By The REv. Susan Balfour

Beloved,

Greetings in Christ! As ever, I celebrate what God is doing in our midst and in you. I am grateful for the ways in which you seek the wisdom of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, and how you pursue that wisdom in our common life. You are beautiful and truly Beloved.

I write to you from the Luminosity Conference, arranged by the Presbyterian Foundation. I’ve reconnected with a dear friend and colleague I haven’t seen in ten years; I’ve met in real life for the first time a friend and colleague I met in a Presbyterian Facebook group many years ago; I’ve made new friends among my colleagues; and I’ve participated in workshops to feed my spirit and to equip me to better serve you.

Dr. Eric Barreto is one of our keynote speakers and workshop leaders. He is a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and a New Testament scholar. One of the many passages of Luke-Acts he discussed was Luke 20:20-26—the question about paying tribute to Caesar. Jesus’ response: render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.

This hedge-y answer let Jesus side-step the trap, but his answer rings true nonetheless: Caesar gets Caesar’s due, and God gets God’s due.

Where this gets tricky for us is the question of just what is due to Caesar, and what is due to God. Caesar has stamped his face on everything he can—coinage, temple facades, monuments. And all of it is earthly and temporary. The coins lost to history, likely melted down to form new coinage. The temple facades eroded by time, if they’re left standing at all. The monuments relegated to archaeological fodder. What is Caesar’s is nothing but molten metal and dust.

Render unto God what is God’s: the eternal, enduring soul, the character that builds humanity rather than empire, that builds generational wellbeing rather than infrastructure destined to fade before the burning majesty of God and of God’s Christ. When Jesus tells us to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, he does so knowing well that God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of humanity, and nothing truly belongs to Caesar or to any earthly empire. Everything we are and everything we have is God’s. And yet—we so often render unto Caesar that which rightly belongs to God.

I pray God’s blessings on you, my Beloved, until I return to you.

In Christ,

Rev. Susan