“Show us your credentials part four." Some thoughts for the readings for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time with some more interesting stories.
There are some big theological themes at play into today’s readings. They should give us cause to pause and wonder at their implications as we approach election time. The gospel reading is a well-known story that has led Christians over the centuries to declare that religion and politics do not mix. So let’s put it back and take a look. We are still in the temple, but now the long, tense, conversation between Jesus and the privileged Jerusalem Temple elite is on pause. It began when they asked by what authority Jesus did ALL these things: teaching in the temple, healing, forgiving sins, eating with sinners etc…, overturning money changers tables – and more. Now the Pharisees and Herodians, very strange bed fellows, are working together to trap him. Their question, veiled in flattery, is a good question. Jesus will be in serious trouble however he answers, either with the crowd who hate the Romans and their taxes, or with the Romans themselves. Jesus’ response seems simple and clever,...