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?"
The eighth commandment is "You shall not steal." Could I please have all the robbers, embezzlers, burglars, larcenists, pickpockets, swindlers and thieves in the congregation today raise your hand? What? Most of us don't readily place ourselves in those categories, do we? This is an easy commandment to keep, right? Just don't do those things.
I have to be honest—this is probably my least favorite commandment. Growing up, my childhood hero was Robin Hood, followed by Billy the Kid, and in third place, just all Pirates in general.
I had another clash with this commandment early in my young adulthood, as a high school English teacher. In my first year of teaching, I found out that about half of my inner-city students didn't have computers at home...so I stole some for them. Just kidding. I didn't do that. I actually got several local businesses to donate used computers, enough to make sure every one of my students had one. But most of the computers didn't have Microsoft Office, or else had outdated, non-functioning versions of it. The eagerly anticipated computers... were useless. I applied for a grant through the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which exists to supply software to schools who can't afford it... and was denied. Most of the students in my school were below the poverty line, but the large district we were in was not. And that's when I became a full-fledged, full-knowing thief. I made 60 illegal copies of Microsoft Office and installed it on every computer. According to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, illegally copying software... or music... or video... or even images and text... is theft.
Raise your hand if you're a thief?
Of course, this is a very new kind of thievery, one that wouldn't have been recognized or even considered theft just a few hundred years ago--and certainly not in Ancient Israel at the time when the ten commandments were written. There is some evidence that גָּנַב (ganab) the Hebrew word translated as "steal" in the eighth commandment, may have originally referred to stealing a person, not personal property, and so might better be translated as "You shall not kidnap."
Pretty quickly, however (or at least elsewhere in the law of Moses) it came to be understood in the broader sense of "don't take anyone else's stuff." And then in the time of the Old Testament Prophets, they expanded the meaning to include abstract concepts: Don't exploit the poor. That's stealing. Don't deny justice for those to whom it is owed. Also stealing.
In the early years of the Christian church, theologians like St. Augustine expanded the commandment even further to include spiritual theft: Don't rob God of what rightfully belongs to him--your love, your time, your devotion--that's stealing, too!
Ok, now raise your hand if you're a thief.
I suspect we could think of a few more expansions: As a parent and a spouse, I have a responsibility to be present for my family, to give them my full attention when we're together. So if my kids are talking to me, but I'm scrolling through my phone while half listening to them... am I stealing something that rightfully belongs to them?
In the age of social media, when I project a false image of perfection, success, or happiness on my personal profile... am I robbing others of the authenticity that relationships really should be built upon?
If I show up late to work, or leave early, or sit at my desk checking personal messages... but I still expect to get paid for that time, am I stealing from my employer? Or if I take credit for something I didn't really do... am I stealing from the person who did?
Raise your hand if you're a thief.
Stealing, in its broadest sense, comes from getting your priorities mixed up: Putting yourself (and your desires, your needs) above God, and above your neighbors. "I want that, I will take that (or I will hold on to that) and I don't care if it comes at the expense of someone else's wants or needs. Stealing is only possible when we assume that something belongs to us--or SHOULD belong to us, or will SOON belong to us--when the truth is nothing really belongs to us. Everything that passes through our hands is on loan from God, and only for a short while.
The greatest commandment--to love God with everything you've got and to love your neighbor as yourself--puts things back in the right order again. And the Apostle Paul weighs in with a powerful antidote for our natural inclination to thievery:
He says in Ephesians 4:28, "Those who steal must give up stealing; rather, let them labor, doing good work with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy."
The solution for someone who is inclined to steal is two-fold: First, work harder. If you keep your hands busy doing the right thing, they won't be able to to the wrong thing! And second, instead of taking, try giving. It actually feels better, and makes the world a better place. Jesus knew this, too. He said that when someone tries to TAKE your coat... GIVE them your coat AND your shirt. If someone tries to TAKE you a mile away, GIVE them another mile.
People steal for one of two reasons: Either out of need, or out of greed. But the antidote to both problems is generosity. If we are generous to those who have great needs, they won't have to steal. And if we ourselves are motivated to steal (through hoarding, through exploitation, through withholding our time, our talent, our treasure) in order to satisfy our greediness, our selfish desires... being generous is the only thing that will break the cycle, that will help us to love God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourself.
Giving is the opposite of taking. Generosity is the opposite of greed. Letting go is the opposite of acquiring more stuff. Generosity simultaneously solves the problem of both the needy and the greedy, and obliterates the need for either one to steal from the other.
Raise your hand if you want to be more generous.
Me too, church. Me too. Let us pray...
