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Holy God, in praise, Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise,

O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God, in praise, O Holy God,

So what do we do with earthly authorities? Welcome back to issues, et cetera, coming to you live from the studios of Lutheran Public Radio in Collinsville, Illinois. I'm Todd Wilkin. Thanks for tuning us in. It's time to look forward to Sunday morning, according to the three-year electionary. Pastor Sean Denzor joins us. He's director of worship for the Lutheran Church of Missouri Senate. Sean, welcome back. Great to be back, Todd. What is the gospel for this coming Sunday? The gospel for this coming Sunday is, well, a famous question.

But an even more famous answer from Jesus, where he says, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. And what is difficult maybe is to figure out what the answer to the question is. Jesus really doesn't answer it all that well. And that answer that he gives doesn't answer the question directly of, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? And the reason is, because Jesus doesn't answer it all that well. And that answer that he gives doesn't answer the question directly of, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Jesus is being trapped. We hear the Lord knowing that they are speaking out of malice and evil in their hearts. And that's why he refuses to answer them in a direct way. It's all entrapment. And so, in a sense, Jesus entrapes them. He turns the tables on them, so to speak, and leaves the ones trapped who would try to trap him. Now, as we look as we usually do to the rest of the readings for the day, I think we really see today part

of the trade-off in doing this cross-reading across multiple parrycopies, multiple sections of the scriptures. The good part about it, and the reason the church has always brought the scriptures together from various places on a Sunday morning, is because the scripture interprets the scripture. We're not afraid to look at the whole Bible as being God's Word. The scripture cannot be broken as Jesus himself said. And we're not afraid to see that the Bible references itself, that what it said in one place,

connects with what is said in another place. This is the Lord's history, and it's the Lord's Word. Sometimes, however, when we go and make our choices in this way, though, we connect the readings, maybe making too fine a point on what we see in a particular gospel message. So, when we go to match everything else up, we really zero in on only one part of it and miss some of the other things. You could have kind of two difficulties with this. Sometimes you get the Sundays,

that look so obvious, that it's just kind of like, well, let's get beat over the head with the fact that we're talking about Thanksgiving or whatever it may be. You also have this other trouble that you can be a little too narrow, and that can contribute to some difficulties. I think we're maybe in danger of that today, especially when it's such an enigmatic and maybe difficult to understand saying of Jesus, if we're going to try and make a direct application of it. So, maybe we should start with what the connecting theme is.

It's absolutely idolatry. We see that Jesus asked them whose likeness is on the coin, and that's an awkward saying for a Jew, because you're not supposed to make grave and images. Now, we might make the really good biblical point that obviously there were lots of coins made with images on them. In fact, recent archeology has found coins of lots of famous even Jewish rulers with plenty of coinage.

But, to bring it into the temple is an awkward thing for Jews. That's why they had lots of money changers, and they had a particular difficulty with both Greek rulers, and then pretty soon Pontius Pilate as well, of bringing not just coins into the temple, but bringing their own idols into the temple.

Now, that's all fine and good. That's dealing with idols as grave and images, which you can read described in the Psalms. What we know about idolatry, and what we confess especially in the small cynicism, is that idolatry is a matter of the heart, idolatry is a matter of what the heart worships, and most of the idols that we worship are not, so to speak, carved images and statues.

But money itself is one of the biggest idols that we hold the thing from which we look for all good. And that is definitely what Jesus is attacking here, turning the tables on them.

When they come out of greed and out of envy to try and attack him, he points out that they're very hesitant to let go of the things they truly love, namely the money, and they're willing to sacrifice everything that belongs to God, most especially his own son that stands in front of them.

But that's a very narrow theme, especially if you're thinking of it in terms of the coinage that grave and images question. And as we look at the rest of the readings, it broadens at some, but also it still stays close to that question of idolatry.

So what are some of the other themes that we might consider that maybe would be a diversion from the rest of the readings, but in keeping with the gospel?

Here are a few I thought of. One, we're continuing the rejection of Jesus throughout all of this. We see that the Pharisees are plotting to entangle him to have the ultimate rejection, which is to finally put him to death.

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