The gospel reading this Sunday was Matthew 22:15 - 22. In this gospel the Pharisees and Herodians ask Jesus whether it's lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. They want Him to say it's not so they can get the Romans to arrest him. He's certainly too smart for them and replied that we should "give to the emperor that which is the emperor and give to God that which is God's."
This is often used as a lead in to a sermon on giving as stewardship and offering to God in thanksgiving for the blessings He's given us and that's true...we SHOULD give from our abundance.
But are we to just give God our money? What was Jesus referring to when He said "...give to God that which is God's"?
Well, if we believe that "all things come of Thee O Lord..." then we really belive ALL things come from Him.
That takes me back to the statement that my priest made to me when we were having lunch together this past summer..."God wants all of you."
So are we giving God all of us?
How do we give God all of us? Or even PART of us?
I think we do that by staying focused on the two greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. (That sounds like "all" to me) And then there's Love your neighbor as yourself (which we have to admit we violate every single day).
So it looks like we have a hard time with that directive to "give to God that which is God's."
Of course the Lord knows we're all works in progress so the point is to not give up on giving him all of us.
And that's so easy to do isn't it?
I don't know about you but I get frustrated, short tempered, and I sometimes take things personally that I know I shouldn't. I can take all that out on others...which is completely unfair.
Let's make a promise to each other this week...let's work on giving a little more of ourselves to God. Let's try harder to be nice to our neighbors at work and let's try harder to focus on God during the hours we're at work.
What God really wants is our hearts.
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