Exodus 33:12-23

As we near the end of this saga, Moses is trying to figure out what it all means. He and God have become great buds, but God gave him Aaron, and that didn't work out so hot. So Moses wants a deeper understanding of what God is all about. He keeps in mind though that he has just been asked to lead, the people belong to God. And he wants to be sure they go forward together with God, so the people are "distinct", meaning special.

God is cool with this, but then Moses makes a request that is extraordinary for a man to make of a god, "Show me your glory". This is already an extraordinary conversation with a god. Normally gods speak in riddles or answer questions with questions or short phrases that need interpretation or just in actions. This is the kind of request you might make if you are desperate, perhaps in a battle and ready to die, so you ask for God to give everything He's got and take you out with Him when He's done. But this is just two bro's in a tent, making a plan to finish up this big journey they've been on, and Moses wants to have the secrets of the universe revealed to him.

YHWH, draws the line, you can know my name, see the results of my will, but not my face. Much fun has been made of the "back of God" that he is allowed to see. As John Holbert asks, is God mooning Moses? He also says this is unlikely. But Moses doesn't get what he asked for. No one gets to see the face of God. And the Lectionary lets that be the last word on Exodus.

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

When the Lectionary is about to cover a book for a few weeks, it sometimes includes these introductory sections, so we can know who is involved and the intention of the book, in this case a letter. Verse 9 tells us he is writing to pagan converts who, "turned to God from idols".

It's obviously a nice letter. He's well pleased with this church. He speaks of faith, hope and love and of their efforts of work, labor and steadfastness. He will elaborate in the coming weeks. In others letters, he has to explain how to imitate Christ, here he simply applauds them for it. He hints at why they might have converted, when he mentions the wrath to come. We'll see more on that too.

Matthew 22:15-22

After a few fairly intense parables, we get a break with a simpler story, at least on the surface. But there are some great levels of symbolism here. The Pharisees try to trap Jesus again, and he evades them once again. The test; reconcile the law of Rome with the higher law of God. If he says paying taxes is unlawful he'll be hauled off for inciting others to break the law. Say it is legal and show you are just another two-bit prophet who doesn't speak truth to power.

But we all know the Pharisees are the hypocrites. That's their main purpose for being in the gospels at all. So what's on the coin, the face of the emperor, everyone knows that and the story tells us that. What the story doesn't tell us, that everyone then would have known, is that the emperor is considered a god and the coin a form of emperor worship, something forbidden in Judaism. Think second commandment. There is also the "Shema", which says to worship God exclusively.

Note that Jesus asks for the denarius. He didn't have one, but the Pharisees did. This was about a day's wages, but more importantly it was a symbol of the emperor's power. To carry one shows you buy into the claims the emperor has on the people. But God's powers and the emperor's powers are mutually exclusive. That's the answer they wanted, but they needed him to say it clearly and publicly. Instead he says it in this code and at the same time shames them for having their allegiances wrong.