October 18, 2026 | Word Out!
Download the Bulletin from October 18, 2026
READINGS
First Reading: Isaiah 45:1-7
1 Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped
to subdue nations before him
and to strip kings of their robes,
to open doors before him—
and the gates shall not be closed:
2 I will go before you
and level the mountains;
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron;
3 I will give you the treasures of darkness
and riches hidden in secret places,
so that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name;
I give you a title, though you do not know me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
6 so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe;
I the Lord do all these things.
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
2 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy from the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. 9 For they report about us what kind of welcome we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22
15 The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap [Jesus] in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” 21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.
SERMON—Pastor Mary Lindberg
Reckoning, Rendering, and Resurrection
During this season of back-to-school, we encounter a gospel that hinges on three R’s:
Reckoning, Rendering, and Resurrection.
First, the Reckoning.
In today’s gospel, Jesus’ authority is once again being questioned. Two groups, who would typically be opposed to one another, join forces to try to take Jesus down. Let me introduce the two groups to you.
There are the Pharisees, who don’t want to pay taxes to the corrupt government, and who wouldn’t believe in any kind of coin with a graven image on it. And then there are the Herodians, who had a vested interest in supporting Herod and Rome as agents of commerce. What brings these two disparate groups together? Both the Pharisees and the Herodians feel threatened by Jesus’ power.
So, they concoct a question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? And in an attempt to entrap Jesus, they ask him this lose-lose question. If Jesus answers yes, the crowds who detest the corruption and injustice of the poll tax could turn on Jesus.
If Jesus answers no, he could be tried for insurrection by the government. It sounds like a political morass, doesn’t it? In first-century Mediterranean culture, there was essentially no separation of church and state. Religion and economics were so embedded in family and empire.
But in our day and time, of course, we are certainly attuned to the politics of church and state. When I was contemplating this text this week in the office, Barb reminded me of a political cartoon that she saw long ago. In the cartoon, there’s a big square divided into boxes, and the competing factions are hunkered down in their little separate spaces.
And then there’s Jesus, with a huge pencil with the eraser side down, and he’s erasing the lines in between all of those boxes. To erase the lines in today’s story, Jesus poses his own question. Whose head is on this coin?
Jesus’ question brings us to the second R: Rendering.
Rendering is the word that they used with this text as I was growing up. Do you remember? “Render unto Caesar.” And now they’ve translated “render” into the word “give,” which is not as cool of a word, I don’t think.
But the word render in Greek is the coolest of all. apodidómi. apodidómi. Can we say it? apodidómi. Gotta get that in there. Let’s do it: apodidómi.
That means “to give back what is due.” Jesus says in this text, by giving Caesar back what is due to him, you can keep from giving Caesar even more.
By giving back to God what is due to God, however, you’re talking a much vaster sum. What God gave us are very selves. Jesus is able to give his very self back to God.
He’s asking that same payment from his followers. It’s called the cost of discipleship.
Jesus reminds the crowds on all sides that there’s another imprinted image to consider. Besides Caesar’s image on the coin, there’s the image of God imprinted on each and all of us, as children of God.
One hill away from here—now, which direction would Magnolia be? That way? Okay—One hill away from here at Magnolia Lutheran Church, my friend Marsha teaches kids about faith. Last year, the kids loved the ancient coins that she borrowed from a coin collector and brought to their class. As the kids held and played with those coins, they could barely believe that these coins were old enough to come from Jesus’ time.
One of the things that Marsha had the kids do was put the coin down on a table, put a piece of paper on top of it, take a pencil, and do a rubbing of the coin. And, of course, the image of that coin appeared.
Fellow Christians, children of God, people of Queen Anne Lutheran Church, what is the image of God imprinted on us? What is the picture that Jesus insists we render back to God? What are we made of, that God created, that God invested, and that God wants to spend in us?
That question brings me to the third R of the morning: Resurrection.
Today’s gospel takes place in Jerusalem. Jesus is heading on the road he’s been traveling for some time now, the pilgrimage to resurrection. But that road goes by way of the cross.
Jesus’ image, imprinted on us, includes the suffering that he endured. As a chaplain, as a spiritual director, I have spent my career hearing stories of suffering. Listening to people searching for meaning in the mystery of suffering.
It is slow work to which Jesus calls us, the giving back of suffering to the one who suffered for us—who suffers with us.
What we’re also giving back as people in the image of God is Jesus’ resurrection. If you look at my bio in the bulletin (not now, later!), you’ll see that the most joyful thing I do in semi-retirement is lead writing groups.
I have to tell you, in all my decades of ministry, this is the most effective way I’ve seen people use their challenges to serve and love others. There’s a prompt. They write to it. They read to each other. You can say what was strong. You can say what you will remember. It is simple. It is amazing. I get to write with people in assisted living facilities, with parents of special needs young adults. I get to write with people who have MS, and Parkinson’s. And in each of these writing groups, I witness people finding their voices, forging their bonds, and making incarnate the images of suffering and resilience printed, imprinted on them as children of God.
As we say goodbye now, with having visited the three Rs—what were they again? Reckoning, Rendering, Resurrection.
As we say goodbye to those three Rs, as we say goodbye now to Caesar and the religious leaders challenging Jesus, we know they’ll be back. And today, they’ve given us much to contemplate in our individual prayer and in our conversations. I invite you to put these questions in your pocket for this week, if you will.
What lines does Jesus want to erase in your life?
What has God imprinted on you, as a wounded healer, that connects you to others, in your struggles and in your dreams?
And as you carry those questions from this place, I pray what my pastor prayed when I was a kid:
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.