For John, BLUF: What does God want of us. Nothing to see here; just move along.
This Sunday's Gospel ends with this quote:
So give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.With some people trying to drive God from the market place it is sometimes hard to recognize what is Ceasar's and what is God's.Matthew 22:21b
Regards — Cliff
2 comments:
While I am NOT a scholar of the Gospel, I would suggest that the folks today mistake the meaning of this verse. God is the creator of everything that is, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. Thus, I would suggest that there really isn't anything to give to Caesar that is "his." I suspect that the phrase means that material things have no meaning to God, they are temporal artifacts and thus, disposable. Worship of God on the other hand is essential, as much so as taking care of one's body parts.
Huh? With complete respect to Neal's greater point, it's still impossible not to think, rather, that it's people injecting God into the marketplace who are creating the lion's share of the confusion. JC was pretty clear on materialism, yet we've eternally expanded on the invention of "the marketplace" to drive our fuller enjoyment of this world--God's gift to us over which to have dominion and all--and create more from which to share with each other. (Or steal from, but lets not digress). I've always taken the verse to be an admonition against confusing the two (God and marketplace Mammon) perhaps much as Neal suggests. If we undertake the creation of a marketplace for our collective benefit, to serve ourselves or the poor or whoever we dream we are serving, we should still not contort ourselves into any sort of delusion that this serving in any way serves anything higher than that. And then, JC's words to us are more clear--don't get confused between the two. (Just my 2 of Caesar's cents).
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