#i mean its a bit of a catch 22. because by stating my hatred of discourse i am effectively posting discourse but whatever

[libraryfag]

someday they'll be a pride where there isn't discourse on my dash. i had hoped it would be this year but i guess there's always next year. tch its not like i care about infighting within the community preventing us from actually being able to fight the real and increasing threat of fascism. its whatever

[auburnfamilynews]

Happy Halloween.

Oh boy, I hope by the time you’re reading this, you’re figuring out the proper ratio of candy to take from your kids as a parent tax (never too early to educate our young ones on the way tax brackets work) before sugaring yourself up with some dark liquor in preparation for what you’ll see today.

First of all, it’s going to be one of those crisp fall afternoons you write about. It’s Halloween. There’s a full moon tonight, and when you wake up tomorrow, you’ll have that extra hour of sweet glorious sleep as we head into November. Here’s hoping that you get to dream of an Auburn win instead of having Halloween nightmares of yet another gut-wrenching loss to LSU.

However, this is a happy place. We think happy thoughts here, and especially during 2020, the year that doesn’t matter. LSU’s already faced their share of misery. They had one of the most lightning strike teams last season, and in their first game as defending champs, they got chumped by Mike Leach. The guy couldn’t handle Portland State in his openers at his previous stop, and he clowned LSU.

Auburn has had a rough time this season also. I think we played Georgia, but honestly that game is clouded now in a haze of bourbon hatred so I don’t technically remember what happened. There was a game against South Carolina too, but... well, yeah. Those happened. In between, everyone wants to talk about “Y’ALL. BARN CHEATIN’ AND THEY SHOULD BE A 1-4 TEAM. OR 0-5. KENTUCKY HAD MORE YARDS THAN THEM SO THEY’S BETTER THAN AUBURN AND BARNERHAM IS GIVING AUBURN THE WINS.”

Instead of thinking about the ways that Auburn’s cheating the system and skating by, pissing off SEC West fans of teams that we haven’t even played yet, we should be looking at what the Tigers are doing well.

After the last couple of years of Boobee Whitlow (who was a serviceable running back, but not the type of guy we’re accustomed to here), let me tell you, it’s been a delight to watch Tank Bigsby run the ball. He’s the real deal, and if you don’t think so, just look at my RealDeal face.

I’m Josh Lyman in this situation, and you’re Sam Seaborn. I saw the real thing. Tank is the best pure running back that I think we’ve had since Cadillac. He runs hard, breaks tackles, racks up yardage, and can do everything. We’ve leaned into the idea of getting your best player the ball and it’s worked with him.

Meanwhile, the fight between Bo Nix and Seth Williams in Columbia turned into daps and hugs, mean mugs and shoulder shrugs as the connection went for 8 completions, 150 yards, and the game-winning 58 yard score. Auburn’s pass protection helped a little, and improved some, but there are still holes. In terms of the run game, it continued to soar, and Auburn is now one of the best rushing teams in the SEC.

Unfortunately, Auburn’s offensive line, which had started to turn into one unit instead of five individual ones, lost one of the most experienced and reliable members when Brandon Council went down with a season-ending injury in Oxford. Keiondre Jones, who’s a thicc boy, steps in at right guard, but this is not the team you want to have to play when you’re working in a new guy.

For LSU, they’re probably going to be playing 6’6, 242-pound TJ Finley, who was great last week in his debut as a starter. He’s still got a ton of weapons, and he got the benefit of playing at home against a South Carolina team that may have been experiencing a bit of a hangover after their win against us. Hopefully he comes back to earth and a road atmosphere turns ugly. In both of LSU losses, it’s been the pass defense faltering, and allowing, oh... 1,029 YARDS IN TWO GAMES. If ever there was a game when both phases of Auburn’s offense wanted to work, it would be this game. Bo Nix at home should be a good bit better than Bo Nix on the road, but LSU has 14 sacks in those four games on defense, and average about eight tackles for loss per game overall. Gus Malzahn and Chad Morris have to figure out a way to hit this defense at the right time. It’ll be tricky.

Plus, we’re dealing with the weight of extreme voodoo here, and not just on LSU’s side. This rivalry’s ratio of bizarre outcomes is higher than just about any matchup in the country. Here we have an Auburn team trying to avenge three straight close and crushing losses in the series, and trying to do it in a year like this, on Halloween, with a full moon.

It’s safe to say that if you have an expectation of how this is going to turn out, you probably need to throw a bunch of gasoline on that expectation and light it on fire. There’s no way this turns out to be a run-of-the-mill football game. Never is.

SERIES HISTORY: LSU leads the all-time series 31-22-1, and they’ve won three straight in the rivalry. Auburn’s last win came in 2016 in Les Miles’ final game as head coach at LSU.

LAST MEETING: Last season’s game in Baton Rouge turned out to be the closest game that LSU played all season, as they won 23-20. Auburn led until the final five minutes of the third quarter when Clyde Edwards-Helaire scored the go-ahead touchdown.

LAST WEEK: Auburn took care of business against Ole Miss with a 35-28 win, where Tank Bigsby accounted for 129 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns, while Seth Williams scored the game-winning touchdown as a part of his 150 receiving yards.

LSU had their most impressive performance of the season with a 52-24 win against South Carolina. TJ Finley got the start for the injured Myles Brennan, and threw for 265 yards and. a pair of touchdowns on 17-21 passing. Tyrion Davis-Prince ran for 135 yards and a score, while Terrace Marshall caught another two touchdowns, bringing his season total up to nine.

KEYS FOR AUBURN:

Continue to find the offensive balance. This could fall under sub-category “continue to run the ball well” because it’s the Jed Bartlett Silver Bullet to making nearly everything else right on this football team. It opens up the passing game. It allows our defense to rest. It wears down the opposition. Plus, it means we get to watch Tank Bigsby tote the rock. Even so, when Auburn has been at its best this year, it’s when the offense has been keeping balanced and keeping defenses off balance. Last week was a great example. The Tigers were amazingly balanced last week with 224 rushing yards and 238 passing yards, and even though it’s Ole Miss, Bo Nix was much cleaner. LSU’s defense isn’t great either, but their pass rush is the strength, so the run game will need to contiue to bear the brunt of Auburn’s load today.

Make the freshman quarterback a freshman quarterback. No, this TJ Finley cat ain’t Tim Tebow, or Tua, or Johnny Football, or any of the other fantastic freshman quarterbacks that have come through the SEC lately. He’s still 6’6, 242, and showed out last weekend against South Carolina. What turns out to be much different is playing in one of the more friendly home atmospheres and then turning around going into Jordan-Hare Stadium. Without the full capacity crowd, Auburn’s advantage here won’t be as pronounced, but it’s still an unfamiliar stadium for a young kid. When you consider what Kevin Steele’s been able to do against some of the best offenses in college football, and particularly last season against LSU, I have faith that he’ll pull something out to help rattle a freshman. Throw him some stunts, some extra blitzes, some exotic coverage, and let him figure it out.

Make the clutch play. Wow, looking at Auburn’s last three losses to LSU you can easily pinpoint the moments that changed the game and gave LSU a little momentum. In 2017 it was the fourth down touchdown and the diving touchdown catch from Russell Gage right before the half. Then the D.J. Chark punt return score in the second half flipped the game around. One year later, it was again a long play that just barely worked. Joe Burrow hit Derrick Dillon on a 71-yard strike that just barely went over the outstretched hands of an Auburn defender. Then, on the game-winning drive, Burrow calmly stepped up and completed a fourth down slant pass to extend the drive that led to the walk-off field goal. And last year, it turned out to be the LSU defense making big plays like the Derek Stingley interception right before halftime that prevented Auburn from retaking the lead. This year, Auburn has to be the side jumping on the loose ball, grabbing that interception, and winning the big play ratio. LSU’s big plays have killed Auburn over the last three years, so now it’s Auburn’s turn.

STRESS-O-METER:

Anytime LSU comes to town —

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2020/10/31/21542872/game-preview-and-open-thread-auburn-vs-lsu

[ourkenflood]

Render unto Caesar

Sermon for Proper 24a  / Matthew 22: 15-22

I am reading a book at the moment called “The Joy of .....  Tax”.

That’s T.A.X.  – in case anyone misheard and thought I said some other three letter word ending in “X.” (Don’t pretend you didn't think it).

The first record we have a tax is from the ancient Babylonians. Even before there was money, as we understand it, people paid tax in goods – sheep and cows – and even in labour – a day’s work. It even looks like there were tariffs on imports – there is a record from around 1900BC of a person being imprisoned for smuggling. So, not only have we had tax for a long time, we’ve also had tax evaders.

One of the points made in the book is that tax is not just about money, but it is also a government and its values. And in liberal western democracies, where we elect governments on the basis of their tax promises; tax says a lot about society.

It is similar to a story that the former Bishop of Manchester, Bishop Nigel, told when he last visited here. He spoke a keen young man who goes to visit an old, wise Spiritual Director for the first time for guidance. They have a productive time together and mutually agree that it would be good to meet up again. And as the young man is leaving the Spiritual Director asks that him bring his last three bank statements with them next time. He is a bit taken a back. “Why should I bring my bank statements” he asks, after all he is there to talk of spiritual matters, of prayer, of inner discovery, and the stuff of heaven. So the Spiritual Director simply explains, “if you want to know the true values of a person, look at how they spend their money.”

I wonder what my bank statement says about me? How do I get my money and how do I spent it? I wonder what your bank statement says about you? What does it say of your priorities and what you truly consider to be important?

 The reason I’ve started talking about tax is, of course, because today’s gospel is about a tax.

In particular, the tax concerned is not income tax or V.A.T. but a poll tax. You may remember the hatred of this tax, in some quarters, when it was temporarily introduced into Britain. But the riots in London were as nothing when compared with the rebellion that broke out in Palestine when the Roman governors began it there. Every man and women had to pay one denarius (that is the equivalent of one day’s pay) each year on top of all the other taxes.

One of the racist stereotypes that persists through the ages is of the money grabbing Jew.  We can easily picture a character like Fagin from Oliver Twist, rubbing his hands together while gazing lovingly at a pile of coins. And like most racist images it breaks down when put against the facts.

The Jews of Jesus’ time were not opposed to this tax because they didn’t want to part with their money (or at least not to any greater extent than any of us want to part with money). The devout Jews of Jesus time were already paying a 10% tithe to the Temple, as many do to this day.

When we had a stewardship campaign a few years ago, the Diocesan Stewardship Officer told us that the average church goer in the Diocese of Manchester is donating about 3.5% of their income to the church. And yet we don’t keep promoting the stereotype of the money-grapping Anglican. But the simple fact is that, on average, a devout Jew is giving three times more than the devout member of the C of E.

The reason this tax was hated was because of who it was paid to – it went to the Romans, the foreign oppressor. This tax began the year Jesus was born. In fact the census that forced Mary and Joseph to travel Bethlehem was taken in order to begin this tax. In the 30 odd years it had been collected it was still despised.

In today’s gospel reading, the Pharisees and the Herodians are out to get Jesus. The previous day to this encounter, Jesus has cleansed the temple throwing out the money changers and stall holders. He was becoming a serious nuisance. They needed to either get rid of him or, at the very least, take him down a peg or two.

So they turn to the old problem of Roman tax. They much have thought they could really catch him out with this problem of the poll tax. They had a sure fire way of trapping him. So they begin by trying to lull Jesus into a false sense of security, they flatter him.      

“Teacher,” they said ” we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth,” (Have you ever heard anything so grovelling?)

Then they put to him the supposedly innocent question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not”. This question was supposed to be one which would get Jesus into trouble no matter what he said.

First Jesus could have replied “Yes, it is lawful”. This would have meant he lost the support of many ordinary people.

Many people still thought the Messiah was to be a political figure, a warrior, who would drive out the Romans and that Jesus was this person. But if Jesus said they should pay their taxes, these people would desert him. This Jesus of Nazareth was clearly not a warrior King sent by God if he went round telling everyone to pay their taxes to the foreign oppressor.

He would also lose the support of any devout Jews who followed him. The roman coin, which had to be used to pay the tax, was a piece of idolatry and blasphemy. Not only did it have a picture of the roman emperor on it, but it also proclaimed that this emperor was divine. No self-respecting religious Jew would even touch such a graven image. So Jesus clearly could not say pay the tax.

But Jesus could not say do not pay the tax either. If he said this, the Herodians, who only had power because of Roman support, could have reported Jesus to the Romans on charges of treason and got rid of him that way.

It was supposed to be a no win situation.

So what does Jesus do?

First, he asks to see the coin. It is such a simple act, but it turns the conflict on its head. Those out to trap Jesus are suddenly themselves trapped by Jesus’ request that he see the coin. For what are these righteous and respectful Pharisees, the pillars of their community, doing with such a blasphemous object on their person? Suddenly the accusers (for that is what they really are) become the accused. Such an apparently innocent request, to see the coin, exposes their hypocrisy for all to see.  

Jesus seems to have had a particular hatred of the hypocrisy of religious people:

“Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”, Jesus says elsewhere in the gospels. I always feel a little guilty when I read of Jesus gunning for the hypocrites, for if we are honest, who has not fallen into hypocrisy? We all fail to live up to the standards of goodness and honesty that we proclaim in our worship.

But then I remember the story of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee who go to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee stands in the middle of the Temple, thanking God loudly, that he is not like other people and a sinner, listing his acts of righteousness. The tax collector stands in the corner and simply says, “God be merciful to me, a sinner”. And it is the tax collector who goes home justified.

It is the Tax collectors utterly honest act of self-recognition before God that saves him from being one of the hypocrites. The problem with the opponents of Jesus was not so much that they failed to live up to their religious ideals, we all do that, but that they never acknowledged this before God. It was their lack of humility and honesty.

After asking to see the coin Jesus says his famous reply of “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus’ double-edged command throws back the question of taxes to the accusers and issues a strong challenge.

 Some people, reading this passage have proposed that Jesus was saying that the Church and the State should be kept separate. The affairs of religion and the affairs of politics are separate realms, or kingdoms, which should never meet. These are the emperor’s things over here, and these are God’s concerns, and they must be kept distinct and distant from each other. But the saying is too brief and specific to mean this.

There is a long tradition in the old testament of the prophets intervening in the political discourse of their day. If this phrase says anything to me, “Give to the Emperor the things that are the Emperor’s” it says that we should be good citizens of our societies. And being a good citizen in a liberal democracy means being informed and being involved.

In Jesus’ day there was an Emperor – a supreme ruler, a dictator. And in that society there was little choice but to pay your tax and do as you were told.

In our day we don’t have an Emperor. In a liberal democracy “giving to the Emperor” means giving our tax, but it also means giving our opinion, our intelligence, and our values. We have a Christian duty to stand up for God’s values in our society and we do this through the ballot box, and by making clear to our elected officials what our societies priorities and values should be.

If our bank statement says something about our values, then our government’s bank statement also reveals our society’s values. On the income side, what does it say about our society that poor and average earners pay a much greater percentage of income in tax than the wealthy. Yes, we told the rich pay more because income tax levels go up, but when you factor in things like, V.A.T., national Insurance, petrol duty, road tax etc etc, the rich pay proportionately less in tax. What is that saying?

On the other side of the balance sheet - where we spend our money as a society - what does it say about our society that our government is still pressing ahead with the roll out of Universal Credit when virtual every agency and expert is saying that it has already, and will, cause thousands of people to fall into debt and increase even more the number of homeless people our streets.

“Give to the Emperor the things that are the Emperors”, Jesus said, What are those “things”? Sometimes those things are our duty to give our society and government our loyalty. But sometimes it is our Christian duty to make clear our contempt and disgust at what is happening.

The second half of Jesus saying is, of course, “and to God the things that are God’s.”

This part of the saying was a challenge to Jerusalem, the Temple, the rulers and all the hypocritical underlings: give God back, what belongs to him. Jesus’ consistent accusation is that the religious leaders have failed to worship their true and living God. They have failed to live as God’s people as a witness to the world.

Only the day before, Jesus has caused a small riot in the Temple because the very place where Israel was supposed to come and give God the things of God, in worship, prayer and sacrifice, has become a den of robbers. So concerned with the small details of religion, status and power, the letter of the law, they have ceased to live out the spirit of their faith and give God the worship he deserves.

And this is a trap that not only the leaders of first century Judaism fall into. We all fall into it.

It happens easily when we turn inwards and stop looking outwards.

It happens all too easily when we start to think we have all the answers.

It happens most easily of all, when we forget our dependence on God, and think we don’t need God anymore.

Today’s gospel reading is not about Jesus delivering a theory on the division of Church from State or Politics and Christianity. The bible elsewhere, teaches us clearly that our faith clearly has political consequences. Neither is it about Jesus showing off how clever and intelligent he is in avoiding the trap of the Pharisees. Although, no doubt, this was one of the reasons why this particular story was remembered amongst the early Christians.

Today’s gospel is about exposing the religious hypocrisy which comes when we abandon being honest with ourselves and humble before our God and our neighbour.  And it is about the ordering of our priorities and the promotion of God’s values - in our own personal lives and decisions, and also in our society and government. Amen.