Sermon for September 24th, 2023

Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Deuteronomy 5:15-19

15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. 16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 17 You shall not murder. 18 Neither shall you commit adultery. 19 Neither shall you steal.

Ten Laws, One Love: You Shall Not Steal

A man got a job as a security guard at a factory. His number one responsibility was to prevent theft of company property, so every day as the workers were leaving, it was his job to check their bags and pockets to make sure that nothing was being stolen. Things were going along very well until a man pushing a wheelbarrow filled with trash came through his gate. Aha, he thought, that man thinks he can cover up what he is stealing with some trash. He poked through the trash, only to find nothing. Still he felt that the man was acting strangely, so he questioned him.

"I get a little extra money from recycling things, so I go into the lunchroom and pick up all the trash people have thrown away." The guard let him pass, but decided to keep a close eye on him. The next day it was the same, and the day after that. Week after week this went on. The same guy would push the wheelbarrow full of trash past the guard's checkpoint. The guard would always check and find nothing. Then one morning, about a year later, the guard reported for work only to find a message had been left for him telling him to report to his supervisor. He walked into the supervisor's office and before he could say a word, the boss said, "You're fired!"

"Fired?" he asked in total surprise. "Why? What did I do?"

"It was your job to make sure that no one stole anything from this plant and you have failed. So you're fired."

"Wait a minute, what do you mean failed? Nobody ever stole anything from this place while I was on guard."

"Oh, really," the boss answered. "Then how do you account for the fact that we are now missing 365 wheelbarrows?"

גָּנַב (ganab)