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(Note: here is an alternative litany for Proper 24 of Year A)

In Matthew 22, Jesus demonstrates a startling lesson to any of us who might be confused about the separation of church and state. The Pharisee are trying to entrap him into some treasonous statement for which they might turn him in and be rid of his unsettling influence on the people and his undermining of their religious power. First they try to butter him up with flattery: “we know you don’t show partiality…” (It’s true. He doesn’t.) And then they hit him with a tax question (tricky in any age).

And he says: whose face is on this coin? Caesar’s? Then it must be a thing born out of a Cesarous imagination… (Matthew 22:20).

Whose face is on your DNA? Whose image are you made in? Whose image is the natural world made in? Whose image do you bear? Then to whom do you belong, and to what Kin-dom Community? And to whom will you give what you are, your gifts?

God, show us your ways (1),
So that we might know The One Whose Image We Bear (2),
The one whose stamp is on us,
Whose imagination brought us the natural world
Whose creativity begot the beauties of nature and humanity
Whose invites us into alignment with Love….

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Here in John 14, this week's Lectionary Gospel, we get a scene in which Jesus is winding down his pre-death-and-resurrection ministry, and it seems like he’s really sowing into his disciples. He’s sharing lesson after lesson, trying to help them understand what’s coming, where he’s going, the implications of it. He says a chapter or two earlier that his “soul is troubled” (John 12:27) and I can feel his edge here. I imagine him earnest but resigned. And he opens this soliloquy by saying “do not let your hearts be troubled;” his tone exhorting, encouraging. He affirms his Divinity as well as theirs, telling them that what he has, they share in. His resources are shared with them. His connection to God. His innate knowing of “the way” can be theirs too.

God, as Christ is teaching us, we have your essence within us.
The Divine is within Christ (1)
Christ is within us (2),
And so The Divine is within us.

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