Miguel Castilleja Escobar

The Tribute Money , by Rubens (1610–1615) In a blog post for Church Anew , I reflect on Tax Day through the lens of Jesus’ well-known line: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” This somewhat enigmatic reply comes in response to a question about whether his disciples should pay taxes. In the post, I explore the context of this exchange, the history of the tax in question, and the intriguing implications of what Jesus did not say in that moment. I conclude by offering my own interpretation and reflecting on what it might mean in the context in which I find myself today. Click here to read the full post. “The question posed to Jesus—should people pay taxes to Caesar?—and his enigmatic reply raise profound questions that Christians still wrestle with today. How should Christians relate to civil society? What does it mean to balance religious identity with loyalty to a nation? And when, if ever, should believers practice tax resistance...

Dante speaks to Pope Nicholas III, committed to the Inferno for simony.  I recently wrote a blog post for Church Anew about Simony, the buying and selling of sacred things. It's a reflection about one of the most ancient limits the church has placed on commerce, a prohibition that is occasionally forgotten in our marketbased society.  "In 2023, the Washington National Cathedral caused a social media uproar when it announced that it was selling tickets for its Christmas Eve Eucharist. Though the decision was quickly retracted, the initial sale ended up stoking a passionate—and for me, highly interesting—debate about the moral and theological question of whether a church should ever charge people for the Eucharist, or for any sacrament, really." Click here to read the full post. 

El Greco's Jesus Cleansing of the Temple I recently wrote a short essay for Church Anew about the theme of corruption in Holy Week. I've included a quote just below and the full post is available here . "In light of this, is there anything our faith tradition has to say about what some are describing as this new Golden Age of Corruption? As a matter of fact, corruption comes up often in the New Testament, from mentions of bribes and extortion to critiques of officials who use their positions to exploit the poor. But perhaps nowhere does this theme appear more insistently than in the stories surrounding the last week of Jesus’ life."  

In this reflection for Church Anew, I look closely at The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio. The painting depicts the moment when Jesus calls Matthew away from a table covered in coins -- that is, a moment when one way of life is interrupted and another begins. That scene opens a larger question: what does it mean to follow Jesus in a world shaped by money and empire? What does it meant to divest from empire?  The essay explores how the Gospel of Matthew invites Christians to rethink our relationship to wealth, power, and the systems we inhabit.

  I wrote a blog post on The Parable of the Talents, a parable which is frequently invoked in conversations on finance, stewardship, and endowment management. The video above introduces the main ideas of the essay, and the essay itself was posted on Church Anew here . 

Adoration of the Shepherds by Matthias Stom (c. 1650). Palazzo Madama and Casaforte degli Acaj, Turin, Italy  This blog post was originally written for Church Anew, where I explore how reading the Christmas Story from the ground up highlights God’s solidarity with the economically vulnerable and displaced, and why that perspective matters especially today. Read "Christmas From Below" here .  "To avoid questions of precarity in the Christmas story is to miss a major theme of the Gospel.”

Happy to share my latest piece, “A Shared Calling: Making the World Day of the Poor an Ecumenical Witness,” in which I invite us to consider how our Christian faith might unite across traditions in solidarity with the poor, moving beyond charity into structural reform and deeper compassion. It’s a reflection on the need for a shared ecumenical witness and what that might look like in practice. The blog post is available here . 

In the second part of my posts on stewardship for Church Anew, I explore some possible alternatives to the language of stewardship. I know it’s much easier to critique stewardship than to offer something constructive, so in this piece I share a few directions I hope to experiment with in the coming years: the language of offering, koinonia, women's patronage, and tithing. "I recognize that I am not offering a single neat or easy alternative, and I am well aware of how deeply ingrained stewardship is in the mainline church (some even consider stewardship the North America’s most important contribution to global Christianity). It will take years of exploration and experimentation to move beyond it. What matters is that we keep seeking language and practices that draw us closer to the witness of the Gospels." The full blog post is here . 

I recently had the chance to write for Church Anew about one of my favorite figures in the Christian tradition: St. Francis of Assisi. He is often celebrated hrough pet blessings (and who doesn't like a pet blessing?), but Francis also challenged the church of his day in bold ways. In this blog post , I explore what it meant for Francis to “rebuild the church” and what his witness might mean for us today.

I’m excited to share my first blog post for the organization Church Anew, “ Beyond Stewardship .” Church Anew is an ecumenical ministry of St. Andrew Lutheran Church that equips and inspires church leaders through writing, teaching, and resources for renewal in today’s changing church. In my first post, I invite us to rethink one of the church’s most familiar frameworks for talking about money. I ask whether the language of stewardship still serves us well theologically, or whether it flattens the deeper biblical vision of generosity. I draw on some historic and contemporary critiques of 'stewardship' and pull from Scripture, church history, and my experience serving in  Spanish-speaking communities to explore alternatives: talking about offerings, recovering the stories of women patrons in the early church, and embracing Paul’s vision of koinōnia (economic fellowship). If you've ever felt a bit uneasy about the language of stewardship (or simply wondered where it comes fr...

This sermon was preached at San Andrés Episcopal in Sunset Park on August 3, 2025 and is available in English and Spanish (see below). Listen to the sermon in English here and in Spanish here . / Este sermón fue predicado en San Andrés el 3 de agosto de 2026 y está disponible en inglés y en español (véase más abajo). Puede escuchar el sermón en inglés aquí y en español aquí . Today is the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, during Ordinary Time—a season in which we journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem and have the opportunity to watch him interact with people from many different towns: healing, helping those in need, and teaching about ethical questions. For me, this is a favorite season because we are not focused on the great doctrines of the Church, but on Jesus’ ethical teachings and his reflections on everyday life. Today, we hear his thoughts on something that was part of his world and remains part of ours: greed and the accumulation of great wealth. Before we talk about this, I want ...

This past Sunday, April 6, I had the opportunity to preach and do a presentation at St. Mary's in Chappaqua, NY. My presentation focused on walking through the instances in which money comes up in Jesus' last week. Thank you to the Rev. Chris Lee for the invitation!  -----  Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year 6 April 6, 2025 at St. Mary's in Chappaqua, NY Good morning on this fifth Sunday of Lent. My name is Miguel Escobar, and I am a recently ordained deacon serving in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. Currently, I serve as a curate at a small, Spanish-speaking parish in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, called San Andrés. We are a diverse community, with members from many parts of the United States and Latin America—primarily from the Caribbean, but also from Mexico and Central America. In addition to that new role, I am a writer. Each morning, I wake up, drink coffee, and spend the  first hour of my day researching and writing about Christianity’s complex relationship with money. Duri...