Includes Sermon Audio
24th Sunday after Pentecost
Sentence: Mark 10:29-31
Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
Collect of the day:
God of peace you taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: by the power of your spirit lift us to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Today’s readings:
Ruth 1:1-18.
Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:11-15
Mark 12:13-17, 28-34
A thought to ponder upon – Mark 12:13-17, 28-34
The likeness (of Tiberius Caesar) and inscription (“Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine Augustus” around the coins perimeter) on the denarius (valued as the wage of a day’s labour) represent the person of Caesar and his authority.
Jesus is not establishing a political kingdom in opposition to Caesar, so his followers should pay taxes and obey civil laws. There are matters that belong to the realm of civil government, and there are other matters that belong to God’s realm.
Jesus does not here specify which matters belong in which realm, but many Christian ethicists today teach that, in general, civil government should allow freedom in matters of religious doctrine, worship, and beliefs about God, and the church should not attempt to use the power of government to enforce an legions to any specific religious viewpoint.
All forms of the Christian church throughout the world today support some kind of separation between matters of church and matters of state. By contrast, totalitarian governments usually try to suppress the church and subsume everything under the realm of the state. Historically, when the church and state had become too closely aligned, the result most often has been the compromise of the church.
Sermon Audio
The Reverend Josie Steytler preaches from the text after the gospel reading.
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