The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Sunday closest to October 19 Year A Proper 24 RCL
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Old Testament
Exodus 33:12-23
Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have said to me, ‘Bring up this people’; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.”
The Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”
The Psalm
Psalm 99
Dominus regnavit
1 The Lord is King;
let the people tremble; *
he is enthroned upon the cherubim;
let the earth shake.
2 The Lord is great in Zion; *
he is high above all peoples.
3 Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; *
he is the Holy One.
4 “O mighty King, lover of justice,
you have established equity; *
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.”
5 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God
and fall down before his footstool; *
he is the Holy One.
6 Moses and Aaron among his priests,
and Samuel among those who call upon his Name, *
they called upon the Lord, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; *
they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them indeed; *
you were a God who forgave them,
yet punished them for their evil deeds.
9 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God
and worship him upon his holy hill; *
for the Lord our God is the Holy One.
The Epistle 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead– Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
The Gospel Matthew 22:15-22
The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
Whose Image Do We Bear?
There are questions we ask because we genuinely want an answer, and there are questions we ask because we’re trying to trap someone. Jesus knew the difference. That’s exactly what’s happening in today’s Gospel. The Pharisees and the Herodians come to Jesus with a question about taxes. They begin with flattery, telling him how sincere he is and how truthfully he teaches the way of God. But it isn’t praise. It’s bait. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” If Jesus says yes, he risks alienating people who despise Roman occupation. If he says no, he can be accused of rebellion against Rome. Either way, they think they have him cornered.
But Jesus refuses to play their game. “Show me the coin used for the tax.” They hand him a denarius. “Whose head is this, and whose title?” “The emperor’s.” Then Jesus says, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” We often hear this passage as a teaching about church and state, taxes, or political authority. Those questions matter, but I think Jesus is doing something deeper. The coin bears Caesar’s image, so give Caesar his coin. But what bears the image of God? We do.
From the beginning of Genesis, humanity is described as created in the image and likeness of God. So if the coin bearing Caesar’s image belongs to Caesar, then the life bearing God’s image belongs to God. Suddenly the question isn’t really about taxes. It’s about allegiance. What belongs to God? Everything. Our minds, our bodies, our possessions, our relationships, our work, our conscience, our politics, our compassion, our very lives. Jesus isn’t giving Caesar and God equal portions of our existence. He isn’t saying Caesar gets one part and God gets another. He is reminding us that every earthly obligation exists beneath one greater truth. We belong to God.
That makes our reading from Exodus especially powerful. Moses is standing before God after a difficult season in Israel’s life. The people have made the golden calf. Trust has been broken. The future is uncertain. Moses is leading a people who are frightened, stubborn, and not always sure where they’re going. And Moses says something I think every person of faith has felt at one time or another: “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.” In other words, “God, I don’t want to go anywhere without you.”
Moses doesn’t ask for a better strategy. He doesn’t ask for more resources. He doesn’t ask for an easier road. He asks for God’s presence. That’s the heart of faithful living. We can have plans, structures, traditions, institutions, buildings, programs, and all the things we think make life secure, but if the presence of God isn’t at the center of them, we’re simply carrying our own golden calves through the wilderness.
Moses understands this. He asks, “What else will distinguish me and your people from every other people on the face of the earth?” The answer isn’t power. It’s presence. God with them. And that should also be true of the Church. What makes the Church the Church isn’t architecture, vestments, titles, canons, or history. Those things may have value, but none of them can substitute for the living presence of God. A church can be historically impressive and spiritually empty. It can be doctrinally precise and merciless. It can preserve beautiful liturgy while forgetting the people Christ came to serve. What distinguishes the Church is whether Christ is present among us, and whether that presence is visible in the way we live.
Then Moses goes even further. “Show me your glory.” That’s quite a request. Moses has already seen the burning bush. He has confronted Pharaoh. He has crossed the sea. He has received the commandments. Still, he wants more. “Show me your glory.” God tells him that no human being can fully see the divine face and live. Instead, Moses is placed in the cleft of the rock. God passes by, and Moses is allowed to see only what Scripture describes as God’s back.
There’s something beautifully honest about that. We want to see everything clearly. We want answers. We want certainty. We want to know exactly what God is doing and exactly where God is leading. Most of the time, we don’t get that. Often we recognize God only afterward. We look back and say, “God was there.” At the time, it felt confusing. At the time, it felt uncertain. At the time, we wondered whether anything good could come from it. Then, looking back, we see traces of grace. Maybe that’s what it means to see the back of God. We don’t always see God coming. Sometimes we recognize where God has been.
Psalm 99 carries that sense of mystery and awe even further. Again and again the Psalm declares, “Holy is he.” We use the word holy so often that we can forget what it means. Holiness isn’t simply religious respectability. It speaks of God’s otherness, God’s majesty, God’s refusal to be reduced to something we can completely understand or control.
Israel tried to do that with the golden calf. They took mystery and turned it into something they could see, carry, and manage. We still do that. We may not build golden statues, but we sometimes make God suspiciously similar to ourselves. Our God agrees with our politics. Our God dislikes the same people we dislike. Our God confirms all our opinions. Our God never challenges our assumptions. Whenever God becomes completely predictable, we should probably become suspicious.
The living God has a way of unsettling us. God calls us toward people we’d rather avoid. God asks us to forgive when we’d rather hold onto resentment. God reminds us that the stranger bears the divine image. God tells us that the poor matter. God reminds us that power isn’t the same thing as righteousness. God keeps refusing to fit neatly inside the boxes we build. Holy is he.
Then Paul gives us another picture of what it looks like when people truly belong to God. He remembers the Thessalonians for their “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope.” Faith, love, and hope. For Paul, these aren’t abstract ideas. They produce something. Faith works. Love labors. Hope endures.
Paul says the Gospel came to them “not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.” That’s an important word for the Church. The Gospel cannot exist in word only. We can say all the right things about Jesus and still fail to resemble him. We can recite creeds and ignore suffering. We can preach love and treat one another cruelly. We can talk about grace while building communities shaped by fear. If the Gospel is real, sooner or later it becomes visible.
Paul says the Thessalonians had “turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God.” And there it is again. Allegiance. Turning from idols. Belonging to God. Which brings us back to that little coin in Jesus’ hand. “Whose image is this?” Caesar’s. Give it back to him. But you bear another image. You bear the image of God.
And that means our deepest loyalty can never belong to an empire, a political party, a nation, an ideology, an institution, or any human leader. Those things may deserve our participation. They may deserve our respect. They may even deserve certain forms of obedience. But they do not own us. God does.
That distinction matters. Whenever the Church ties itself too closely to political power, it risks confusing Caesar’s image with God’s image. Whenever national identity becomes indistinguishable from Christian identity, something has gone wrong. Whenever loyalty to a political leader becomes more important than faithfulness to the words of Jesus, we’ve wandered into dangerous territory.
Christians should participate in civic life. We should care about justice. We should care about the common good. We should care about the vulnerable, the poor, the stranger, and the peace of our communities. But we should never confuse the kingdom of God with any earthly political project. Every empire passes. Every government changes. Every political movement eventually becomes history. Christ remains.
So our first question cannot simply be, “What does my side want?” Our first question has to be, “What does love require?” What does mercy require? What does justice require? What does the Gospel require? What belongs to God? We do. And so does every person we encounter.
The immigrant bears God’s image. The poor bear God’s image. The prisoner bears God’s image. The wealthy bear God’s image. Our political opponent bears God’s image. The person who frustrates us, disappoints us, or simply sees the world differently bears God’s image. That doesn’t mean every idea is equally true or every choice equally good. Jesus never confused love with indifference. But it does mean that no human being becomes disposable simply because we disagree with them.
If the image of Caesar stamped on a coin gives Caesar a claim upon that coin, how much more should the image of God stamped upon a human life shape the way we treat one another? Perhaps that’s the question we should carry with us this week. Whose image do we see? When we look in the mirror, do we remember that we belong to God? When we look at our neighbor, do we remember that they bear the same divine image? When we look across a political divide, can we still see the image of God? And when we make decisions about money, relationships, ministry, politics, or the future, do we remember whose we are?
Moses says, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here.” That might be a good prayer for all of us. Lord, if you aren’t in it, don’t let me chase it. If an ambition requires me to abandon compassion, let it go. If a political allegiance requires me to abandon the Gospel, let it go. If winning an argument requires me to stop seeing another person as your beloved child, let it go. If my religion makes me less loving, less merciful, less generous, and less Christlike, something is wrong.
Let your presence go with us. Show us your glory. Help us turn from the idols that promise security but cannot give life. Remind us again whose image we bear. Give Caesar his coin. Give the world whatever honest duties love and justice require. But give God what belongs to God. Give God your heart, your conscience, your compassion, and your life.
Because in the end, the most important question isn’t what belongs to Caesar. It’s whether we remember that we belong to God.
Amen.