The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost – October 17, 2026

Preached by the Rev. Canon Cathy Dempesy-Sims

We know this story, right? We’ve heard it so many times before. The coin. Supporters of the temple and supporters of Rome are each trying to catch Jesus in a compromising situation. And it all leads to the famous scene about to whom does one pay taxes.

Jesus though doesn’t take the bait, saying instead, “Show me the coin with which you pay the tax.” “Show me,” he says. Why? Because Jesus’s pockets are empty. But his accusers dig into their own pockets and they pull a coin right out. So without saying a word, Jesus has set this up. It becomes clear who’s really tied up in Rome’s money system, and it isn’t Jesus. He doesn’t partake in that. They do.

Jesus holds up the coin and he asks, “Whose face is this? Whose name?” “The emperor’s,” they say. “Then give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor. And give to God what belongs to God.” The crowd was amazed at this and his enemies walked away.

But still, people have been arguing about this since it first was written down. They’ve been arguing about what this means. There are certainly sects of Christianity that say we don’t have to ever pay any taxes because it’s wrong — Jesus says it’s wrong. Jesus never says it’s wrong. Jesus says when you’re in the system of the emperor, pay the emperor what is due. But that doesn’t have anything to do with God.

Some say this just shows that faith and politics don’t mix. Others say God only cares about your heart, not your wallet. Of course, until stewardship time… then that message changes. Others say it means Christians should always do whatever the government says. Of course, I don’t think Jesus meant any of that because remember some other things that Jesus said. No one can serve two masters. You can’t serve God and money.

He isn’t saying give half your loyalty to the government and half to God. That’s not how Jesus talks. Jesus doesn’t talk in a real clear way because he wants us to struggle with it.

Now on that coin of course there is the picture of the emperor and there are also words referring to the emperor as God. Well, every faithful Jewish person, the people Jesus is ministering to, the people Jesus is pastoring to, the people that Jesus is calling and agreeing that they are chosen, the Jewish people know the commandment: no graven images, no other gods. And yet here are these religious leaders walking around the temple trying to catch Jesus in some type of blasphemy all the while carrying those coins in their pocket.

It’s easy to say that Jesus was dodging the question, but I don’t think he was. I think he was raising the stakes. The real question isn’t about taxes. It’s about who we worship. We worship God. We live in a society that has governments and laws and rules. Jesus isn’t saying ignore that. But Jesus is saying don’t worship that. God said, “Let us make humankind in our image.”‘” And Jesus is looking at this coin that has the picture of a man and it says that that man is God.

So I picture Jesus standing there outside the temple kind of tossing the coin up and down. He looks the questioners in the eye. And the question that hangs in the air, at least for me, is: “And you, my friend,” Jesus might say, “whose image is stamped on you?” I think it’s a question for us.

I mean, most of us know what it’s like to stretch a paycheck. Some goes to taxes before we even see it. Some goes to rent, groceries, the car payment, the light bill. A little goes in the offering plate when we can manage it. We split our money dozens of ways because we have to because we live in a society and that society has government, has municipal services. We live in a society and when we need the fire department, they come because we pay our taxes. Nothing wrong with that at all. But Jesus is telling us, you can divide your paycheck, but you can’t divide your heart.

Jesus is saying, don’t get so caught up in money because our money just simply carries the face of a dead president. Hopefully, our heart and our soul carries the image of God. We don’t belong to our bills. We have a responsibility to pay them. And when we can’t pay them, we have a responsibility to make some tough decisions. But we don’t belong to them. We belong to God. All of us.

And you know that you all have been living on the edge and at some point in time you might get tired. Just remember this because you have a real and painful question facing you. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow… or maybe today. I don’t know. But the very real and painful question that faces you is not can we pay our bills or can we replace the boiler. The real and painful question facing you is with all of this effort, who are we serving? If it is true that for everything there is a season, what season do you find yourselves in here?

We are called to give God what’s God’s. The question that continues to loom for you and for many people in this diocese is “Here and now, how best can we serve God? How best are we being called to serve God?” That’s a difficult decision, but it is a faithful one.

Churches are growing. Oh, it’s incremental. But we are seeing the tide turn. But not all of our churches are growing. Some of them are not growing. And some of them have bills that are piling up and they, like you, have decisions to make. To everything there is a season. And one of the most difficult and faithful things we can do is determine what our season is. No one can do that for you. No one will do that for you.

But even though that’s a painful question, remember the other question. To whom do we belong? Do we belong to those who built this building? Those who were baptized, married, and buried from this place. Do we belong to them? Do we owe them a lot? Sure we do. Do we owe them a tremendous amount of gratitude? Sure we do. But let us not be overly influenced by their memory. To whom do we belong? To whom do they belong? Whose face is on the coin of our faith?

Is God asking us to go until we can’t again? Is God asking us to go until every dime has been spent but nothing has changed? Is God calling us to say maybe we need to be courageous? I don’t know. I don’t know. But I know that I am so tired in my position of walking into churches and knowing that all of the energy of these beautiful, faithful people is spent keeping something alive and afloat. A building, a name. And I wonder, and — I don’t know the answer to this, but I wonder — are we doing it for God or not? Who has hold of your heart? What is God calling you to do?

It’s a hard question, but it is one that I would be… well, frankly, it would be a lot easier for me to come here and speak of the gospel in a way that didn’t force any issue upon you. It would be easy for me to come and say, “Keep going.” And you know I will support you if that is what you choose to do. But I would not be a good leader if I did not say…

Think about this gospel. Whose face is on the coin of your faith. To what end? To what end? To what end? Amen.