May 07, 2015
Tax Collectors
Our City Council just voted
to add a $ .25 monthly “fee” to every resident’s sewer bill. Their reasoning is
to establish a fund to help offset expenses for residents who have a sewer
backup that is not the fault of the city. Interestingly the income generated
for the fund will be just under $20,000 a year, which is a hefty pot of money.
Similar to the tax collectors in Jesus’ day, the Caesars of the world make up taxes
and fees at will. However, Jesus never said taxes must be justifiable, but
simply that we are to pay taxes, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God
what is God’s.” (Matt 22:21 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----A part of the world lies beyond our effects. Of it Jesus also said to offer your right cheek after having been slapped on the left one, or go another extra mile after having been enslaved to go the first. Neither was He justifying slapping people on the cheeks or slavery. It doesn’t take much observation to note how criminally even the best of governments act. We who thought the Third Reich was the most evil for incinerating six million Jews have chopped into pieces fifty million children before they‘ve even seen the light of day. Surely such atrocities do not have the stamp of God’s approval just because guvment done it.
-----Government operates on the same principle as does the Mafia or any other band of thugs or criminals. One or a small group of people become wily enough to not only strike fear into the hearts of others, but indeed do that, sometimes merely to affect a reminder, sometimes to gain advantages for only themselves, and occasionally to actually produce law, order, and public works.
-----I’ve lived around this city for sixty one years. Nobody will convince me that in those sixty one years there never was a sewer backup that was not the fault of the city. They didn’t need more quarters then. What there is now is a revenue shortage for the city’s porky-fat, oinking, politician aggrandizing, godlessly planned, worthless budget. Nor is Jesus justifying that.
-----The simple matter is that we are stuck in this trash can of a world even though we are marked by the Holy Spirit as being not trash. Regardless, we are in it above our heads until Jesus brings out the garbage truck. So the sense of what He tells us is to comply with government even though garbage rules the can.
-----But on dump day there will be a new story. Then will be the day we are sorted out to ride in the air-conditioned cab with Jesus, surround-sound stereo, lemonade, and all, while the rest of the garbage, their stupid little rules and taxes included, will be dumped into the back with the other stinking swill.
-----America’s exceptionalism was never that America was not garbage. It was her better condition before she rotted, her people’s given ability and duty to rope and hog-tie big-pig government. Had the founding fathers been a bit more careful in writing the Constitution, fewer bacteria and parasites would have hatched in her local governments. Her better days would have lasted longer.
-----Alas, those days of limiting government so we could live without slapped cheeks, enslavement, or fallacious taxes are now over. Therefore, Jesus’ saying to us , “Go ahead, pay the twenty-five cents,” is His saying to the rotten garbage, “Go ahead, make my day!” He will require an accounting of the garbage for absolutely every last injustice done to the not garbage, even that done twenty-five cents at a time.
-----Can anyone in the can spell: RUN!! LION!!?
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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