October 18, 2026
What’s in your wallet? Besides not enough. Do you carry any coins? Can you pay $1.76 with exact change? Pennies are less in circulation, and more and more people now say they don’t carry cash either. Maybe you can’t recall the last time you touched a coin or a dollar bill. Can you recall when you last wrote out a check? More and more churchgoers give online or through other electronic methods.
Can you name whose head—whose face— is on each coin? The penny is Abraham Lincoln, the nickel, Thomas Jefferson, the dime, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the quarter has the image of George Washington. Do they all have the words “In God we trust?” Yes! In the United States since 1955, all currency carry the words.
The religious authorities are in Jesus’ face in today’s gospel. It’s like the political ads running right now, trying to say gotcha and squash some political power. Jesus is challenging the political and religious authority, leading to Jesus’ arrest and eventual death.
The no-win question: is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not? Taxes are always unpopular and controversial. There are a lot of government bonds on our current California ballot asking how we pay for buildings, schools, roads, and public projects. How do we work for the common good? How do we support those most vulnerable? What about a tax plan? What would Jesus say?
Jesus asks to see a coin. The tax being paid was the poll tax to vote. The tax had to be paid with a silver denarius coin. And the coin on one side showed Tiberius wearing the laurel wreath, a sign of divinity, and the words “Tiberius Caesar, Son of the august God.” On the other side were the words “high priest” with Ceasar’s mother, Julia Augusta, sitting on the throne of the gods.
Jesus advice is to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are Gods. What does Jesus mean? Does not everything belong to God. For some, Jesus gives a clear division between church and state, faith and politics. For some, we should honor government as a force for good in the world. How does your trust in God impact your vote this election?
There are two sides of a coin. Yes, we can love our country. Yes, we can love God and be loyal to our faith. Jesus words challenge us to be engaged citizens who also have a prophetic voice that speaks truth to power and advocates for justice as a testament to God’s concern and care. Our church’s social statement “Faith and Civic Life” calls us to be informed voters who also are aware of the use of money in elections and cautions that “an expansive influence of money in elections and politics” should not limit “the ability to be heard”.
What’s in our wallet determines a lot of our spiritual values of what and where we put our trust and hope. Our money is backed by the full faith and trust of the American people that we can exchange goods and services. And the images we circulate project power.
So what does the image of God look like? Lincoln, Jefferson, and Roosevelt get circulated around.
But I can help us envision what image of God looks like. From the book of Genesis, humans are made in the image of God. Those who are suffering and hurting, hungry or powerful, those we would rather not see, all carry God’s image.
Desmond Tutu writes: “We are accepted and affirmed by God and so do not need to prove ourselves. We have been set free, and our liberation is total and comprehensive—it includes being set free from political, social and economic structures that are oppressive and unjust, since these would enslave us and make us less than God intends us to be. … God must have all—including Caesar’s domain; otherwise there would be a part of the universe, of life, that did not fall under God’s control.”
You may not have a coin on you. You may not have any Ben Franklins in your pocket or even a few Andrew Jacksons. But you are God’s treasure. Every person is worthy of dignity and honor. You and I are coined in the divine image. We join the work of caring for the earth and one another. In all the trick questions of life, and because of mercy alone, “in God we trust.”