I gotta just come out and say it: God’s ways are strange. I mean, really strange! In my message today I’ll give three examples from what we just read and then ask you to reflect on what we’ve learned.

We’ll start with the reading we just finished: the gospel reading from Matthew. The story behind the story is that we’re in the last days of Jesus’ life. And we’re in the last days of Jesus’ life because a whole bunch of people have come to the same conclusion: Jesus must be stopped!

Jesus must be stopped because he is a threat and a danger to every God-fearing Jew on earth! Despite his popularity with the common folk, Jesus’ teachings--and, in particular, his scandalous associations with outright sinners like tax collectors and prostitutes--prove that what he’s saying and doing is not of God. He must be stopped. For God’s sake, he must be stopped!

Today’s attempt to stop Jesus is to demand that he answer an either/or question: Is it right and lawful to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not? If Jesus says, yes, it is lawful then he’s blaspheming and showing disloyalty to God, the true ruler of Israel. If he says, no, it is not right and lawful, then he’s guilty of treason against the Romans.

Either way they have him. So, Jesus, which will it be? Is it right and lawful to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?

“Hypocrites!” Jesus says. “Show me a coin.” And, the minute they reach in their pocket, Jesus has won. Handing him a Roman coin--a Roman coin that they, themselves, had been carrying--Jesus asks, “Whose face is on this coin, and whose title?”

“The Emperor’s!”

Throwing it back at them, Jesus snorts, “Then give the Emperor what belongs to him and give God the things that are God’s.”

At the start of that exchange, Jesus’ opponents thought they knew and understood God. God works in an either/or way. It’s either right or wrong, black or white, God’s ways or the highway.

By that understanding, clearly, Jesus was not on God’s side! In the world of either/or and right and wrong, Jesus chose the wrong people and shunned the right. They had to stop him, and they tried ... but Jesus outsmarted them and moved them from either/or thinking to both/and.

“Show me a coin,” Jesus said. And, when they showed him a Roman coin they were carrying and using, Jesus simply said, “Give the Emperor what belongs to him and give God the things that are God’s.”

God’s ways are strange! We not only think God works in an either/or way, we want him to work that way! It’s so much easier! It’s so much clearer! It’s so much easier to keep score and to know which side you’re on.

But God’s ways are strange. And the scariest example of that is from today’s first reading.
It started right there, in the first sentence (which was three verses long). See if, when I read it, you can tell what’s so shocking and so controversial about it! “Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their robes, to open doors before him—and the gates shall not be closed: I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.”

Did you get it? Did you notice what was so shocking about that? God--the God of Israel, that is--calls Cyrus the Great of Persia his anointed one! (And, if you didn’t know it, “anointed one” means “messiah” means “Christ”!)

God is calling the warrior-leader of Iran his “Christ”! And after saying that he’s personally taken Cyrus by the right hand, God says to him, “I will go before you and level the mountains, ... I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places ...”

Now, admittedly, God’s motives for doing this are, he says to Cyrus, “so that you ay know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.” But, do you know what? There’s no evidence that Cyrus, in fact, ever knew or acknowledged that!

No matter. God took Cyrus by the right hand and used his anointed one--his messiah; his Christ--to lead God’s people out of captivity in Babylon back home to Israel.

There’s no two ways about it. God’s ways are strange! We want a God of either/or; of either this way or that; of black or white; right or wrong. What God gives us is more complex than that!

God can--and does--use an Iranian war-lord--Cyrus--to be the messiah and deliverer of his people held in captivity in Babylon. Cyrus neither knows nor acknowledges that God.

God can--and does--use Jesus--an outsider; someone who seeks out, not the righteous, but notorious sinners--as his anointed; his messiah; his Christ. God can--and does--use the cross--an instrument of death and degradation--to save and bring peace to the world.

You want controversy? God can--and does--use the taxes we pay to the Caesars of this world to do his will.

For simplicity’s sake, we want either/or. God moves us toward both/and. Are we saint or sinner? Both! Are we saved or in need of salvation? Both! Are we for God or against God? Both!

We want either/or but, guess what? God insists on both/and!

One of the most common, widespread things you hear said about the Bible is, you can make it say whatever you want. Whatever opinion you have, you can find the Bible agreeing with you.

I understand why people say that. I even sympathize with them. But, the whole point of the Bible is not to see whether it agrees with the opinions you already have. The point of the Bible is to read it, and study it, and search it to see what opinions it brings you! Where does it agree with you? Where does it challenge you?

Today, Jesus’ opponents challenged him to try and make him choose between loyalty to God and appropriate loyalty to the powers of this world. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor, or not?”

Jesus did not accept that approach to life. Our lives are not subdivided into “religious” parts and “secular” parts. We have one life and in that life we have many loyalties and responsibilities.

It’s not God or country; it’s God and country! It’s not loyalty to God or loyalty to your home, your neighborhood, and your world. It’s both/and!

We are citizens in many communities. And God is God of all. In Jesus’ name. Amen.