“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to

God the things that are God’s. Or in the more familiar language: render

unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s.

From its beginnings as a minority religious community in the midst of Roman

military rule to its status today as a majority faith in a secular American

democracy, the church and state are like the odd old crotchety couple who

have been in the neighborhood forever. It’s not at all clear that they

should have gotten together in the first place, and it’s very difficult to

tell what is really going on in the relationship, but given they’ve been

seen together for so long, it’s awfully hard to imagine them not occupying

the same space.

Full disclosure that when I looked at the lesson for this Sunday, I

immediately made plans to preach the Exodus reading. It is one of my

absolute favorite readings, and I’ll say a brief word about it later on,

but after being in our Bible studies this week, and hearing the different

perspectives on the church and politics I can’t resist the minefield.”