The Peaceable Kingdom

 The Peaceable Kingdom aka Isaiah  Isaiah 11:1-9. Even if you're not religious, you've probably heard some of these verses.

The wolf shall live with the lamb.

The leopard shall lie down with the kid.

The lion shall eat straw like the ox.

Your basic predators and prey chilling together.

For fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the line "and a little child shall lead them" should some familiar. Except in that one it was a child-turned-vampire who was called the Chosen One. He looked all sweet and lovable, but he was a bringer of destruction. Which was a great crescendo as part of the end of that first season, but theologically pretty much the opposite of Isaiah's vision.

The popular culture thing that best fits Isaiah's vision is the movie, Zootopia. In the beginning the children act out a history play of how it was and how it now is.

Like the best of children's movies, it's enjoyable for little ones while providing adults with a story that works on multiple levels. The animals claim that they all live in harmony, but under the surface (and not very far under), there's prejudice about what skills predators have (and don't have) and what skills prey have (and don't have). Questions about who is safe and who is unsafe. Making sweeping statements like, "All predators are untrustworthy," realize you're talking to a predator and follow it up with, "But you're not like other predators." Maybe things aren't the utopia they appear to be. Maybe the idea that "anyone can be anything' is said to placate but isn't really meant.

But Judy Hops won't give up on either her big picture ideal of justice for all or the specific idea that she as a rabbit and Nick as a fox can be true friends without caveats. When she realizes she's been wrong, she apologizes.

The Isaiah of chapter 11 was prophesying at a time when Israel had split into Israel and Judah. When there was constant conflict. Battles to reunite, battles to stay separate. Isaiah imagined a time of unity, not through force and conquest, but through righteousness and faithfulness. Not a peace reached by papering over problems but by seeking and working for a peace as deep and wide as God's seas.

The visions of Isaiah and of Zootopia remind us where we are and where we want to be. As for me, I'm going to channel my inner Judy Hops this Advent.

Tides, Taxes, Tithes, and Tidings of Great Joy

A line from this coming Sunday's text has been rolling around in my mind. "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?" Followed by Jesus' response of, "Give therefore to the emperor what is the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."(NRSV)

What does it mean to be a people of faith who live in a system of taxation? It definitely means something different for myself as an American in a modern era than it did to a people who lived under Roman occupation.

For many in the United States, there is a feeling that taxes are oppressive, but for the Jews of Jesus' time, they really were oppressive. The taxes were financially crippling, taking animals, land, or forcing people into slavery if they couldn't pay.  (See first 3:09) And there certainly wasn't representation or seeing value for the taxes paid.

Knowing that, it's easier to understand how tempting it would be when asked, "Should we pay Caesar's tax?" for Jesus to say "No.The taxes are both unjust and Caesar is not God, regardless of what he claims."

But Jesus didn't.  Jesus did not come to create an uprising, to use force to battle Rome and overthrow their terrible, oppressive yoke. Jesus came to free us all by his own death and resurrection. His words of giving to God the things that are God's "assert[s] the sovereignty of God that was the basis for Israel's ultimate freedom." (Senior, Donald; ANTC Matthew)

And now here we are, living in God's kingdom, both here and not yet here. How do we deal with taxes and money? How do live into lives of justice in a complicated world?

I do believe in the idea of the common good. I believe in giving my tithe back to my church both for the ministry at Elim proper, but also for the ways we as the Saint Paul Area Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America "work for justice and peace throughout the earth." I'm sure if I took a fine tooth comb to the various budgets, I might not agree with every little detail, but overall I really do trust and believe in the work of my church on all three levels, done in the name of Christ.

I also believe that there are things that can only be achieved through combining our monies through taxes. Martin Luther often spoke of the idea that a well-run government is a blessing from God. Through government we have transportation access (from roads to mass-transit), education (from Head Start to land grant Universities), civil order (from police to courts to National Guard), protections for our most vulnerable (including the most basics of food, shelter, medical care), defense (our armed services), etc.

Do I agree with the all the choices my city, state, and national government make? No. There are a lot with which I disagree, from something as broad as how we proportion our budget to something as specific as our slowness to acknowledge, let along address the racism that leads to a disproportional number of black men being shot and killed by law enforcement. For me, my concerns are deeply informed by my Christian faith, even as I know others who share my concerns who are Jewish, agnostics or atheists. And just as I know there are other Christians whose faith leads them to place importance on matters of government that are quite different than my own.

It's complicated to be a good government with so many conflicting ideas of what government should and shouldn't be involved in. It's complicated to be a good citizen, paying my taxes when I have so many concerns about my tax money being used in ways that don't feel like they are for the common good or that work toward justice and peace throughout the earth. And yet I do pay them, and not only because I have to, but because I do think it is the right thing.

But I and my fellow citizens have options available to us that weren't available to Jews in occupation under Rome. I can vote, and do. I can read, discuss, and ponder life and policy in preparation for voting, and do. I can be a part of non-violent advocacy groups, and I am.

Above all, I can do exactly what Jews of Jesus' time did. I can recognize that Yahweh is the creator of all: skies, stars, seas, and soil; tides, taxes, tithes, and tidings of great joy; plants, people, possibilities, and peace. I can pray, and do, that God's Kingdom come, God's will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.