Render Unto God

Sermon by Pastor David Layman

November 12, 2006
Psalm 24:1
Mark 12:13-17

By Jesus day, the Hebrew people had suffered under some form of foreign
rule for 600 years. They chafed under the fact they were required to pay
taxes to Rome. Jews believed carved images were idolatrous. And on the
Roman coins in circulation was a graven image of the Roman Emperor
Tiberius. Around the head of Tiberias were not the words were familiar
with: In God we trust. Instead, one read Augustus Tiberius, son of
the divine Augustus. On the other side of the coin was a reference to
Caesar as high priest. Roman emperors were considered high priests of
the Roman cult. As N.T. Wright notes, if the Romans had gone out of
their way to be offensive to the Jews, they could have hardly done a
better job with their coins! (p. 162, Mark For Everyone). Jesus
opponents sought to trap him into making a statement that could either
get him into serious trouble with the Roman authorities or patriotic
Jews, by asking Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not? Jesus
astounded his questioners. He said Render unto Caesar the things that
are Caesars, and unto God the things that are Gods.

St. Andrews Day is a time to celebrate our spiritual roots, listen to
bagpipe music, wear plaid, and enjoy a time of worship with other
believers. As we reflect back on our Scottish ancestors, let us consider
how they responded to questions of church and state in their day. And
finally, consider what this means to us today.

At a previous St. Andrews Day, I shared the exciting story of how John
Knox survived being imprisoned as a slave in a French galley, studied
under John Calvin in Geneva, and succeeded bringing about the Protestant
Reformation in Scotland in 1560. Unfortunately, great reform movements
often provoke persistent opposition. And for some 130 years in Scotland,
what was gained by John Knox was contested and reversed by succeeding
kings. In 1581, the king, Protestant nobles and others signed the First
National Covenant of Scotland. This proclaimed the supreme kingship of
Christ over the church, independence of the church from state
interference, and the acceptance of Presbyterian, representative
government. But in 1603, King James VI of Scotland was crowned King
James I of England. He was a strong believer in the divine right of
kings. James believed bishops would be more easy for him to control than
presbyteries, and he sought to impose bishops on Scotland. His son,
Charles I, was even more insistent on the divine right of kings. He
controlled patronage, and filled many Scottish churches with episcopal
clergy. Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud began a ruthless
persecution of Scottish clergy. In protest, the National Covenant of
1581 was renewed in 1638 with some Scots drawing their own blood to sign
parchments saying they wouldnt let their churches be controlled by a
king. All bishops in Scotland were declared deposed, and Presbyterian
government was restored.

During this period of turmoil, the Westminster Confession of Faith was
completed in 1649 in Londons Westminster Abby. The Westminster
Confession advocates the right of every person to think for himself, and
civil and religious liberty for all, subject only to the restraints
imposed by the Scriptures themselves. But kings continued to try to
control the church. In the second half of the 1600s, Presbyterian
ministers in Scotland were evicted from their churches, and episcopal
priests were sent to replace them. Many parishioners vacated their
church buildings, and began to worship in barns or open fields instead.
Then the king had parish lists drawn up, and roll was taken at each
service. Those absent without good cause were imprisoned or fined. Some
Scots engaged in armed revolt, and fled to the hills. They were called
Covenanters, because they vowed to remain true to the covenant which
their king had signed and then rejected. A Covenanter leader named
Hackston was captured, taken to Edinburgh, had his hands cut off, and
then he was hanged. But before he breathed his last, his body was cut
down and his heart was torn out. Other acts of brutality took place. A
young girl named Margaret Wilson and an old widow named Margaret
McLauchlan were tied to stakes in the river at low tide. They were then
urged to renounce the Covenant. When they refused to do so, they died by
drowning as the tide came in, rather than compromise their faith. Daniel
Defoe estimated that authorities killed, impoverished or banished over
18,000 people who refused to acknowledge Englands king as head of the
church (Edwin Nisbet Moore, OUR COVENANT HERITAGE, Christian Focus
Publications, Scotland, 2000, p. 3) Many Covenanters emigrated, some to
Northern Ireland, and others to America.

Descendants of the brave Scottish Covenanters in America founded what
came to be known as the United Presbyterian Church of North America,
which Reid United Presbyterian was part of until a denominational merger
in 1958. Presbyterians who came to America were at the heart of the
effort to separate church and state. Presbyterians in Scotland and their
descendants in America were fiercely opposed to having their pastors
appointed by a political body, or having their buildings controlled by
the government! At different times in history, the church has needed to
be protected from domination and interference by the state. Separation
was never seen as a way to restrict the moral influence of the church,
for wise governments have always seen the need for ethical influence and
guidance.

The issue of church and state is alive in our day throughout the world.
Some Islamic countries have secular governments, and others require
their citizens to be Muslim. I dont believe an American Christian could
emigrate to Israel and become a citizen. Our Scottish ancestors rightly
perceived that its not a good thing for a government to have the power
to appoint clergy and seek to control the religious bodies within its
midst. Separation of church and state began as a means of protecting
religious bodies from government control. Madeleine Albright, in her
recent book, The Mighty and the Almighty, notes Most of us do not
want our leaders confusing their own will with Gods, but neither to we
want them to ignore religious and moral principles. We support the
separation of church and state but not the enforced separation of
religion from the public life of our nation. Many of us pray regularly
that God will guide our leaders. We hope that those who make decisions
in our name will think hard about questions of right and wrong. John
Calvin based the Presbyterian form of government upon the understanding
that all persons are sinners, and you cant trust anyone, even a highly
religious person, with too much power. One couldnt trust a pope with
too much power, or a Jim Bakker, Jim Jones, or Ted Haggard. All
governments, political and religious, need checks and balances. Power
corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!

When Jesus said Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, and
unto God the things that are Gods, those who heard him failed to ask
Jesus What is Gods, and what properly belongs to the state? I believe
Jesus would agree with the teaching of the Westminster Confession: God,
the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil
magistrates to be under him over the people, for his own glory and the
public good; and to this end, hath armed them with the power of the
sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for
the punishment of evildoers. While that is the states duty, the church
has a broader calling. Psalm 24 tells us The earth is the Lords , and
the fulness thereof. As believers, our chief end is to glorify and
enjoy God....and to share the Good News of Jesus, not just within
certain national boundaries, but to the ends of the earth!

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