"The Tribute Money"Ah, there are so many ways to interpret this morning's gospel reading. It is, in fact, quite vexing. Much controversy, many books have emerged from this saying of Jesus. People have gone to prison, people have sent others to prison, according to their interpretation of this gospel passage. Personally, I think it's more about idolatry than about taxes as such.
Here's a point being made in a sermon that bears remembering no matter what our interpretation:
Do we compartmentalize our lives into sacred and secular or do we make an effort to integrate the two? Otherwise put, is there a relationship in our lives between Sunday morning and Monday morning?The above is from a sermon by The Rev. Dr. Harold T. Lewis and I found it here.
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Caesar's head may have been stamped on the coin, but for us who profess and call ourselves Christians we have been stamped, we have been indelibly sealed, in our Baptism, with the sign of the Cross, in token that hereafter we shall not be ashamed to confess Christ crucified and to fight under his banner against the world, the flesh and the devil until our lives' end.
Norman, the interim priest at the church here in Keene, preached on that tack this morning. About how the coins were stamped with Ceasar's image and how we were created in God's image. And that 'rendering to God what is God's' meant living our lives remembering that we are God's. I like that. And I like the sermon excerpt that you posted.
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