Thoughts going in, Sunday Nov 6th

Rev 7:9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" 13 Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?" 14 I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 'Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them,' nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center before the throne will be their shepherd; 'he will lead them to springs of living water.' 'And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.'"

1John 3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

This coming Sunday is another designated Sunday, another thematic Sunday, another festival Sunday.....ALL SAINTS SUNDAY.

The day itself occurs on November 1st (October 31st being "All Hallow's Eve, aka Halloween), but we routinely transfer the celebration of the festival to the nearest Sunday so as to give it our maximum attention in worship.

There are a LOT of things that could be said about All Saints day. The celebration of the saints, and the belief therein has made it into the language of the Church not just in scripture passages like those cited above (and there are many more), but also in the creeds (we believe...in the communion of saints) and also in our basic communion liturgy (therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven). Taken together, our scriptures, our creeds, our liturgy, clearly we can say that the concept of saints/sainthood is big on the radar screen of the Church.

One of the things that I appreciate about both the day and the readings appointed for the day is the emphasis on both THEM and US.

THEM: (Rev 7)... Every time I visit with a family to plan a funeral service for a loved one that has just passed away, it isn't long before the question of "I hope they're ok"....comes up. As parents we typically go through this sort of thing the first time we drop our child off at daycare or preschool. As we're driving away, we utter a little prayer that they'll be ok... that everything will work out alright... that they'll like it there... that they'll enjoy it... that they'll be safe, etc. etc. These are precisely the sentiments we express in our prayers of commendation:

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your 
servant N. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of 
your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your 
own redeeming. Receive him/her into the arms of your mercy, 
into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the 
glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.
 
May his/her soul and the souls of all the departed, through the 
mercy of God, rest in peace.

The beauty of Rev 7 (and other passages) is that it tells us that our prayers are ANSWERED. They are 'alright' there. All is well for them there. They haven't ceased to exist; they haven't lost their identity; they have being, purpose, joy, and all in the presence of their Savior. And of all of those verses in Rev 7, vs 17 is probably the most meaningful for us as we contemplate those we know personally who have died in the faith: For the Lamb at the center before the throne will be their shepherd; 'he will lead them to springs of living water.' 'And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. NO TEARS. They are happy.

But as I mentioned earlier, there is not only a "THEM" aspect to our All Saints celebration, there is also an...

US: (1John). In this short, but dense, passage the author tells us that even if we can't quite grasp what lies ahead, it's going to be great when we get there. For now we live in a reality of partial-revelation. We have the label of "children of God"... and we're living in the present reality of being children of God, yet there remains a fuller and more complete revelation yet to come: But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. In that sense, our All Saints celebration is about the great heroes of the faith and about our loved ones who've gone on before us in the faith, but it's not SIMPLY about that. It's also about the fact that WE'RE HEADED THERE TOO. We're on the same track. Their God is OUR GOD. Their Savior is OUR SAVIOR. Their hope is OUR HOPE.

Do we always live this perfectly? Are we always hoping in the hope perfectly? Are we always able to keep our doubts & questions in check perfectly? Of course not. We have all of the struggles that come with being in our present state of imperfection--which includes (in no small part) the arrows of doubt & disbelief hurled at us by The Enemy. Here it bears remembering that what makes the Saints Saintly was not their perfection, but rather their persistence. That's what the author of 1John means when he says; All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. "Purifying oneself" is a very old concept going back to Jewish thought/custom and the idea of ritual purity. Jewish believers retained the actions of ritual purity as a matter of practicing their faith; they did these things as a matter of LIVING, and MAKING PRESENT, and OBJECTIFYING the living faith that was in their hearts. So often we hear people mistakenly say: I don't need to go to church in order to believe in God; I don't need to worship with others in order to believe in God; I don't need this or that in order to believe in God. They mistakenly believe that FAITH can exist just fine in the circular vacuum of their heart. This is a TOTALLY FOREIGN concept to each and every generation of worshiping people the Bible presents. FAITH, in order to stay alive, needs to be practiced. Celebrations like ALL SAINTS remind us that we're not just practicing our faith for a present 'benefit,' but that there remains yet a glorious future reality when ALL of God's people will be gathered together in the New Creation... where seeing our Savior will mean being just like him...FOREVER!

cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Oct 30th

Jer 31:31 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbors, or say to one another, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Rom 3:21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the "law" that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Hurray, it's Reformation Sunday again (upcoming this weekend)! The triumph of Luther! The triumph of Protestantism! The triumph of "German-ness!"

Of course none of that is true. With the yearly festival of the Reformation we must always admit that for every gain, there was great loss.

Yet, the Reformation remains a festival of the Church worth celebrating--especially when one keeps the focus on GOD, on his WORD, and especially on his power and commitment to continually rescue and renew.

It is that aspect of God's love and his commitment to us that has been on my mind lately as I've begun another year of teaching confirmation class. One cannot teach the Genesis story of creation and the fall into sin without being struck by God's commitment to rescue and renew. God tells Adam & Eve in Gen 2:17 that they must not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, for the day you eat thereof, you will surely die. And then, of course, THEY EAT! And what follows is The Fall.

As a person who tries to take the Bible seriously, I am frequently amazed at how often the effects of The Fall are either underplayed or ignored. Frequently The Fall is used as a simple category whereby to discuss humankind's penchant for sin. It **is that. But it's so much more. It is nothing short of the FALL of the cosmos! When God pronounces the string of 'curses' upon Adam & Eve in chapter 3, he is relating to them what has already happened or begun to happen as a result of their choice to disobey him. It is much like a parent telling his/her child that since they left the milk out of the refrigerator, it has gone sour and there will be no cereal for breakfast tomorrow morning.

When I explain, or at least attempt to explain, the COSMIC IMMENSITY of the Fall to a confirmation class, I liken it to a science project for school....the proverbial Peter Brady volcano science project. If you're making that thing...and halfway through, it's not going right, what do you do? You scrap it and start all over.

The story of the Fall is the perfect example of something that started out well, but then went horribly wrong. If we wouldn't think twice about scrapping our projects and starting over, one would naturally have expected that of God. Yet he didn't. One of the greatest examples of divine love is that he didn't scrap his project and start all over. He continued to work with the mess that WE CREATED.

Ok, great..... what does that have to do with the Reformation, and more importantly, themes for our Reformation Sunday meditation? Just this... as I ponder the work of God for us, I'm constantly reminded of (and astounded by) God's dedication to RENEWAL.... and Reformation at its best is all about God and renewal.

Of course the Genesis story mentioned above illustrates that. Our first parents destroyed, but God renewed--offering them hope and salvation (Gen 3:15) instead of his threatened sentence of death. But God's dedication to RENEWAL spans the entire bible. I don't often do this, but since Reformation Sunday is a thematic day, I've pulled from all three of the day's readings to illustrate this.

JEREMIAH: Never was there a more unappreciated (and ignored) prophet than Jeremiah. His message was always negative; always of 'doom & gloom.' Judah, God's people, had repeatedly flouted their covenant responsibilities and relationship--and God's judgment at the hands of the neo-Babylonian Empire awaited them. Yet, even this prophet of doom and gloom had a message of hope and RENEWAL for the people. Once again, even though the 'science project' was ruined, God wasn't going to scrap it. There would be a tomorrow. I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, says God through the prophet. What? Israel? Hadn't they made such a shambles of things up to this point? YES. But God is the God of RENEWAL.

ROMANS: One of the difficulties of reading the New Testament--and particularly St. Paul--is that we do so today through the extremely cloudy lens of 2,000 years of history separating us from him--as well as our received Protestant theology that tends to interpret everything Paul says in the narrow understanding of the 16th century debates between Protestants and Catholics. Hence, when Paul talks about "works of the Law," it is traditional in Protestant circles to assume he's talking about "good deeds," like shoveling the sidewalk for the little old lady who lives next to us--and whether or not these deeds are "necessary for salvation." This is unfortunate, for in so doing we often entirely miss the point that St. Paul is trying to make.

Paul's biggest and greatest message was to trumpet the MYSTERY and the COMPLETION OF THE MYSTERY that in Christ God had begun a NEW THING. God had completely done away with the covenant distinction separating Jew from Gentile. Paul taught that since Messiah has come, the mark of the covenant was no longer ETHNIC. It's now open to ALL. And the sign of the covenant is now FAITH. This is the "new thing" that has been made known. And so building on this theme of God being the God of Renewal for Reformation Sunday, we see that not only did God not give up on CREATION, not only did God not give up on his traditional covenant people (from Jer), but in Romans we see that God hasn't given up on all of humanity--but offers salvation's renewal to all, by FAITH.

JOHN: The biggest thing we get from the day's gospel reading is the idea of the now-not-yet. Holding to Christ's truth will set one free. God's RENEWING activity among us is a work in progress. For some, this is a downer. It's easy to look around at the greed, the human irresponsibility, the injustice and inequities in our land (to say nothing of the whole world) and lament that things are such a mess. Where is God? Why has God allowed such injustice to flourish? God is right where he always is; amongst us in His Word & Sacraments; amongst us as the Body of Christ, His Church. He has not defected. Yet, to be sure, in our age--just as in EVERY AGE--there is great need for reformation and renewal. A predominant theme for us this and EVERY Reformation Sunday is the repetition of the theme that the job is not yet done. More reform..... more of GOD'S RENEWAL is needed among us.

THEN & NOW: One of the biggest reasons for the 16th century reformation of the Church had to do with the sale of indulgences: the complete misappropriation of the Church's central message, the Gospel. Today, in our land, the misappropriation of the Church's central message isn't occurring through the sale of indulgences, but it is occurring at some level. In large part the Church of today in our land has become just as corrupt and just as drunk with power as the medieval Roman Church. Political alliances are made; "voters guides" are issued, and the faithful are repeatedly pummeled with messages that trumpet American nationalistic themes of free-market capitalism, national interests of "defense" (aka bending the world to our wishes), and loyal support of totally corrupt corporate and banking systems. THE GOSPEL of Jesus Christ in many "churches" is nearly as hidden and obscure today as it was in the 16th century--and the "Church" as a whole, has been silenced as a voice of opposition to the Kingdom of This World. And make no mistake, 21st century America is every bit as much a part of the Kingdom of This World as every other secular, corrupt, greedy, power-brokering, ruthless, tyrannical, kingdom that humankind ever invented.

"Hordes of devils [indeed] fill the land, all threatening to devour us." And yet, the message of the Reformation, the message of GOD'S COMMITMENT TO RENEWAL goes on & is for us still to this day: "God's word forever shall abide, no thanks to foes, who fear it; For God himself fights by our side with weapons of the Spirit."

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Oct 23rd

Matthew 22:34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 "What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?" "The son of David," they replied. 43 He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? For he says, 44 " 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." ' 45 If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?" 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I don't often do this, but this week I am so in agreement with Kathryn Matthews Huey (from sermon seeds ucc.org) that anything I'd say would be a paraphrase of what she's written. Instead, it just seems appropriate to quote her.

Today's passage is only one small piece of a conversation we're overhearing, between Jesus and the religious authorities of his own people. It's a little bit like listening in on a family argument, with higher stakes. The displeased leaders uncomfortably recognize Jesus' parables as "speaking about them": "They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet" (Matt. 21:45-46). Feeling offended and "disrespected" and perhaps threatened, they fight back with the only weapons they have: their learning, and their way with words. 

Like our modern presidential debates, these exchanges appear polite on the surface, but the tension underneath is hard to miss. In Matthew's descriptive account in chapter 22, the authorities "plotted to entrap him" (v.15), and "Jesus, aware of their malice," calls them "hypocrites" (v. 18) and tells them that they "know neither the scriptures nor the power of God" (v. 29). Perhaps we might understand Jesus' hostility if we (as always) consider the setting: after his triumphal procession into Jerusalem, he immediately "cleansed" the temple and confronted the religious leaders who then questioned his authority to teach on their turf. Clearly, they're not fans.

Jesus hasn't applied for a license or passed their test of orthodoxy, and yet his answer today to a question about the heart of the law, the heart of his people's tradition, shows that he is an utterly faithful Jew. On round three of theological questions, the Pharisees have sent in their "big gun," as Beverly Zink-Sawyer describes this legal expert (New Proclamation 2008) to get to that heart of the matter. Richard Swanson continues the image: "The Pharisees take their best shot and it misfires. Jesus fires back, and no one bothers to reload." The lawyer has asked a "Do-You-Have-A-Clue-About-Being-Jewish? question," Swanson says, and "Jesus clearly has a clue about being a Jew" (Provoking the Gospel of Matthew). 

If we turn to a baseball metaphor instead, we might say that the Pharisees throw Jesus an easy pitch and he hits it out of the park. After all, even though the Pharisees want to trap Jesus in heresy (i.e., saying the other 612 laws are less important), scholars seem to agree that Jesus isn't the first to put together these two laws about loving God (Deuteronomy 6:5) and neighbor (Leviticus 19:18). But as always there's a twist in the way Jesus interprets the tradition, a twist that turns our perspective around today just as much as it "confounds" his listeners long ago. (Isn't that one of the most important roles, and gifts, of a good teacher: to turn around the perspective of their listeners?) Instead of reducing the importance of the rest of the laws, he paints a picture of them as a coherent whole that "hangs together." Even more, Thomas Long tells us that Jesus sees the law very differently than its experts do, and his response "undermine[s] the whole notion of the law as rules and regulations. What Jesus claims is that the whole law is about love, not rules, about really loving God and one's neighbor, not about figuring out how to avoid stepping on cracks in the legal sidewalk" (Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion). 

We might begin our closer look at these two commandments by asking how humans can indeed be "commanded" to love. (What kind of love is it if it's forced, some might ask.) And then we might look more closely at how we define love mostly as a feeling that then causes us to behave in a certain way. When we don't feel love, it influences and even justifies our behavior, or our lack of right behavior. We claim that no one can force us to love someone else. "In an age when the word 'love' is greatly abused," Douglas Hare writes, "it is important to remember that the primary component of biblical love is not affection but commitment. Warm feelings of gratitude may fill our consciousness as we consider all that God has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Deut. 6:5 demands of us but rather stubborn, unwavering commitment" (Matthew, Interpretation). And commitment can be seen as a setting of the heart, something we choose to do, a way we freely choose to live our lives. Commitment is that mysterious mingling of feeling and action, a beautiful dance between the two.

An example during this stewardship season in many churches: several years ago, inspired by the witness of two older women, longtime and faithful members of the church who told me their stories of tithing, I decided to take the step of increasing my own giving to the church I loved. Increasing to a tithe was a challenge but it surprised me that my feelings followed after the action, or after the commitment, if you will. I found that I loved my church more when I gave more to it, much as we love our children more after giving of ourselves to them over many years. So it seems that when we decide to set our hearts in a direction, toward something or someone, and when we do the things that fulfill that commitment, our feelings often follow afterward. The laws of giving and Sabbath and loving, I believe, are God's way of getting us to do what we need to do, what's good for us; these laws give us the direction for setting our hearts. Again, it's a thing of mystery. 

The great scholar Marcus Borg has famously called these two commandments the "great relationships," and he even ends his excellent book, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, with this "remarkably simple vision of the Christian life. It is not complicated, though it is challenging." It's as if it all comes to this, for "at the center of a life grounded in the Bible is the twofold focus of the great relationship."

So at the heart of being a faithful Jew, and at the heart of being a faithful Christian, we have these two great relationships, intertwined in yet another mysterious mingling for people of faith. Beginning with the second, we know that we're called to love one another, not just the people we feel love for, but all of God's children, which is where justice comes in, what Borg calls "the social form of love" in the Bible (The Heart of Christianity). The tradition in which Jesus taught and lived called Israel (as we are called today) to "justice, mercy, and faithfulness," Douglas Hare writes, "that is, forms of behavior demanded by the prophets but beyond legal regulation" (Matthew, Interpretation). We know that Jesus interpreted this law of love to cross boundaries in place in his own culture, beyond family or group loyalties, and he ran into trouble for doing so. 

We might also ask what boundaries we have placed around our own commitment to love our neighbor, which of God's children live on the other side of those boundaries, and how comfortably we live on this side of them, all the while thinking that we too are faithful to the two great commandment/relationships. God didn't mean for us to love those people, right? And yet Jesus made clear the reason we love even the stranger, even the "least" among us: later in Matthew's Gospel (the well-known Chapter 25), he said that we will be judged by whether we were able to see him, to see Jesus, to see God, in every single person we encounter, and he describes that love in what we do, not what we feel.

Turning then to the first and greatest commandment, to love God with all our heart and soul and mind, we once again consider the orientation, or setting, of the very center of our being: "Within ancient Jewish psychology," Borg writes, "the character of the heart depended upon its orientation, what it was pointed toward or centered in…what mattered was the orientation of the self at its deepest level, its 'center' or fundamental loyalty" (Jesus: A New Vision). Jesus was a radical, Borg says, in teaching that we are to be centered in the Spirit, and not in the many other things that call for our loyalties, "rival centers" like "family, wealth, honor, and religion." Two thousand years later, we might ask if nationalism has demanded our loyalty in ways that displace the primary importance of God, and if God is indeed first in our hearts and our lives. And we should be prepared to be called a radical, too, if we follow in the way of Jesus.

Cheers,

TM

Thoughts going in, Sunday Oct 16th

Matthew 22:15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?" 18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, "Whose image is this? And whose inscription?" 21 "Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." 22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

As Matthew continues to unfold his story, this Sunday's passage follows directly upon the three parables of Jesus in the Temple courts: The Parable of the Two Sons; The Parable of the Wicked Tenants; & The Parable of the Wedding Banquet. What follows, then, can rightly be called THEIR RESPONSE.

This brings up an interesting theological perspective--one mentioned at least once by Luther--that being, that AT TIMES when we are *confronted by God, we do not repent; we do not seek forgiveness; and we are not sorry for our sins. At times, our reaction is just the opposite. We become more angry; more bitter, and more stubborn. That certainly seems to be the case with the religious leaders who are listening to Jesus, and specifically, the Pharisees in this week's text. THEIR RESPONSE is they laid plans to trap him in his words.

vs16-17: This is a "strange bedfellows" arrangement. As 'groups' go, neither the Pharisees nor the Herodians would care much for each other. The Herodians could be considered a catch-all term for a group of totally secular/Hellenized (meaning, totally "into" Greco-Roman culture...Jewish in name, but not in much else) "in-crowd" with the ruling client king. This would amount to close family and friends, trusted advisors, etc. The Herodians were opportunists. They had done well under Roman occupation and would continue to do well so long as status quo was maintained.

Of course, such a group would be despised by the Pharisees. The Pharisees were all about infusing ALL of normal life with the utmost of purity and holiness. They would have had utter disdain for the Herodians, and in the case of an armed conflagration ...would've fought on opposing sides. Yet, the old proverb about 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' comes into play here. They set a craft trap for Jesus by having him weigh in on just about the most contentious matter possible.

v17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?

We as 21st century Americans have a very difficult time understanding & applying what's going on here in v.17. Extremely religious people on both sides of the political divide can be heard shouting in the public square: "WE DON'T WANT OUR TAX DOLLARS GOING TOWARD ....." and you can fill in the blank (usually an unpopular war or abortion).

But the question and issue of v17 makes little sense once its removed from its 1st century context, and zero sense once it's removed from the context of Jewish Torah observance. The question "is it right..." (TNIV) is rendered "is it lawful" in the NASB. The Greek word is "exesti"...which on the surface may mean simply "permissible," but one must remember that in 1st century Jewish Pharisaical life ALL QUESTIONS of permissibility come down to the Law, the TORAH. In other words, they are not asking a philosophical question about whether or not a ruling government has the right to impose taxes. David taxed; Solomon taxed; Hezekiah taxed; the Hasmoneans taxed; Taxation was as normal in ancient life as it is in modern life. No, what they're asking is whether or not a GOOD TORAH OBSERVANT JEW COULD/SHOULD PAY **THIS PARTICULAR TAX...

Most scholars think that what's being discussed was the "census tax" that was instituted in 6AD after the death of Herod the Great, when Judea (after a brief stint under Herod's son) became directly ruled as a Roman province. The tax was one denarius per person per year. Given the size of families, and given that a denarius was the minimum daily wage a person could make and still eat, destitute families would of necessity go without food several days a year just to pay this tax. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was the COIN ITSELF. The denarius was a Roman coin, stamped with Caesar's image on it & with the inscription: "Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest (pontificux maximus)." The coin literally DRIPPED with paganism and offense against the 'graven images' prohibition of the Torah. For highly observant Jews, merely touching the coin would've constituted taking part in or affirming the cultic lies expressed by the coin. Caesar was *not divine; he was *not a god; the coin was blasphemous. Yet as a conquered/subservient people they were obliged to use this coin in deference to Caesar's wishes.

So, as every commentator under the sun has noted, it's the classic trick question & the classic no-win situation for Jesus. If he says, yeah, sure go ahead & pay the tax there's no problem with it... then Jesus immediately alienates himself with the very people who have been most-attracted to him.... the poor and marginalized. If, on the other hand, he says it's evil don't pay it... then such words uttered within earshot of the Herodians will lead to his quick arrest on the grounds of subversion.

Of course we can all marvel at how Jesus extricates himself from this pickle while, in the process, showing up the Pharisees as hypocrites (for the sake of trapping Jesus, they're ok with handling the dreaded coin ...and even within a stones throw of the Holy of Holies in the Temple). But that's not the primary point of Jesus' response. The primary point is about priorities; specifically, that rendering unto God the things of God part. Jesus has just spent 3 parables illustrating that the religious leaders were doing everything BUT rendering unto God the things of God.

Ironically, of course, the religious elite THOUGHT they were engaged in just that. They THOUGHT that through Temple sacrifice, through the religious system & observances, through observing their holy tradition they THOUGHT they were rendering unto God the things of God. The proof that they were not, however, is in the fact that through all of that stuff...or in the midst of all of that stuff....they missed seeing their own Messiah. They missed the Christ event. They missed the most DEFINING MOMENT of their own religion. Of course the application here is not to 'pick on' 1st century Jewish leaders, but rather to CONSTANTLY challenge ourselves *not to fall into the same hole. ALL we do; ALL we say; ALL we are.... in rendering unto God... must be

--Because of what Christ has done for us

--Out of our love for Christ

--In support of the continued mission of Christ

Cheers,

TM