The Collect for today beseeches Almighty God to hear the devout prayers of the church, and to grant those things which we, the faithful, may obtain effectually. How many times throughout history has the Church, and the faithful, petitioned God for these things? How many times throughout history has the Church faced crises, either within itself, or in the world in which it works?

Without giving you a survey course in Church history may I remind you of things such as the Diocletian persecutions; the various sackings of Rome; the series of heretical teachings that threatened the very fabric of the Church itself; the Great Schism of 1054; the spread of Islam and the taking of the Holy Land; the various outbreaks of plague that would routinely wipe out a huge percentage of the living population; The Reformation; the Enlightenment; and so it goes. Time and time again the Church has faced, what would seem at the time, to be insurmountable difficulties. Yet, by the grace of God, the Church has weathered the storm and provided guidance to the world in these troubled times.

Once again the Church finds itself facing, what is perhaps, the greatest threat it has ever known. This threat however is more insidious. It is invisible, it is subtle; it is beguiling; it is devilish. It is the notion of secularism, of liberalism, of modernism, of post-modernism; it is the notion of the perversion of God’s will. What makes this the greatest threat, in my mind, is that this threat has found its way inside the church, even to the pulpit, and has taken hold. Well it is that the faithful pray, once again, for God’s intercession in troubled times.

The enemies of the cross of Christ are afoot, and we should all remember that our citizenship is in heaven. This fact has been lost on generations of people throughout history, and today’s Gospel warns us about this. The famous words “Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s. . .“are a stark warning to make us aware of the distinction between our civic obligations and religious duties.

The political and historical context in which Jesus lived, and caused Him to utter these words, is not unlike our own. The Pharisees (Jewish patriots who followed the traditions of ancient law would be considered the separatists of the day), and the Herodians (supporters of the ruling house who were collaborationist governors of the Holy Land and would be called federalists) forged an un-holy alliance. Though they were usually at odds with one another, they both agreed that Jesus must be stopped. The Pharisees because they viewed Jesus as undermining the ancient Jewish law; the Herodians because they saw Jesus as a disturber of the peace and the Roman’s would not tolerate unrest in any province they ruled. Thus they both attempted to isolate Jesus by presenting to Him the trick question cleverly elucidated in today’s Gospel.

Just as our Lord immediately understood what the Pharisees and Herodians were seeking to do, so must we understand what is before us today. The Church and the state are distinct. It is dangerous to confuse the two, though many attempt to do so. Each has its function in the divine ordering of things. The spiritual life is one, expressing itself in both civic and religious occupations. One cannot be a Christian on Sunday, and a pagan on Monday (especially this week!); it is spiritually disastrous to attempt that split. Yet many within our society do exactly this, and the result is the threat that threatens the Church today. Many claim to be devout Christians while espousing those types of things that are the complete antithesis of this teaching.

In every activity, whether sacred or secular, it is our duty to render to God our whole selves. We belong to God, and we must return ourselves to Him. When we seek selfish pleasures or protest against suffering, we have become too earthly; too heavily burdened to rise to heaven. We act like enemies of the cross of Christ.

The epistle today speaks of conversion. We must all be converted; we must practice detachment and embrace the hardships of our return journey to the heavenly homeland. Perhaps this is what differentiates the threat of today from those of yesteryear. The Church weathered those crises, but at great cost-look no further than the myriad number of martyrs those ages created. Today we seek to avoid hardship; indeed we are told that such things are un-healthy, un-natural, and un-necessary. The experience of the Church renders these sentiments laughable.

Brothers and sisters, be not like those “whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things,” but be like the Apostle Paul, followers together, and let us mark them which walk so as we have those faithful who have gone before as an example.

          In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.