This blog is one person’s discipline of bible reading. It makes use of the Episcopal Church’s list of readings for every day in the year (Lectionary) and gives a personal meditation on it, while remembering what’s going on the world with a headline reference to the news. Readers can access past blogs from the date list on-screen or by googling emmock.com plus scripture reference or theme.
Egyptians Stand Up for Democracy 
Isaiah 2:1-11
The Future House of God
2The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
3 Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
This same “vision of Isaiah” is also found in the prophecy of Micah. It’s not clear which prophet it belongs to or indeed it may have been borrowed by both of them or their editors from another source. In any case it’s a noble expression of the meaning of the Jerusalem Temple: it’s no merely national shrine but will be an open house for all races who want to learn “the ways of the God of Jacob.”. These ways include true justice and the transformation of what we might call the military/industrial complex into a resource for international peace. The phrase “learn or study war” indicates accurately the kind of aggressive culture which has deformed the lives of generations of young men and left their mutilated corpses all over the world as markers of barbarity.
The “house of God” in Jerusalem is only a symbol of heaven and earth as God’s house in which all his children can live in justice and peace. It is a terrible irony that over the centuries, due as much to Christian and Islamic violence as to Israeli, Jerusalem has become a symbol of exclusive possession rather than an open house. But we need visions such as this, to set above the tragic slaughters of human history as signs of hope; and they are provided not just by inspired scriptures and art but also by people anywhere who refuse the call to violence, often at great cost to themselves; such as Israelis who demonstrate for peace, Palestinians who oppose firing missiles into Israel, Egyptians who stand for real democracy, Nigerian Moslems and Christians who want to live together, medical workers in the midst of all wars who put their lives on the line to save lives, and many more. By their actions and suffering they point to one open house of God, of which another symbol is a stable in Bethlehem.
Luke 20:19-26
19When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.
The Question about Paying Taxes
20 So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor.21So they asked him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth.22Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’23But he perceived their craftiness and said to them,24‘Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?’ They said, ‘The emperor’s.’25He said to them, ‘Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’26And they were not able in the presence of the people to trap him by what he said; and being amazed by his answer, they became silent. 
The key question here is, whose image (Greek: Eikon) does it bear? For every Jew believed that God created humanity in his own image. So Jesus is not only separating Caesar’s interest from God’s, he is also undermining the imperial claim to own human beings. The image of God is upon the human person whose first allegiance therefore must be to God and not to Caesar. The sub-Lutheran idea of a neat separation of powers between Church and State is a poor interpretation of this saying. Jesus was not speaking about church and state; he was exposing the routine use of the conqueror’s coinage even by those who posed as ultra – pious Jews, while hinting that human dignity comes from belonging to the creator. If we want the benefits of a particular state we need to pay our taxes, but only God deserves our allegiance. We can never excuse neglect of our duty to God by citing our duty to the state. This makes Christians uncomfortable citizens everywhere.
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