On the first really cold day last fall in Denver, a window cleaner was working on a scaffold outside the 20th floor of a skyscraper. He was surprised to see a secretary pressing a large sheet of paper up to the window. On it, in big letters, she had written: "It's 72 degrees in here." Undaunted, the half-frozen window cleaner reached into his pocket, pulled out a pen and notebook, and scribbled a message of his own. With a big smile he held it close to the window. It said, "It's $25 an hour out here!"

So many discussions lead back to a bottom line with a dollar sign. So it was long ago when Jesus fielded a tough question from his religious enemies: "Should we pay taxes to Rome or not?" Jesus, always the master of the object lesson, asked to see a coin used to pay the tax. He asked, "Whose…