Let’s Face It: Everything Belongs To God

George using me as a climbing wall.

I have a really sweet memory from a couple years ago when I went with my mom, my sister, her husband, and three kids to Disney World. One of my twin nephews George who was about two and a half at the time started crawling all over me in Epcot. He walked his feet up me like he was ascending a sheer rock face. I felt like I had very little control over the situation, so when he calmed down long enough for us to talk for a minute I thought of it as a small miracle. In that moment he said—loudly enough for his brother to hear—“My Seff.” (translation: My Seth)

Mine.

There are times in life when it feels very important to say to others that something is "mine!" Sure, when we are toddlers we may very well fight over the same action figure or doll in a room full of other toys simply because we want to claim it as our own. Yes, on the bus to school or a field trip “my seat” links to one’s social status. Of course, in the larger world (and even the universe) we want to either individually or collectively mark something as our own by putting our name on it or sticking our flag in it. While we believe we are more advanced than dogs who mark their territory, somehow I look around and realize we may not be as enlightened as we hope we are. Of course, there are distinctions to be made here.

Sometimes when we say mine or ours we may very well be connecting to a larger sense of unity between others and ourselves. Collective excitement about a group accomplishment is one thing; however, there is another side to this coin. Blindly following the crowd to claim something or worse someone as “ours,” or blindly self-promoting one’s brand above all else stands out as at best vanity writ large and at worst destruction of the very ties that bind us together as human beings and fellow children of God. Saying “mine” as a young child is a natural part of human development, but grasping mindlessly at people, places, and things while claiming “mine” as we mature is what leads to teenage girls being abducted, women being sexually assaulted, assault weapons being stockpiled, troops being deployed, and the myth of scarcity being perpetuated.

Jesus said, “Whose head is this [on the denarius], and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:20-21).

At first glance, Jesus appears to condone the selfish behavior of humanity to carve our names on the underside of everything, as we try to claim it for our own. And yet, in this coming Sunday’s Gospel lesson Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ and Herodians’ trap with his own. The trick is that even though the emperor’s face was on the coin—which was a graven image made to depict the leader of occupying Rome who alleged to be a demi-god himself—the trick is that when we really unpack what Jesus said we discover the good news that God is the one who possesses all things and not the emperor. The difficult news in this good news is that like the emperor we too are only caretakers for that which truly belongs to God—and yes, this even includes our own lives.

What happens when we wake up to the truth that our lives are not our own? How does life change when we recognize that we are merely God's stewards as we take care of our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren? Why would we keep warring if we recognize that everything is a gift from God? Is it possible to continue the destruction of this planet, the abuse of one another, or the belief that we can own another human being when we come face-to-face with the truth that everything and everyone belongs to God?

On the surface this week’s Gospel lesson seems like Jesus sidestepping the trap of those who plotted against him, but in reality this passage envelopes us in the truth of our reality. God has given us everything. How will we respond to God’s graciousness? By putting our face, our name, or our agenda on everything we lay our greedy hands on? By claiming that we have earned everything in our lives by our own merit or hard work? By denying that others have been given the same gifts by God in hopes that we might learn to share everything just as God has shared this life with us? Or, by recognizing that God’s great hope for us is to be good stewards as we share the grace and gifts we have been given? For let’s face it, everything belongs to God.