MODEL IMAGE

Sermon Summary (10/16/16), “Model Image”  Mt 22:15-22

Okay, so who’s happy with the way the election is going?   During the debate, my granddaughter tweeted, “This election is despicable!”  It’s only getting more so.  I think what it is teaching us is that we need heroes, larger than life heroes, people we can look up to, people who are role models.

Politicians like Teddy Roosevelt, larger than life, whose father taught him to view the world through the framework of right and wrong and to always act on the side of right.  We need that.  We need newsmen we can trust.  We need sport heroes that we’d allow to date our daughters.  Of course we may have heroes next door, teachers we’d enshrine on Mt Rushmore, neo-natal nurses we’d put on a pedestal, or in the area of religion, a Mel West (I’ve always wanted to be like Mel West when I grew up).  We need heroes, someone to guide us, someone who we would like to become.

Maybe there are stories we can take from the story of Jesus.  Politically we can view the groups of the day as political parties: The Pharisees as the “Traditional Party,” the Herodians as the “Fascists,” Jesus as the “Reformed Party.”  Anyway, the Pharisees and the Herodians (who wanted to protect the Herod’s positions with Rome) did not want Jesus upsetting their political power.  Jesus who was popular with the people had to be discredited .

Aha, the perfect question.  “Teacher, is it right to pay taxes or not?”Gotcha!  If he says “no,” the Roman guards will drag him away.  “Yes,” and the crowds will walk away.  He says, of the coin used to pay taxes, “whose image and inscription is this?”  They say, “Caesar’s.”  Now, you know the answer even if you’ve never been to church, don’t you?  Jesus says, “Give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are Gods.”  They were amazed at his answer.

It is we that are that are made in the image of God.  We give back what is rightfully God’s by living our lives in a manner pleasing to him.  But we need role models, mentors, exemplars to learn to lead those lives.  Maybe in this complex world, we need a composite of several who can model the lives we are to lead.  We need heroes.

I heard this week a story of parents who chose six young women to be a mentor for a day for their 8th grade daughter.  Six who would allow her to shadow them just one day, then to convey a life-lesson that they would have liked to be taught. The first was a maternity nurse.  Can you imagine that day walking the ward, being put to work? The day closed with the young nurse teaching a class to unwed mothers, and a life-lesson about sexual purity. Wow! We need heroes. And we need a few on the ballot.