Yesterday when I was reading "Those Who Show Up" two Bible passages were brought alongside in a way I've never seen before...

The Genesis assertion that humanity is made in the image and likeness of God

The question (and response) of Jesus about paying taxes to caesar, asking whose image was on the coin.

This is what happened when I started to ponder what it said...

The image on the coin is the image of a man who is made in the image and likeness of God, a man whose authority (at least ontologically) derives from God.  The coin is held in the hand of a person made in the image and likeness of God, a person who has (arguably) a kind of dual nationality being part of the Kingdom of God and part of Caesar's local jurisdiction.  Or, from another angle, the locality is ontologically part of God's juridiction and the flawed, finite endeavours of human powers are capable of being transformed more into the likeness of the Kingdom, the eschatological horizon to which we aspire.  Which I think means that we render unto caesar that which is caesar's, which is a subset of that which is already God's.  Then, rather than washing our hands of what caesar then does, we are to engage in the messyness of transforming what caesar does with the taxes by campaigning, lobbying, getting involved in local or national politics and organsiations, and praying.

Whether that paragraph makes any sense, I have no idea, but it made me ponder and I kind of liked the way it stretched my mind.  Sometimes it is a tad easy to 'pray' that it'll all come right as if that was somehow separate from our own daily choices.  The book has certainly challenged me to reflect on my own forms of engagement.