Daily Lesson for June 17, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 17 verses 24 through 27:

24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” 26 And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel.  Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

This Scripture has me rethinking giving to the church.  It has me thinking especially about all the high-pressure sermons which basically guilt people into ponying up. I've heard a lot of those sermons; and I've preached a few too.  But I am done with those sermons.  This Scripture has freed me.

Suspicious of Jesus and perhaps trying to catch him in the wrong, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter's home of Capernaum and asked him whether or not Jesus paid the two-drachma tax.  Nervous, Peter immediately says yes.  Peter then went back to his house where Jesus was staying.  Jesus, mysteriously aware of Peter's conversation with the tax collectors, asked Peter a question.  "Who do the kings of the earth take their toll - their own sons or others?"  Peter answered that kings take their tolls from others.  "So then," Jesus said, "the sons are free."

Jesus' point was to say that as God's children we are indeed free from the burdens of pressured demands for giving. There are no dues for belonging to God's household.  We are free because we belong as sons and daughter of God.

But then Jesus went on.  He told Peter to go and throw a hook out into the Sea of Galilee.  The first fish he pulled up would have a shekel - worth four drachmas - inside its mouth Jesus said.  "Take that and pay it to the temple for you and for me, Jesus told Peter, "so that we give no offense."

It really is a freeing word.  The children of God are free of charge; but somehow God makes provision that we are able to give freely - above and beyond what anyone might say we're obligated to give.

So, no more guilt trips. No more condemning stewardship sermons.  No more clobbering over the head.  As a child of God you're free - free to give less, or nothing, or a whole lot more.

There's a word for what I'm trying to say here - it's called grace.