parliament of Minds, Philosophy for a New Millenium. The millennium seems so long ago! One of the panel members was Robert Muller, who served as assistant secretary general of the United Nations. He came from Alsace-Lorraine. His family and friends still living there have experienced five national changes since the end of the second world war. As a young soldier, he lost all of his comrades in battle and was grateful to survive. So he dedicated the rest of his life to peacemaking and went to work for the UN, working there for fifty years. When he began, he was pessimistic about the possibility of peace, given his wartime experience. But he said that five decades of working at the UN had transformed his point of view. He now identifies himself as a seventy-five year old optimist. He points to the miracle of the European Union, that has emerged barely three generations after the wreckage of Europe he left.

In today’s political and economic upheaval, his view struck me as both reasonable and hopeful, a rare and precious combination. What he was saying was that it was impossible to imagine in mid-twentieth century what good would come out of the European disaster that had just convulsed the world. Who knows, then, as a result of our present disaster? Perhaps the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Court, and the International Monetary Fund, to name a few, will be transformed, in the next few generations, into an infrastructure that will, eventually, yield more stability and equity to the global village. Let us exercise a reasonable hope in that regard.

I haven’t forgotten the lessons, and I intend to make the connection. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. But first, let me add an amusing and insightful interchange from the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, the story of Doctor Paul Farmer’s medical mission in Haiti. He had treated a woman with TB and impressed upon her the importance of taking her meds faithfully, to effect a cure. She appeared healthy at her next check-up, but shared with him her understanding, from her native religious practice of voodoo, that she had been cursed and intended to get even with the person who had made her so sick. The confused, western trained physician asked her why then had she followed the treatment protocol. She answered him indulgently in Creole, Cheri, eske-w pa ka kon-prann bagay ki pa semp, meaning, “Honey, are you incapable of complexity?” (35). She might as well have said, render unto modern medicine its due, and likewise unto voodoo.

And there’s one scriptural story that will be helpful for us to add to this mix. Joseph and his brothers met years after they had sold him to a passing caravan. He was then the pharoah’s vizier, and they were Israelites begging for grain in time of famine. When Joseph disclosed his identity to them, they were understandably distressed. He reassured them in this way, what you meant for ill God used for good. They were thus reunited and reconciled. The wronged brother was now in a position to help, and it is a grace that he was so inclined.

Consider the example of Robert Muller. I’m sure many of us have wondered whether the UN would ever live up to its founding vision. Like making sausage and legislation in congress, or in diocesan convention yesterday, it’s better not to observe the process closely. Suffice it to say that the UN is an arena of contention. Yet what nations may have meant for their self-interest, God can also use for good, the EU being the case in point. And now, the various and relatively new multinational institutions are being challenged, not only to live up to their founding visions, but to transcend them, in the service of a greater good, a greater whole.

Let’s mine the scriptures appointed for today, using these examples as a trifocal lens into their wisdom. Let’s attempt a complex view. Let’s entertain the lessons, in the light of present global apprehension, in the short term, alongside a keener appreciation of God’s far longer term working for good, despite the perpetual sausage making.

Jesus retorts to a challenge by his opponents about the lawfulness of paying Roman taxes. Aren’t the religious elites capable of complexity? After all, there are different dimensions of allegiance and overlapping spheres of influence. Jesus points out to them that they live in both contexts every day, answerable to Rome and to heaven. It helps our appreciation of his reply to know that there is also a temple currency, circulating alongside the currency of empire. The Jerusalem leadership routinely use both kinds, each in its proper context.

Also, Jesus is setting up a resonance with other parts of scripture. The denarius is imprinted with Caesar’s image on one side, and inscribed with the emperor’s title on the other, including an ascription of his divinity, a claim that would have been considered blasphemy by the leader who actually produces the coin from the folds of his robe for Jesus’ illustration. Oops, how embarrassing. Well, everybody does it. How else are you going to deal with the imperial economy in an occupied province? Palestine has changed hands more often than Alsace-Lorraine.

What Jesus is up to is recalling them to a more original claim. What does God say in Genesis? I will make them in my image and likeness. They and we bear the imprint of the living God, not the likeness of Caesar. Years ago I preached on this text, and afterwards, an east bay parishioner gave me this Byzantine coin, bearing the imprint of Christ Pantocrator on one side and his title on the other, Jesus Christ, King of Kings. I’ll show you after the service if you’d like to see it.

How capable of complexity are we in such matters? Jesus suggests that what we owe to any nation or empire is different than what we owe to the God who created us, the God who empowers the godly to serve the good above all else, the God who wrests good even from our sausage making. Let’s take the example given by Isaiah, Cyrus of Persia. God decided to use Cyrus for good, whether Cyrus knew it or not. Cyrus is the only gentile given the title of messiah in the Hebrew scriptures, because it is through his agency that the exiles return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple. It’s like a joke. Who can God choose to anoint? Anyone God wants! God can raise up messiahs from stones.

What the Babylonian and Persian empires meant for self-interest, God used for good, deepening Israel’s vocational insight through exilic adversity and unlikely deliverance. Because of the power God gave Cyrus the messiah to accomplish his mission, Israel returned home. So it is that Jesus can stand and argue with its leadership in the provincial capitol centuries later, during Roman occupation, about Caesar.

In contrast to God’s use of Cyrus unawares, Israel is asked to be in conscious relationship with God, to serve intentionally, as a chosen and anointed people. Through cooperation with God, they reveal God’s glory beyond their small nation. They have a global identity and purpose. Not all Israelites submit to the refinement of their faith through the vicissitudes of history. Not all take the journey of vocational discernment. Not all serve willingly as agents of redemption. Not all persevere in the promptings of the Spirit. And neither do all Christians. But it is those who do persevere that manifest the story of grace, the gospel, the good news God works amidst all the bad news. It is the faithful who are able to celebrate what God uses for good, despite whatever is meant for ill, with a trained awareness. It is the faithful who appreciate humanity’s relationship with God as history’s most transcendent impulse.

The psalm is a perfect foil to Jesus’ Jerusalem opponents. They, of all people, would know it by heart, being the religious elite, because it’s a summons to worship. Let’s see, what do we owe Caesar? Oh yes, the requisite taxes, and also grateful acknowledgement for the blessings of infrastructure, roads, aquaducts, and absence of violence in the streets most of the time. And what do we owe the living God? Ascribe to the Lord the honor due his name.

The faithful honor God in worship and service, says the psalm. It has to do with God’s saving power. It is the healthful energy of God’s grace that circulates abroad among the nations. God’s Spirit is available as a resource for all peoples. This good news is revealed through the worship and service of the messianic people, Israel. Eventually, Israel’s faithfulness is embodied in messiah/christ. And through him, Christians add themselves, in a new phase of this mission, by adoption and grace.

So what does Israel owe to God, Jesus asks his interlocutors? The psalm says they owe a new and wider song of salvation. To give God what is rightly due is to proclaim God’s universal purpose with eagerness and enthusiasm. Israel, and we Christians too, serve as persuasive proclaimers of God’s paradoxical power. Through the ages, the faithful sing this psalm as they enter the sanctuary and begin worship.

The word worship is based on the word worth, that which is of ultimate value. Acknowledging God’s incomparable worthiness is to appreciate the beauty of God’s encompassing holiness. The faithful are called to abide in the biggest possible picture, the largest possible plan, the most gracious infrastructure of salvation. In other words, Caesar’s big, no doubt about it, and Cyrus was too, back in the day, but they are nowhere near as big as God. Their spheres of influence are puny next to God’s, like gnats next to an elephant. So, be sure to render what is appropriately due to each.

Paul is an example of a faithfully trained rabbinic Jew of the dispersion, and also a Roman citizen, a complex identity, even before his conversion. Through the incomparable grace of knowing Jesus Christ, he learns to sing a radically new and wider song. He learns to greet his unexpected deliverance from law into grace as the unlikely fulfillment of God’s purpose for Israel. Israel’s mission to the gentiles is made possible in messiah/christ, and the vocation of Christians is to sing that new song.

Thessalonica is the capitol of Macedonia. Paul’s work there and in Achaia is the first planting of the gospel in European soil. The congregation there persists in gospel joy, despite the adversity of persecution, so confirming their election by God in Christ. Their credibility is plain to see. The power of grace is demonstrated by their witness. Their faith is evident in the value they place upon the surpassing worth of knowing God in Christ. The proof of their adoption, election, and anointing, and ours, is that they become imitators of Jesus, bearing the image of God in his likeness, and invoking his name for their strength in serving.

So religious leaders in Jerusalem may have meant their challenge to Jesus for ill, but God uses the interchange for good. How do we evaluate these different dimensions of our lives? How do we assign them relative worth? How do we give them their due? How much time, talent, and treasure do we invest in each? It’s complex, isn’t it? Are we capable of the complexity? Our gospel witness depends upon it. So let us be gospel optimists, the bearers of a reasonable and holy hope. AMEN

- The Rev. Dr. Katherine M. Lehman, October 19, 2008, Proper 23, Year A