Proper 24a 2026; 18 October
Ex. 33:12-23; Ps. 99; I Thess. 1:1-10
Matt 22:15-22; Jack Hardaway
SHORT AND VIVID
Over the spring and summer, I wrote a series of reflections for a devotional. I spoke about the experience with a retired priest friend that I have always admired. I said I liked to write short and vivid reflections on scripture. And he responded, “That is what life is, short and vivid.”
Of coarse I had a silly come back, “Are you sure it isn’t long and boring?”
And he looked me in the eye and said, “No Jack. Life is short and vivid.”
Moses was crazy in love with the unseen, with the holy one, the Lord. He did crazy things in his love sickness. Moses’ wife, Zipporah, had to endure the love affair of her husband and the Lord.
Just to see God’s glory, a short and vivid life ending with a blaze. That is what Moses wanted, longed for, longing for the unseen one. God tempered his glory so that Moses didn’t melt like wax. Hidden in the cleft of the rock, covered with the divine hand so Moses could only see the divine backside, the wake of glory.
Moses did glow afterward, he had to cover his face to protect those around him, a God sickness, like radiation poisoning, too much. What to do with a short and vivid life? Be in love beyond reason. A passion of longing and love for the one who fills all things. A thirst that no drink can quench. We have to leave theology behind and enter into the realm of the mystics and the poets, the love affair of Moses and the Unseen.
Malice and deception are a waste for the brevity of our days.
I imagine Jesus was fed up with people missing the point and wasting what little breath they had.
Playing games with politics and brutal imperial authority. Paying taxes to the empire?
Jesus turns it around with that coin trick, and giving back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And then he uses their duplicity to talk about something that is more worthwhile, looking them in the eye and yanking them back on track. Giving “to God the things that are God’s.” And he leaves it open ended for us to answer.
Nobody slept that night. If they did then they weren’t paying attention.
Life is short and vivid, we don’t have long to answer that question, giving God’s things back.
The deep reading of the sixth commandment, Thou shalt not steal, is that all that we have belongs to God, and that when we don’t share, we steal from God. It is a keeping us awake at night sort of thing.
Ultimately this short vivid life is a brief flicker of a chance to give thanks. For creation, for life, for faith, redemption, for the grace with which Jesus floods the world.
A chance to fall in love with Jesus, big time, all the way.
Grace Church has begun its fall pledge drive for the ministry of the Gospel here at Grace in 2027. This is about so much more than paying the bills or membership dues. Air conditioning and and keeping the lights on, and paying for a committed church staff are great things, but this is about so much more than that. This is about salvation.
This is about how thankful we choose to be. How many ways can I give God thanks? How thankful do I choose to be? Making a pledge and giving to the ministry of Grace Church is one big way to say thank you to God.
This is about being in love, and making the most of this short vivid life to go for love big time and all the way.
Life is eucharistic, it is the great thanksgiving, in the rock of ages cleft for me, to catch a glimpse of more than I can speak of.
Susan and I tithe to Grace and St George, 10% off the top before taxes, and then we give more to other ministries on top of that.
Choosing to give God thanks is a lot of work. There are so many other ways to live, malice and duplicity, fear and abuse, anger and rhetoric, mockery and scorn, comfort and luxury. So many diversions. So many wrong turns.
Every now and then God pulls a coin trick, yanking us back on track, and looks us in the eye.
“No Jack. Life is short and vivid.”