Welcome to worship on this rainy Sunday morning. Often, days like this give us an opportunity to slow our bodies and our minds from all that steals our attention. Because we cannot get outside to do the yardwork, because we don’t want to run to the grocery store in the rain, because everything just seems a little quieter, we have a chance to sit, to rest, and reflect.  Maybe it’s because of the Gospel reading for this week or maybe it’s all the commercials, junk mail, and campaign texts we’ve been getting but this week (and weekend) as I’ve tried to slow my mind to hear a word from God, I have been amazed at all the things that are vying for allegiance and ultimate loyalty. 

Remembering the words from today’s Gospel reading, I continue to sit with the words of Jesus: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.” Of course where this leads is the bigger question: What on earth could I have that doesn’t really belong to God?

As the weather gives us time to sit still and reflect a bit, I wonder if the Holy Spirit isn’t trying to teach us something about our loyalties.  Are there things that we have (relational, material, spiritual) that we need to turn over to God? Is there something we are holding onto that we need to release? How is God calling us into the freedom of knowing that in God and God alone, we trust?