A Letter from Lindy Oct 18
At that, Jesus said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s. Mt 22: 21b
Pilgrims,
Heavens, does our gospel text speak to me these days! If we've learned anything over these past eight months, it is that the many questions that are coming before us, are too complicated to be ethically answered with a single response, as demanded by Jesus' interlocutors.
How should worshipping communitys' reopen equitably?
Should parents send their children back to school in person?
Should people go visit loved ones while the country's COVID numbers surge anew?
What is the best, and safest, way for our vote to be counted in a pandemic?
What does true justice look like in light of all we have learned (and unlearned) in 2020?
Truly, imperial tax questions for our place and time. And they just keep coming, don't they? Our many moral questions are too complicated to be ethically answered with a single response that applies to every person. And our questions make me wonder how we might hear Jesus' response in our context? What I pray we wrestle with this week (and beyond) is Jesus calling us to turn from our instinctive need for everything to be simple and clear. Or for the answer to be the same for everyone. The stakes are too high!
Can we imagine instead Jesus teaching us to practice discernment -- through our own (and others) lives and circumstances. Because that is precisely what Jesus invites the Pharisees and Herodians to do. (Two groups out to discredit him for disrupting and dismantling the status quo.) He turns their question back to them. Is it right or wrong? You tell me. What will you do? You.
The task of discerning beyond the binary answer is what these days demand from each of us--and it is so hard. But might we also see that in its weighty complicated-ness, it could be more wonderful and hope-filled than any simple answer would provide?
The work before us, Pilgrim.
Pastor Lindy