There was a meme going around the ‘net that showed a little boy at Mt. Rushmore admiring the four US presidents there, and asking his parents if they could go around to the backside and see the rest of them… J.B. Phillips’ famous book asked, “Is Your God Too Small?” Many token worshipers today are quite content to own a deity safely made to their own ideas, and never to change! Scriptures for this weekend may tweak this satisfaction.
In Exodus 33:12-23, Moses is wheedling with the Lord to see his “glory”. YHWH tells him that he couldn’t bear it, since living persons “shall not see me and live”. (Does that mean that when we die, we’re eligible to see God’s glory?) So God covered Moses’ eyes when God passed by, thus enabling Moses to see God’s back without corrupting his sight. There’s a lot of incon-sistency to this section about “face to face” meetings and the terror of God’s face: don’t inhale, but deal with the metaphors they represent. I could personally spin off of verse 17b: “you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”
Some scholars say that the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians differs in style from the “Asian” letters. Was there already a significant difference between the Church in East and West? In his introduction, 1:1-10, Paul offers grace and peace, affirming that the Thessalonian Christians are beloved by God because God has chosen them. Their witness throughout the adjacent countryside has been marked even in distant lands, especially how they turned to a living God from idols. Today, our Church needs to reflect upon the current idols we keep on our shelves: self-centeredness, militarism and our own billfolds.
The Gospel continues in the same vein. Here is the story of Jesus being asked about paying taxes (Matthew 22:15-22). Paying taxes to “the Emperor” has always been a thorny problem: should I support the oft-misguided policies of disaster which the administration has embarked upon with my money? “Well, whose picture is on the coin?” “The Emperor’s” “Then give back to the Emperor things that are his–and to God, the things that are God’s.” Where does our citizenship lie? Can we pledge allegiance to the flag? Are there moral conflicts between the City of God and the City of Man? Some groups have tried to create isles of safety–monasteries, Utopias–while others sing, “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through…” Will Rodgers is reputed to have said, “Washington’s face has been on our dollars; now Washington’s HANDS are on them as well.”
These readings won’t answer any questions: the hearer has to decide for themself what level of involvement they have with both “sacred and secular”…or is God in everything, even government and community life?
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
My encounters with lessons chosen for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com
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