Hi First Presbyterian,
I’m really enjoying our Lenten sermon series tying in the content from the book Lent in Plain Sight. This Sunday, the object we’ll be focusing on that is frequently “in plain sight” is coins. I’ll be talking about coins during my sermon on Sunday as well as during the Lent Learning Session I’ll be leading at 11:30 in the Fellowship Hall. (By the way, did you know that Craig, Erin, and I have been leading these sessions every Sunday for those of you who aren’t part of a Lent Pop-Up Fellowship Group?)
As part of the children’s sermon during the 10:00 service this Sunday, I’d like to bring the object of coins into focus. Do you have any spare change lying around your kitchen counter, in your couch cushions, in your car, or in a piggy bank? If so, ask your kids to collect those coins or collect them yourself and bring them to church on Sunday. During the children’s sermon, I’ll enlist the help of the kids to collect the coins, and then we’ll talk about a Bible passage that mentions coins. All the coins collected will be put toward a donation to Keeping our Promise – the organization that helped to bring our refugee neighbors here from Afghanistan. If you’ll be attending the 8:30 service, you can still bring your coins! If you won’t be at worship in-person on Sunday, you can bring your coins into the church office during the week!
All this talk about coins reminds me of a story about a coin in the Gospel of Matthew. It’s actually one of the more bizarre stories in the New Testament, and it involves Jesus telling Peter to collect a coin out of a fish's mouth to pay their Temple tax. In Matthew 17:24-27, people who worked for the Jerusalem Temple found Jesus and Peter in Galilee and asked them to pay the Temple tax. Ever since the days of Solomon’s Temple, a Temple tax was required from all Israelite men. The purpose of the Temple tax was for the upkeep and maintenance of the Temple facility. In response to being asked to pay the Temple tax, Jesus pointed out to Peter that kings don’t collect taxes from their own family, just people who are not their family. Then, without really explaining himself, he asked Peter to catch a fish and to find a stater (a coin that was worth the exact amount for two Temple taxes). Peter went out and did exactly as Jesus explained to him.
It’s such a weird story, the meaning of which Bible interpreters have argued for centuries. I tend to agree with a fourth-century Church Father named John Chrysostom, who believed that Jesus said his comments about kings not collecting taxes from their own family as a way of indicating, “This Temple is my Father’s, and, as his Son, I don’t need to pay this Temple tax.” The Temple tax (which maintained the Temple facility) was a way for God’s people to continue to have a Temple, and, therefore, to continue having access to God. The fact that Jesus (through the miracle of the fish) paid the tax for himself and for Peter was a way that Jesus was showing us that, as God’s Son, he has free access to God and guarantees our own access to God. The miracle of the coin in the fish was a metaphor for our salvation. We don’t need a Temple or a church building to have access to God. Jesus has reconciled us to God through his death and resurrection… and that is enough! Thanks be to God!
Peace to you,
Pastor Neff