Sermon Illustrations

Do you remember, how once in the gospel, the Pharisees, trying to trap Jesus, came with that question about paying your tax? And how he asked them, “Show me the coin used for paying the tax." And how then he asked: "Whose portrait is it?" And how they answered, "It bears the image of the emperor and his name." And how then he said: “Give to the emperor what is of the emperor,” and how he then said, "And give to God what belongs to God.” He might have asked: "Whose image do you bear, whose name is stamped on you?” And the answer would have been - or should have been: "We are carrying God’s image, we are carrying God’s name.” He coined us in his image. He named us, we have his imprint, his stamp, his seal. ... We are legal tender, because of him. We are his money, and we should be spent... Money should circulate, we should circulate; money should go from hand to hand, we should go from hand to hand; money should be thumbed, we should be thumbed; money has to be used, we have to be used... We should not keep ourselves and all we’ve got safe in a bank or in an old sock or in the ivory tower of our competence or under the cover of our dignity or in the clenched fist of our power... God is trying to use us to pay off our debts, to pay off the debts we owe each other.” [Jesus the Stranger, by Joseph G. Donders]

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