18 October 2020
I can’t remember how old I was exactly,
Still, I was old enough to be allowed to cross the street by myself.
I was old enough to be able to walk up the hill to the church and go inside.
I was old enough not to be afraid in the dim light of the church
I was old enough to march right up to the front,
Sit down and have a conversation with God.
I can’t remember what I said. I can’t remember what God said.
But from that day forward, I’ve never doubted God existed.
Several years ago a student wrote an article for the Spectator—The UWEC newspaper.
From what he wrote I got the impression he didn’t believe God existed.
I don’t remember much of what he said, only this:
“If God ever started talking to me, I’d start listening.”
I think on that day when I marched in St. Florian’s Church in Hatley,
And sat down in the front pew, I started talking first.
It’s such a tricky balancing act, our faith isn’t it?
There has to be something in us first to open ourselves to God.
Something in us must reach out to God, Must look for God, Must listen to God.
There are some who say this propensity in humans to make up God is just superstition.
There are others who say this propensity in humans to seek a God,
Is God’s first gift to us, something planted so deep within us, from generation to generation.
Jesus doesn’t fall into the trap laid for him in the Gospel today.
He knows there is a God, and that ultimately we owe everything to God.
God, isn’t even on par with Ceasar.
That’s the mistake some people make in interpreting this passage:
The State and Religion are two equalities.
No, says Jesus.
The hunger for God is planted so deep inside each of us,
That it will never pass away. States come and go, money, fame, the law, all passes.
The most important question is the one Jesus leaves for our imagination in today’s story.
He asks whose image is on the coin?
And then leaves it to us, because he knows it’s in us to ask:
Where do we find God’s image?
Where is God?
It’s a question I hope you will be prompted by the Spirit to ask for the rest of your lives.