A Higher Allegiance

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

October 18, 2026

Matthew 22:15-22

Rev. Linda Kurtz Burch

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Sermon manuscript | Bulletin

Conversation partners for this sermon included:

• "Why 'Presbyterian' Will Never Be a Political Party" from the Presbyterian Church (USA)

• "Oh God Now What" episode on voting your morals (podcast hosted by journalist and PCUSA ruling elder Niala Boodhoo)

Featured image: Klee, Paul, 1879-1940. Joyful Mountain Landscape, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/55666 [retrieved October 18, 2026]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heitere_Gebirgslandschaft_by_Paul_Klee_1929.jpeg