A Sermon for November 16 - 2014

November 16 – Children’s Sunday

The past weeks for me have been about death – with three deaths in this congregation, two last week and one the week before  - and two funerals in two weeks and Remembrance day on Tuesday it gives an interesting perspective to the world.  I also appreciate these times that focus on the end of life, because it is at death beds, and during funeral visitations, and in memories of the loss of loved ones where people are most real, and moments are most real.  There is something in this time that appears like the veil that we wear to protect ourselves from the world becomes a little thinner and it is easier for God to get in.  

I have had some interesting funerals in my time as a minister because life no matter how short or how long a life is lived on this earth, it is important and it matters and it is deeply connected not only to others but also to God– And even though for some life is short - I once performed a funeral for a 6 month old baby – or long – Harriet Archer’s funeral on the 29^th  at 99 years old will be the oldest person I will have had the privilege of honouring their life…everyone’s life, from sweet baby Daisy to cranky 96 year old Mrs. Lidstone, to mild manner 66 year old Ian Robertson – to young and not yet 20 year old Trevor Wheler and even to the old reclusive hermit – Stinky Bill…

Yes,  you heard right – his name was Stinky Bill – I not sure if he was ever called that to his face but that is how the town of Tara referred to him.  He lived on the Grey-Bruce line, alone with his dog and made a poor living by collecting other peoples junk and selling it but mostly just storing it on the property that he rented.  When he died – it was about a week before anyone knew – and his body was taken to the local funeral home for arrangements – I was called because in small towns often the United Church minister gets the generic funerals – it was my first ‘welfare funeral’ – where the funding for the end of life rituals are paid for by the government – it is a no frills package – and I think only because it was important to the funeral director that a life did not go unrecognized – that was there a funeral at all.

So I set out to find out anything I could about this man – as it was my responsibility to conduct his funeral – not very many people knew very much about Bill – only that he did not have any family that anyone knew about – and he kept pretty much to himself.  His landlord provided as much as she could, but for the first time I was facing a funeral without even having the basic history of the person.  A college of mine suggested that in the midst of the funeral I open the floor and see if anyone had any stories about Stinky Bill – The day of the funeral come – about thirty people showed up which was about 25 more that either the funeral director or myself expected – and I did ask for stories and low and behold people started to talk – I remember when, when Bill decided he needed a car and so he got himself over to Chatsworth and bought himself one and then drove home and gave me a call and aksed me where he had to go to get a licence – I remember Bill – spoke another – when we hired him to help us launch our boat and while the boat was by the dock and Bill was holding the line – he put one foot on the boat and something happened and the boat started to move away from the dock and there he was with one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock with his legs spreading wider and wider and wider until ‘splash’ there he was in the water…I remember Bill said another and another and another – and pretty soon this really interesting man emerged from these stories – who was funny and loyal and caring and a hard worker and kind – and his life as reclusive and as hermitted as he lived it touched many people – his life was wound up in the tapestry of the community of Arran.  And his life connected to mind in that moment as well – I will never forget Stinky Bill.

This theme, this interconnectedness – the idea that all we do matters, who we interact with matters, who we are, how we live our life, who we connect to – matters and has meaning not only for us but also for those whom we interact with.  Our lives are not a few years of just living and eating and sleeping and getting up and going to bed until we get to the end – No! our lives are deeply intertwined in the fabric of life and we matter and how we live matters and how we treat others matters, what we do matters.  

The parable of the talents brings home this point – that the choices that we make regarding the talents that we are given – matters – each of us human beings are born into this world gifted and grace with talents – gifts from God.  And each day we have opportunities to use our talents or not, to share ourselves with others, to be part of a community, treat our brothers, sister neighbours friends or enemies kindly or unkindly.  We can choose to walk in the world in love or to walk in this world in hate.  The three servants in the parable illustrate this.

David Lose brings this point home he says:  “what strikes me is how deeply affected the third servant is by his perception of the landowner. We should note that there is no clue ahead of time about the character of the landowner. The first we hear about it is from the lips of the third servant: “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed.” Neither the first nor the second servant voices this concern or affirm this sentiment, and the landowner himself neither confirms nor calls this assessment into question either. Notice that the landowner’s retort is in the form of a question. We might therefore hear it as, “If you thought I was so awful, then why didn’t you choose another strategy?” The landowner’s response might be a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as he decides to act in just the way the third servant has characterized him.

And here’s the thing: I wonder how often this happens in our relationship with God. We imagine God primarily as an enforcer of rules, and we get hung up by the legalism of religion. We visualize God as stern and prone to punishment, and we come to believe that everything bad in our lives is punishment from God. We see God as arbitrary and capricious, and that’s what we experience, a fickle and unsympathetic God who meets our expectations.

On the other hand, when we view God primarily in terms of grace, we are surprised and uplifted by the numerous gifts and moments of grace we experience all around us. And when we imagine God to be a God of love, we find it far easier to experience God’s love in our own lives and to share it with others.[1]
 
It is as the saying goes:  What you see is just what you get. If the God you have in your mind is a punitive and judgemental God, that is what you experience – so if a tragedy happens in your life, you look back and find a time when you made a poor choice so you can say – God is punishing me for the times when I lied or cheated or was a smuck.  But if the God you believe in is a God of grace, than tragedies are not punishments they are tragedies and God does not take away loved ones to get back at you, God walks with you in the midst of your sorrow and pain while you learn to live in this new world without your loved one with you.

Tom Long writes:  “If one trusts the goodness of God, one can boldly venture out with eyes wide open to the grace in life and can discover the joy of God’s providence everywhere. But to be a child of the generous, gracious, and life-giving God and, nonetheless, to insist upon viewing God as oppressive, cruel, and fear-provoking is to live a life that is tragically impoverished.”

I think perhaps that this parable is inviting us to examine closely the pictures of God we each we each carry around inside of us.  The question then is what do you think about when think of God?

·       Is God gracious or stern?

·       Is God loving or judgmental?

·       Is God eager for peace or prone to violence?

·       Is God patient and kind or vengeful and punitive? 

And the big question beyond this one is whether the picture we carry of God matches the picture of the God we know in Jesus?  Does the God in our heads resemble the man that we meet when we read the stories in the Bible, the man who healed the sick and helped the lame to walk, who gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and fed 5000 with a little bit of bread and fish – the one who talked of love and justice and caring for the ones who lived on the margins – proclaiming that the last shall be first, and that the kingdom of heaven is everywhere – and preached a radical forgiveness that transforms the world.
David Lose again:  “Jesus tells this parable just days before he will give his life on the cross, not as a substitute or surrogate to be punished in our place, but rather as testimony to just how far God will go to communicate God’s love for us and all the world. Jesus has spent his life and ministry proclaiming God’s kingdom, feeding the hungry, healing and sick, offering forgiveness, and welcoming ALL who recognize their need into the loving embrace of God. And for that message he is crucified. That’s how much God wants us to know of God’s love. And just in case we miss or underestimate that message, God raises Jesus on the third day that we might know that life is stronger than death and love more powerful than hate.

That’s the God we proclaim, that’s the God we should be carrying in our hearts, this God of grace, this God of love, and hope and peace and compassion.[2]  This God, our God, Stinky Bill’s God, who loves us, and forgives us and calls us beloved children.  This God of grace that goes with us as we share our talents with the world….Thanks be…..Amen.

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[1] David Lose:  In the Meantime:  http://www.davidlose.net/2014/11/pentecost-23-a/

[2] Ibid.

Saints and Sinners

Saints and Sinners

November 2, 2014

I have been preoccupied this week with the ever growing - morphing - fluid story of ex- CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi.  What appeared last Friday to be a leave of absence due to personal circumstances precipitated by the death of his father is now is a salacious, seedy, deviant, sexual story that keeps on growing and growing – by Saturday afternoon; three woman had come forward to police about abuse and violence at the hands of Ghomeshi.  For here he was – at the height of his career – CBC’s front man – his own show, interviewing the top athletes, entertainers,  politicians, and the cover face of prestigious awards ceremonies like the Giller’s – hobnobbing with the rich and the famous – and underneath the façade of this likeable, easy going authentic, humble man lurks – this deviant sexual being – or at least that is the implications of the media stories at this time – for nothing has been proven or disproven – everything is speculation – and all information is not verified at this time.   I am not sure what all this attention to this matter says about us with this preoccupation that we have on this one man’s fall from grace – his moving in our minds from saint to sinner – but there is something compelling about this story that is keeping it front and centre in the media for the last 7 days.  One commentator this week on CBC was remarking on how because we allow Jian in our homes and cars for two hours each morning and see him hosting some of Canada’s top awards shows we think we know him, that he is our friend and yet when his image becomes tainted we realized that we do not know him at all but we are still so disappointed in him, we feel he has let us down personally.  

The way we look at a person can shift quickly when we discover something about that person that we did not know before – especially if it is sexual deviancy.  People fall from pedestals – all the time – how many political scandals have there been in the past few months?  What about our sports stars, our entertainment icons – how many times do we turn on the news or open a newspaper to witness their shame as the headlines– and we all know that my profession is certainly not immune - I think when one of my colleagues crosses those lines it is especially hurtful - we breach a sacred trust, and when our baggage and personal demons come out to play it is often devastating to the congregations that we serve. 

But you know – and this is the hard piece – our bad behaviour does not define who we are, our screw ups, our mess ups, the times in our lives when we do not live the golden rule and focus solely on our selfish wants and desires – you know – when the seven deadly sins – lust, pridefulness, arrogance, sloth, gluttony, hate ---are a part of our everyday life – those moments, or weeks or months or even split seconds when decisions that are made are stupid, selfish, or downright – should I say the word – sinful….. we have all been there.  We have all had times of transgressions both in little ways and in big ways - from that mean little word you utter for that hurt someone’s feelings or the plot that you hatched to kill your cheating spouse – all wickedness of various different degrees – and you know that sliding scale – the meter where we place our sins into that says that cheating on your taxes is not as bad as extorting your business partner – that is a human invention and does have any biblical support, and not something that comes from God.  And if you really study the biblical support in this matter of sin, you come realize from story after story after story, first off, that the human capacity to hurt others, to live selfishly and to ignore our Creator is enormous and that God recognizes this human capacity for sin, and what God really is about is forgiveness.  Most judgement comes from humans which brings us back full circle to God.  

So, you may be asking yourself, if we are all culpable in this sin game, what makes a saint – as this is the day that we celebrate All Saints Sunday – I suspect that like myself we may have a bit of a distorted sense of what a saint is – . If you ask the average Christian what that means, they will probably tell you that we remember and honor holy and extraordinary people who have gone before us — most likely leaving behind them a trail of miracles and amazing acts of self-sacrifice, suffering, heroism and the like.  And there is of course the “official” saints – St. Paul, St. Mary, St. Peter and who can forget St. James – it is who we named our church after of course – but at one time he was a real life human being and for him at least – his sainthood comes from his connection to Jesus and the way that the lived his life after Jesus was gone – I am not sure which James – the church is named afterur church after – James ‘son’ of Zebedee who asks Jesus to sit on the right hand side after death – or James the Just who was the brother of Jesus, either way sainthood was earned because of he knew Jesus personally. 

And then we see the saints in the Revelations reading dressed in white surrounding the throne – and they will hunger and thirst no more and every tear will be wiped from their eye….people who have died and through their life fought the good fight for God and Jesus and so are rewarded according to the writer of Revelation, with white robes and no tears.

But this is a narrow definition of sainthood which undermines and excludes all the rest of us that did not walk with Jesus, or suffer under persecution of the early church.  What I believe was the original intention of “All Saints" was to honour more than just those of stellar reputation and close association to Jesus.  A couple of thousand years ago being a follower of Jesus was not a easy thing to do.  The early church, having survived over 300 years of persecution, and they wanted to remember and celebrate those Christians who had remained faithful in spite of the fear, the hostility and the very real danger of living and expressing their faith. So they allocated a special day to honor all those who had endured and persevered during those violent times. 

My hunch is that the vast majority of these believers were ordinary folks who were probably scared out of their wits, but hung in there because of their faith.  And these were the ‘saints’ – these ordinary people who were able to remain faithful in times of trouble and persecution.  Who kept their devotion to God in times of trouble.  

I think we need to step back and recognized that really more times than not and I would gather to guess that all the saints that we hold before us, as pretty amazing and wonderful people where human beings with flaws and failing just like the rest of us.  I think if funeral preparation has taught me anything is that it is ordinary human beings that are the saints –the stories that I hear from loved ones so often tell about lives that are lived that touch and support others, often in the simplest and smallest of ways….lives which so many would feel would be unremarkable had a huge impact in the world.

For instance…

Eileen Tackaberry, who lived all her life in Lion’s Head, she was shy simple woman who was not really involved in the community – she had 8 children and when the kids were growing up, they had friends who needed a safe place for a while, and so she opened up her home and her oven and fed these kids safety and support and caring and amazing pie….a saint.

And speaking of food, there was Vivian Kerr-Taylor of Blind River, formerly of country Clare in Ireland, strong capable woman who immigrated to Canada with her brood in tow, forged a place for them in Northern Ontario and in the small plot of land that surrounded her little house, she grew a garden like no one else, she loved fiercely – a saint.

And Bob Robertson, he was in Walkerton at the time of the tainted water and had meal at a restaurant and drank the water, he contracted colon cancer.  He was farmer, lived in Derby township, cared for cows and home and family – and he cared about others, and lived integrally and his word was his bond… a saint.

Pretty much every single one of the people that I have had the honour to get to know through preparing funeral and memorial services have lives filled with moments of sainthood…

Ye, we are all sinners, but more often than not –it is saintliness that is remembered, and missed and grieved…and I imagine that everyone that we lit a candle for this morning, Bob and Jack and Stephen and Willis and Jeffery – they too saints….and to take this one step further – us too – this amazing combination of saint and sinner…

Blessed are those who mourn says Jesus, blessed are poor, blessed are the meek, these are not traits that we normally attribute to ‘saints’ This is what it is to be human and in spite of our sinfulness or maybe because of our sinfulness Jesus calls us blessed.  We are blessed as sinner and saint.

Blessedness is something that God gives to us, not something that we earn through our actions, not something that the world always recognizes. Likewise with All Saints – not everyone who died actually lived a wonderful life, but we celebrate their memory today anyway, and more importantly, celebrate the eternal life that they now enjoy, that awaits us also – because God says so, not because we’re so saintly.

Let’s think about that word “blessed” for a moment.  The Greek word, makarios, is often translated as “happy” or “fortunate.”… When have you felt most happy or fortunate in life?  When have you felt most blessed?”[1]

Was it in times of meekness, mourning, when you were feeling poor in spirit or where hungering of thirsting for righteousness?  I suspect not – for when we think about it – certainly as a culture we do not think that meekness and mourning and thirsting for righteousness as strong and dominant ways of being in the world that we expect to be blessed.  But Jesus says – let’s look at that again – let go of what the world sees as right and correct and focus on what God sees as right and good and true.

So what does it mean to be blessed – what does it feel like to be blessed?  Times in my life when I have felt blessed are when someone I value looks at me – really looks at me and says that they value me, that what I have contributed has been important and I am worth something.  Being  blessed can feel like accompaniment, that you are never alone, that someone is with you, is on your side – it could be another person or it could be God who cares enough about you that where ever you go, whatever you do – you don’t do it alone. 

Being blessed allows you to feel that you can rise above your circumstances even when they are really challenging and that your circumstance do not define you, nor do your sins, or your failings or your limitations or even bad choices you made in your past.  

Being blessed feels like you have worth,  not because of what you do, or what you have done, or who your parents are or what your job is or how big your house is or your bank account either – 

Being blessed means that you have value and worth just because you are you and you deserve to be blessed.  You are a beloved child of God blessed in your meekness and mourning and poverty of spirit, blessed in your truth. 

When we live a blessed life, something in us shifts and we begin to see the world with a different focus – no longer are we seeing the world through the filter of our desires and longing, through our brokenness and pain – instead the life lived in blessing sees the other and sees in the face of the other – a glimpse of their creator, a glimpse of God – sees another as a blessed and beloved child of God. 

We see each other as the saints that we are – beloved children of God

Jesus says blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek and blessed are those who mourn, the peacemakers and the pure of heart – blessed are you – holy are you – God’s beloved child.  Amen.

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[1] Mary Craig:  Beautiful and Terrible; http://metanoia-mrc.blogspot.ca/ (2014)

a sermon for October 19

The Gift of Hindsight

October 19, 2014

When I was a little girl I had a very strange bedtime prayer ritual – I am not sure how it evolved or even how I came to understand God in such a way but for a few months, before I went to sleep, I would perform this strange little ceremony.

Now remember that I am only eight or nine at the time, so judge the story accordingly– my mom would come and kiss me good night, tuck me in, and tell me she loved me, turn off the light and I would be alone in my room.  I would wait until I could hear that she was in the living room and then I would get up and stand next to the wall and I would pray – different words each night depending on what went on in my day but at the end of the prayer, I would kiss the wall representing a kiss for all the people I loved, I would kiss the wall for God, and for my parents, and sister I would kiss the wall for my grandparents, I would kiss the wall for the dogs … and when I had kissed the wall for as many people or pets I could think of that evening I would then take my Koala bear stuffed animal, and kiss it and place it under the bed and make yet one more plea with God that over the night the bear could be turned into a real baby.  Then I would get back into bed and go to sleep.  During that time in my life, this strange ritual made me feel closer to God.  It was a turbulent time in my life; we had just moved yet again, I was already going to my third school, my Grandma Davies who had lived with our family all of my life had just died.  I was probably lonely and afraid and confused and looking for a deeper relationship with God to take away my fears and confusion although I was totally unable to express that as an nine year old child, when I kissed the wall I was, I think I actually believing that I was kissing God goodnight, like I kissed my mom and dad. 

Longing for intimacy with God is a very common thing, ever since there have been human beings on this earth, we have been searching for finding ways to interact with our gods, through rituals and ceremonies, prayers songs and sacrifices.  There is something inherently human to want to know our God deeply and intimately. 

Moses is seeking God presence in the Exodus passage this morning.  He is longing for a intimate relationship with his Creator.  As the leader of the Hebrew people, Moses knew that their survival depended on God’s presence, and the identity of the people was found in God, God was their unifying force, their sense of purpose, their identity – for is they were not the people of God what were they?  A group of escaped slaves lost in a desert – it was God who gave them co-hesion, it was God who gave them purpose, it was God who gave the a sense of who they were. So Moses request to see and feel and experience the presence of God on that mountain was also spoken on behalf of the people

And, as is no surprise,  God responds in a selfless way. God extends grace, mercy, and assures the promise of a holy presence and a commitment to the Hebrew community.

So, God takes Moses, and he puts him in a little crack in a rock atop a mountain. God was going to pass by Moses, and God wanted to let Moses catch a glimpse of Him.

So God passed by – but Moses wasn’t allowed to look yet. He wasn’t able to look until God had already passed. And then… Moses was able to see the place… Where God had just been.

Our English texts usually say that Moses could “see his back,” but that’s an inaccurate translation. Moses caught no sight of the “body” of God.

He saw the place where God just was.

(this is) how I often experience God. In the busyness of life, I’m not anywhere near aware or awake enough to see God’s Presence. I’m answering emails, making visits, writing sermons, picking up kids from school, washing the dishes, spending time with a friend, sitting on a park bench watching the leaves fall down…

But, when I look back over my day, with intention, I can see God’s Presence so much easier. When I am in the thick of things, I am focused on what is going on around me, that the presence of God goes unnoticed, but when I take the time at the end of the day to reflect on my day, often God is found.  What is it about hindsight that makes everything so much clearer?  But this is one of the ways that we get to see God, and feel God’s presence – through hindsight

Have you heard of the prayer practice called an examin?  An Examin is a prayer, usually prayed at the end of a day, where you intentionally recall your day, and all of the events that happened, your part in it as well as the emotions you experienced, and how you handled things it often includes your failures, but also always it includes God’s little gifts of grace through the day. It is amazing to me that every day when examined through the lens of an examen – through hindsight – God’s presence is revealed.

Here’s the thing, though: if I don’t take the time to look, I almost always miss it. If I want to know where God is in my life I must find that little crack in a rock, and sit in it. Open my eyes, and see the place in my life where God just was.”[1]

So how do we hear the voice of God? Our Ignition brothers give us four answers to that question, First we perceive the Divine in Creation, in the rock and the trees and skies and the seas, in the majesty of a mountain vista and the intricacies of a 1000 legged centipede.  Second, we hear God’s voice in the Scriptures, in this book we call “the word of God.” We hear it in the stories of people just like us who struggle to live well in the world, and in the moments when God intervened in their lives.  Third, we hear God in our faith communities – where a group of people gather to pray together, work together for the kindom, share their faith stories, support each other and intentionally listen to the voice of God, all in an accountable and committed environment, this is the living tradition of our believing community. Finally, we hear God by attending to our experience, and interpreting it in the light of all those other ways of hearing the divine voice–through creation, the Bible, and the living tradition of the community.  This is hindsight – when we live through something, take a look back and then say – ohhhhh, there is where we saw the presence of God, and didn’t our hearts burn…., when we spent time with a friend, or reading a story goodnight, or hearing the sound of the rain on the roof, or in that long line of traffic when someone stopped to let you in so that you could get to where you were going …you get the idea, those moments that in and of themselves that are ordinary, but something happened and when they are re-examined and the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the mundane becomes sacred, and God got into our lives when we were least expecting it.

The people the Jesus story today are doing the same thing, they are looking for God, trying to find that place where God gets in, the problem seems to be that their egos and ways of seeing God are not open enough to recognize that right in front of them they have a new way, a different understanding, that does not threaten who they are and what they believe but instead enhances it.  For the Pharisees and the Herodians, their notions of who God is and how God comes, is restricted and they are unable or unwilling to see in Jesus and his teachings anything of God.

So, Jesus is in the temple courtyard, teaching:  A quick refresher on the time line.  The day before, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey with psalms waving and shouts of Hosanna.  He went to the temple and drove out the money changers, saying “my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers!”  Then he left Jerusalem to spend the night in Bethany.  The next morning, Jesus returns to Jerusalem to the temple, where the scribes and Pharisees are waiting for an explanation on just who Jesus thinks he is and where he gets off upsetting the temple commerce.

The debate ensues.

Jesus asks them first to tell him if John the Baptizer was acting on God’s authority.  They decline to answer and Jesus tells them the parable of two sons, one who told his father he would work and didn’t and the other who said no to the father, but then went out to work.  Then Jesus told the parable of the wicked tenants who would not give the produce to the landowner and killed his son.  Finally, Jesus tells the parable of the wedding banquet, where the ones who were invited refused to attend and the banquet was opened up to everyone.

Our gospel readings for the last 3 weeks and today are all part of this one conversation – it’s no wonder the powers that be want to trap Jesus.  He is making them feel very uncomfortable – and they are looking very silly and inept in front of the people.

So they come to him with a ‘gotcha’ question.  This is a no-win for Jesus.  If he says, yes it’s lawful to pay taxes, he can be labeled a Roman collaborator and the crowds will hate him.  If he says, no, you shouldn’t pay taxes to Caesar, then he can be accused of treason and hauled off to Pilate.  Either way, their problem is solved.

David Lose helps us understand a little better from his blog, In the Meantime and he writes:  “A little background will help. We should be clear, it’s not simply taxes in general that are up for debate here, but a particular tax. Jews in first century Palestine, you see, paid numerous taxes: Temple taxes, land taxes, and customs taxes, just to name three. The tax in question was a particular – and particularly onerous – one. It was the Imperial tax paid as tribute to Rome to support the Roman occupation of Israel. That’s right: first-century Jews were required to pay their oppressors a denarius a year to support their own oppression.

Not that everyone saw it this way, however. Those put in power by the Romans, represented in this passage by the Herodians, advocated supporting Roman “governance” of Israel. Nationalists opposed to Rome, perhaps comprising much of the crowd, found the tax offensive as it was a constant reminder of their humiliation. And the religiously devout, represented by the disciples of the Pharisees, had to pay the tax with a coin engraved with a picture of Caesar Tiberius and a proclamation of his divinity, forcing them to break the first two Commandments,” [2]

  You shall have no other gods before Me.

  You shall not make idols.

It is a no win question, so Jesus refuses to play their game.  He makes a simple request – let’s see the money.  And with that request, he changes everything.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar and give to God what is Gods.”

Jesus just changed the rules.  This is not about taxes or politics.  No, this is not even about religion, it is about relationship with God.  It’s about who God is and who you name as God, and what that means for you.  It is about what you value, and what is important in your life.  It is about what occupies your heart and mind.  It is about an up close and personal examination of where your loyalties lie.

The emperor’s image is on the coin and the implication is that the coin belongs to the emperor.  So the question becomes what then bears the image of God?  And the answer - We do.

Therein lies the connection to our first reading – this divine presence witnessed by Moses from the crevice – this God that was willing to pass by and be fully present to Moses – this God that was willing to forgive the Hebrew people for the golden calf debacle and uphold the covenant, and continue the journey with the people - this God that was willing to dwell among us and share our human story, even the parts of the human story that are most painful as we witnessed in the Good Friday story where God entered our pain and loss and death so deeply and took all of it into God’s own self so that we might know who God really is.

“Jesus raises important questions here, but notice that he doesn’t give pat answers. There are elements of our lives that are, indeed, part of the world order and should be “rendered to Caesar.” But those are elements – our deepest person and self is God’s, and if we remember that, all of life takes on greater focus and meaning. And when I say that – that our deepest self is God’s – I actually don’t mean that in the sense of putting more obligations on us: behave yourself, God is watching! Rather, I mean that as a reminder that no matter what we may do or say, no matter where we may go, no matter what may happen to us, yet we are first, foremost, and forever God’s own beloved child. And that identity will, in turn, shape our behavior, urging and aiding us to be the persons we have been called to be.[3]  We are first and foremost God’s beloved children – and the water that we poured onto Clara’s forehead a few minutes ago reminds us of that, we all belong to God, our God is a God of intimate relationship revealing Godself in so many ways – being present to us in our times of joy and times of sorrow, walking with us in our challenges and waiting patiently for us when we wander away – our God, Moses God, Jesus God, Clara’s God, your God longs to love you beloved child….Amen.

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[1] Rick Morley:  A Garden Path:  Crevice - http://www.rickmorley.com/archives/3186

[2] David Lose:  In the Meantime

[3] David Lose:  Money, Politics and Religion:  www.davidlose.net