Then [Jesus] said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” – Matthew 22:21

Nobody asked, “What things are God’s?”
for fear, perhaps, you’d speak the answer then:
“All things belong to God; all things, including you.”

Two millennia we’ve focused our attention
on the first, imperial, clause, debating what
the monarch, governor, or mayor should receive,

As if what they received did not belong to God,
both when the coins were in our hands and when
they’d dropped into official palms. They still belong to God.

As crimson cascades in its gruesome torrents
from the slain of Israel and Gaza, of Ukraine,
Myanmar, Maghreb, of Russia and Sudan,

Of Mexico and Ethiopia, and dozens, scores,
of nations bled by fewer deaths but still,
too many when the the only number should be, “none,”

What do you tell us now, in our imperial power?
Do you hold out the twenty dollar bill and say,
“Please, not like this. Oh, not like this”?

Or do you drop your head into your hands
and in a river of frustrated tears
weep for the desecrated images of God?

A poem/prayer based on Matthew 22:15-22, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year A, Proper 24 (29).

Photo of a first century denarius of the Emperor Tiberius by Portable Antiquities Scheme from London, England – Tiberius, R6195, BMC 49. Uploaded by Victuallers, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10817585.