Isaiah tells of how God can make even a foreign king “his anointed,” the messiah, and work through him. Where have you seen God work in expected ways and through unexpected people?

One of the most relevant issues of the 21st century is also curiously an ancient one: What is the proper relationship between church and state? At least most nations of the world don’t have to face the old problem of kings who ruled by divine right, much less emperors and pharaohs who identified themselves as the divinity personified.

That’s when the Pharisees plotted a way to trap him into saying something damaging. They sent their disciples, with a few of Herod’s followers mixed in, to ask, “Teacher, we know you have integrity, teach the way of God accurately, are indifferent to popular opinion, and don’t pander to your students. So tell us honestly: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

I heard a little girl in the grocery store pleading with her mother. “Please, please, please buy me the pink cookies!” she wailed. And then she decided to set the trap. “Will you buy me the pink cookies, or do you hate me?” she asked.

Clock-watching is a miserable pastime, yet sadly people all over the world are in jobs where they often do just that. It really has nothing to do with the job.

In the gospel today Jesus challenges his hearers to choose to follow God above all else. Let us pray that we may make that choice.

When the church goes to a people who has not yet received the faith, it goes to meet a grace from God. For grace is at work in every human group and, within each human group, in every individual; it produces there first effects that can come to fruition only through the church and in it.