Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2)

Who belongs to?

how figure who belongs to?

if describe well

recent possession

EASY: carries your mark on it

if belongs to them, it and stuff carries should be delivered to them

give to who owed

to know need to figure out what belongs to each

Gospel

Two enemies team up to trap Jesus

herodians, dependent romanist and pharisees

loyalist to caesar and loyalist to religion

soft gentle flattering words to get him to say something controversial

responds hard brutal and insultingly: actors, malicious

say he will say truth regardless opinion

‘not regard face of men’

so shows them face of man

Tiberius caesar face

carries his IMAGE and description ‘son of divine’ coin

and whos stuff it carries, belongs to that person

deliver it to owner.

caesar to caesar and God to God

So what belongs to each?

state system, currency, etc in certain ways belongs to state

carries their IMAGE

But what’s owed to God?

here is the irony

whos image carried by coin?

caesar yes, but is caesar a man?

Genesis 1:27

man carries image of God

inscription true as well, son of divine, not way caesar meant

all humanity offspring of God

all humanity rendered to God carries his image

all carries God’s mark, for all exists in some way and He is existence

so all that is, all that is positive, is due to God

all carries some aspect of goodness Himself to be delivered to Him

Coin belongs to ceasar b/c ceasar made it, but since God even made caesar, first and foremost belongs to God

Like ceasar gives his currency out to be spent well, so God gives His currency out to spend well:

life

What mean for us?

all owed God

but not all is God, but carries some aspect of goodness to be delivered

so obligations to things to extent of goodness they carry, but not more/less

Danger is to flip this order of currency

demand God render unto man, rather than man unto God

demand God carries our image rather than us in His image

particularly tempting in greatest things: governments, where people start thinking theyre gods over rest of humanity

as first reading says

king exist to carry some Goodness For God, not God for it

therefore never compromise God for politics

leaving God out of politics is the very last thing ever do

reverses order completely.

The state, much like ones family, however, isn’t God, there is a separation of the two, duties to state should not include all your religious duties

don’t need to codify religion into law

but NEVER should the state contradict God

pulls rug under feet

for all is ultimately exists as a carrier for God’s goodness, not as goodness itself.

Treat all things as carrying some image of goodness, and deliver that load unto Goodness Itself

Notes

Me:

Scaling

implies is duty to lesser, but one above all

herodians and pharisees teaming up

what should we make of spiritual and earthly hatred combined of Jesus who otherwise hate each other?

he does call them hypocrits tho (and Wis 2)

using his good character to hurt him (‘you are sooo truthful’)

does “not look at the prosopon of men” (expression of impartiality, not moved by prima facia appearance but truth)

prosopon for actor and face or mask

hypocrisy: acting

mask on coin

mask on man

“whose Image AND inscription”