One of you was telling me recently about your business, how things were going these days.  You said things were not good; your business was somehow hanging on, but these were tough economic times.  Times have been tough for a while now.  There may be stimulus programs, jobs bills; but most of us know that things are different now.  This recession is not going to be fixed easily, is not going to be over soon.  Certain things in life, for many Americans, have changed.  This affects almost every one of us. 

The clergy of our Mid-Hudson Deanery met this past Wednesday, and one of the things we discussed, was that so many people continue to lose their jobs, including many long-time state employees.  This is about us, about our neighbors.  Something is deeply amiss.

There was a time when I was in a discernment process to see if God was calling me to a particular place.  As part of that process, someone called me for a long telephone interview.  Most of his questions were about sin, and from those questions it was obvious that the only sins that really mattered – to him, at least – were those having to do with sex.  This kind of emphasis tends to indicate a faith that is fairly exclusive.  Jim Wallis says this kind of faith, “degenerates into a narrow religion, excessively preoccupied with individual and sexual morality, while almost oblivious to the biblical demands for public justice.” 

This was not my kind of faith.  So after listening to these questions for a while, I said back to him, “You know, there are other sins, that have just as much to do with holiness, and have far more impact on the well-being of our souls, and the well-being of our society – like the sin of greed, for instance.  I do not think we in the church, focus anywhere near enough, on the sin of greed.”

How I got past that interview, I have no idea.  But the sin of greed is still largely unspoken-of.  While its importance, given what is happening in our economic system, has only grown, to perhaps critical dimensions.

Greed is being talked about now, by the protesters on Wall Street.  A priest named Daniel Simons, who works at Trinity Church, Wall Street, has spoken with the protesters.  And he says they actually have a clear and focused message.  Their message is, that “There are deep but resolvable cracks in our system of governance, which has artificially rigged the possibility of extreme profit at the expense of the greater good.”

In other words, the greed of a very few, has caused this economic disruption, affecting so many, while our system has neglected public values, and the public good.

Values are critical to a culture’s survival.  Our biblical faith is an important carrier of such values.  The values our Bible speaks of, and transmits, have much to do with the public good, and with economic justice, for all.  The economic well-being of all God’s people – including the less-advantaged – is given far greater value and importance, in our biblical faith, than the granting of unfettered opportunity to maximize financial gain.  Biblical prophets like Isaiah, Amos, Micah, and many others, make it abundantly clear, that economic justice is part and parcel of holiness.  God has a primary concern for the public good.

In our first reading this morning from Exodus, what has just happened in the story prior to today’s passage, is that Moses has received the Law on Mount Sinai, and God has now told him to take the Israelites and leave.  And Moses basically says here, ‘We won’t go without you.’  Moses knows deeply that without God, without the continued presence of holiness in their midst, their people, their culture, does not stand a chance.  Commenting on this, theologian Walter Brueggemann says that “The survival of a cultural system depends on the known, acknowledged power of holiness in its midst.”  For evidence of this, Brueggemann points to the collapse of the communist system, which knew no holiness.  He also wonders about our present system, at the values it seems to lack, at the holiness that seems absent.  To look at so many suffering in this recession, it would seem this is well worth wondering about.

This has nothing to do with separation of church and state.  The Founding Fathers, while taking great pains to see that no religion would be established, never envisioned that the nation they were forging, would separate itself from the values they derived from their various faith understandings.

Neither should we make the mistake of thinking Jesus meant any similar separation, between the realm of human finances and the realm of God, when he said, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 

The coin cited in today’s Gospel, the denarius, bore the idolatrous image of a Roman emperor, and the inscription on the coin made the blasphemous claim that the emperor was divine.  Any faithful, righteous Israelite, should have nothing really to do with such a coin, such a system.  The Roman tax was paid in Roman coinage, so the coins belonged to the emperor, and paying the tax was just a matter of dismissively giving back to the emperor what was his already.  ‘This doesn’t really matter,’ Jesus is saying; ‘this has nothing to do with who we are.’

We should not read back into this statement of Jesus, any notion that economics somehow exists in a realm of its own – apart from God.  Everything belongs to God’s realm.  Everything:  economics, politics.  Everything that has to do with the public good, with justice, with the well-being of God’s people.  It’s all God’s.

So, what is happening now, to people who are struggling in this recession, matters to God.  How our economic and political system is structured – when it encourages greed at the expense of the common good – matters to God.  Holiness is not separate from these concerns.  The values we have by our biblical faith are relevant, and needed.

So, when we think or talk about the recession, about the loss of jobs, about our financial struggles and those of our neighbors.  And about greed.  Let’s think and talk about our biblical values, also.  Let’s bring these values, into the public arena.  See how we might influence the public discussion.  We know about God’s concern, for the public good.

At the same time, on a level closer to home, the same principles apply.  How we manage our own finances, and the values we thus display, matters to God.  And the same caution about the dangers of greed, also applies to us, to the economic decisions we make.  These decisions, great or small, they have an impact, and they matter to God.

Here’s a suggestion, to illustrate; forgive me if it seems a minor thing.  If when you go shopping, you ever get yourself a little treat – be sure then to also buy an extra can of tuna or beef stew for the food shelf.  Little choices like these, too – are part of God’s realm.

How we use the financial resources God has given us, matters to God.  Decisions we make about money, do not happen in a realm that is separate from God’s realm.  Our biblical values, are every bit as relevant and needed here, as anywhere.  This is what Jesus wants us to understand, when he says, “Give to God the things that are God’s.” 

Be aware, of the dangers of greed.  Those who protest, on Wall Street and across this whole country, are saying “We are the ninety-nine percent.”  They call attention to the vast majority of ordinary Americans who are impacted by financial systems that benefit the very few.  We are the ninety-nine percent.  But we, too, are responsible for our actions.  We too, may conduct our affairs, make our decisions, less than fully conscious of the biblical imperatives of our faith.  We may achieve a certain financial level, where things are adequate, and become less conscious of God’s concern for economic justice for all.  Greed, perhaps, is a relative term.  Greed may take many forms.  Things can creep up on a person.  Perhaps it would be a worthwhile caution, to not think of greed, as always, applying only, to that other, one percent.

Give to God the things that are God’s.  We really cannot separate anything out.  Wall Street.  The common good; the well-being of our whole society.  Our businesses; our jobs, and the jobs of our neighbors.  The choices we make; in our lives, in our daily lives.  It’s all God’s.