August 9, 2009 Pastor Tim Pusey

WHAT’S YOURS IS MINE…?
Deuteronomy 5:19

I’ve heard it said that you want to be careful when you go digging around into your genealogy, because you never know what you might uncover! You might learn more about your background then you want to know! Some have discovered horse thieves and bank robbers. And while I know that my grandfather’s dad was quite a rascal, I don’t know of any horse thieves or bank robbers discovered in my family’s background…but we did have at least one candy thief once. Her name is Kara.

I’m guessing our daughter Kara was about 3 years old at the time. She and I had just enjoyed our every-third-Friday “date with daddy” that consisted of lunch at McDonalds and perhaps a visit to the library or the running of a few errands together. We had run into the grocery store across the street from our church—a place named Neff’s Market. I frequently it often (especially their bakery!) and I knew many of the employees.

As Kara and I were checking out, she kept asking for some of the candy so conveniently placed near the checkout! She was particularly interested in having a little box of “Nerds”—some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. I was a mean daddy that day and said “No” to her repeated pleading that she just had to have them! We paid for our groceries, walked out, got into the car, and headed out to wherever it was we were going.

But several minutes later, I looked over and saw that she was slyly eating something. And when I pressed to find out what she had, I was shocked to learn that she was eating candy from a little box of Nerds. She finally admitted to taking the candy and we had a little father-daughter chat about the perils of stealing. We then turned around and went back to Neff’s Market. By then my remorseful little girl was sobbing. We went into the store and sought out the clerk that had checked us out. Kara’s head was buried in my shoulder—trying to hide her embarrassment and her tears. I explained to the clerk what had happened and we paid for the candy—and she could see that Kara was sobbing too much to speak. So she asked Kara if that would ever happen again, and she got a quick shaking of the head—and it never did happen again, I’m sure!

The story of this has become such a family legend that when our son Justin heard me asking Kara if I could tell this story once, he said that he had taken candy once too—but when he started telling us what happened, it was obvious that he was simply re-telling the story about Kara—thinking he was the one who had taken the candy that day!

This morning we move to the 8th Commandment in our series on the Ten Commandments. Like the last commandment, it’s pretty short and straight to the point—not even difficult to quote by memory. In the New Living Translation of Deuteronomy 5:19, the verse has only three words: Do not steal. That’s it! Repeat it with me: Do not steal.

Theft is taking or keeping something that is not ours. The Bible obviously defends our right to own property, and God’s Word condemns stealing property that rightfully belongs to someone else.

Several years ago, on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, there was a painting by Leslie Thrasher that looks a lot like the work of Norman Rockwell. It shows a woman buying from a butcher what I would think is a turkey. The turkey is lying on the scales and the butcher is standing behind the counter, as he did for many transactions every day. The customer, a prim and proper lady is watching the weighing-in for the other side. Each of them has an interesting look on their faces, as if each knows a secret. There was nothing unusual about a butcher and a customer watching as a turkey is being weighed, but the expression on their faces indicates that something unusual is going on. The painter lets us in on the joke by showing us their hands. The butcher is pushing down on the scales with one finger, while the woman on the other side of the scale is pushing up on the scales with her dainty forefinger. Neither is aware of what the other is doing.

Both the butcher and the lovely lady would resent being called thieves. The lovely lady would never rob a bank or steal a car. The butcher would be indignant of anyone accused him of stealing; and if a customer gave him a bad check, he might call the police! But neither saw anything wrong with a little deception that would make a few cents for one or save a few cents for the other. In a word, they were stealing!

Rockwell gives us a picture of how we seek to live, trying to manipulate life for our advantage. And that’s what the Ten Commandments are all about—they remind us that there are eternal laws in the universe by which we must live if life is going to go well for us.

When it comes to the matter of stealing, seemingly everyone knows that it is wrong! To steal is to take something that doesn’t belong to you. The Hebrew word for stealing literally means to carry something away. What the 8th Commandment forbids seems quite simple, and yet many fail to understand its full meaning. It’s actually fairly comprehensive and covers many types of theft—
• Burglary—breaking into a home or building to commit theft
• Robbery—taking property directly from another person in either a violent manner or by intimidation
• Larceny—taking something without permission and not returning it
• Hijacking—using force to take goods being transported and seizing control of the plane, car, truck, etc.
• Shoplifting—taking items from a store during business hours without paying for them
• Pickpocketing and purse-snatching

Stealing also covers some more complex approaches like—
• Embezzlement—the fraudulent pocketing of money entrusted to one’s care
• Extortion—getting money from someone by means of threats or some misuse of authority
• Racketeering—manipulating the system to under-handedly getting money by illegal means.

Of course, there are many other ways that people violate the 8th Commandment. They pilfer public property, they steal supplies from hospitals, building sites and even churches. Citizens steal from the government by underpaying their taxes or making false claims for disability and Social Security.

There is theft at work. Employees fill in false time cards and call in sick when they want a day off. Perhaps some of you have helped yourselves to office supplies, made personal long-distance calls and padded your expense accounts. While most of us wouldn’t embezzle from our companies, people like us commit a type of theft if and when we fail to put in a full day’s work—and waste time “on the clock” surfing the internet, sending emails to friends and playing computer games. In a very real sense, whenever we give anything less than our best effort, we are robbing our employer of the productivity we owe.

The Old Testament book of Malachi says that we rob God when we refuse to give to Him our tithes and offerings. Check it out for yourself in Malachi chapter 3! That’s a pretty serious charge that lots of people ignore week after week!

We tend to think of most of these as victimless crimes, but they aren’t. Employee theft of time and property costs American businesses and their investors more than 200 billion dollars a year—now that’s quite a chunk of change! And that ends up affecting us all. According to some estimates, as much as one third of a product’s cost goes to cover the various forms of stealing that occur on its way to the store. This “theft surcharge,” as analysts call it, is a drag on our entire economy system!

Of course, this is not just a commandment for individuals—it’s also a commandment, a principle, to be followed by companies and even by our own government. Large corporations steal when they keep some of their transactions off the books or when they hide their losses or their assets. One of the worst offenders in recent history was Enron, the vast energy company whose spectacular collapse in 2001 injured the whole U.S. economy and cost some people their life savings. Enron’s fall was quickly followed by a series of others such as Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, Adelphia and Rite-Aid. And we may be still too close to the financial crisis of this year to be able to discern what may or may not be considered pure, unadulterated thievery in the big-business and banking sector. But be assured, theft in these circles is no less thievery than if I stepped into my bank on Fairview Avenue tomorrow morning with a gun in my hands, demanding cash.

Can I mention a couple of other means of theft which you and I might be tempted to skim over quickly? What about plagiarism—passing on someone else’s work as your own work? What about the violation of copyrights or the unlawful duplication of music and videos? Ouch! I stepped into a pastoral role of more than one church where the “music library” was overflowing with music unlawfully copied—and we somehow thought that was okay at one point! (Though I think we have learned better!)

So…what’s wrong with stealing? Why does it matter anyway? Whenever we take something that doesn’t belong to us, we sin against God as well as against our neighbor—and it doesn’t matter how we do it! Stealing is a sin against God in a couple of ways. First, stealing betrays our trust in God and our trust in His provisions. If I take something that belongs to someone else, I am denying that God can give me everything that I truly need.

But stealing also is an attempt to take what God has provided for someone else! We understand that God blesses our right or privilege to own things. But we only own things because God has given them to us! In all things, we are required to use what we have in ways that are pleasing to God—and we are to respect what God has entrusted to others as well.

When I was in Kansas City for seminary 30+ years ago, I worked for a few months at the Arthur Andersen accounting firm in downtown Kansas City. It was an interesting place to work. My job was a clerk’s job—distributing mail, handling major mailings, printing, and distributing office supplies. I worked with a couple of other students—several of whom had been there for a few years. Several of those, including my supervisor, kindly encouraged me to help myself to various office supplies to use for my school needs. I hesitated at first, but then went ahead at their encouragement and following their common practice. The fact that my supervisor encouraged it made it seem acceptable.

But I never felt good about it—and I think I only did so once. I left that job after a few months to work at Nazarene Headquarters. Decades passed and I hadn’t thought about the issue for many years. But a few years ago while preparing a sermon dealing with honesty and integrity, the Holy Spirit brought this issue to my mind and gave me no rest until I sought restitution for it.

Whoever opened my letter at the Arthur Andersen firm that week probably thought I was some lunatic whose elevator didn’t go all the way to the top! I sent a letter explaining my actions and with it sent a check for enough money to more than cover the expense of the materials I had taken. I tried to briefly explain why it was important for me to make restitution on this. I never heard back from them. I’m sure there was someone who found me a bit curious—but it was all I could do at that point to handle what had taken place years before! The 8th Commandment is a call to integrity in every corner of our lives—and we all must nurture that integrity and protect it!

I’ve obviously been thinking on this 8th Commandment a lot in the past week as I anticipated this morning. It seems so simple, and this doesn’t seem to be a crowd who probably has too much problem with stealing as a whole. I honestly struggled a bit with finding much of a challenge for you in this matter. And then I got to thinking about the teachings of Jesus on some of the other commandments.

You may remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew chapter 5, about both adultery and murder. About murder, Jesus said,
You have heard it said… “Do not murder…” but I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment… (Matthew 5:21-22, NIV)

And about adultery, Jesus said,
You have heard that it was said, “Do not commit adultery.” But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart…(Matthew 5:27-28, NIV)

And I got to thinking that we don’t have recorded every word that Jesus ever spoke. And I wondered if perhaps He might have elaborated at some point on at least some of the other Ten Commandments. If Jesus ever addressed the crowds or His little band of disciples about the 8th Commandment, I wonder how the sentence might have gone?
You have heard that it was said, “Do not steal,” but I tell you __________________.
Jesus took the Commandments prohibiting adultery and murder beyond just the outward actions. He addressed the deeper issues of the heart. What would be the “heart” issue He would address? If He is telling us NOT to steal, what would be the positive action Jesus might call us to do? I’m confident that He has more in mind than just telling us what we canNOT do! What is it Jesus wants us to do? What kind of people does Christ desire for us to become?

Can I tell you what I think? I believe in light of Jesus’ second-mile approach to the commandments against murder and adultery, that this 8th Commandment is calling us to honest, generous living as we share graciously with those who have true needs. Does that make sense? And so we might imagine the New Testament approach to be something like,
You have heard that it was said, “Do not steal,” but I tell you to share what you have generously and graciously with those who have needs!

Many of you recall the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 10. I believe we can find here three approaches to money and things.
• The first approach could be expressed in the statement, “What’s yours is mine…and I’ll take it.” That was the attitude of the thief who robbed the man walking to Jericho.
• The second approach was held by the priest and the Levite, who walked right past the man who had been robbed and beaten. We could sum up their approach to money and things and even time by the words, “What’s mine is mine, and I’ll keep it.”
• But the Good Samaritan, the one most unlikely to stop and help this Jewish man who was beaten and robbed, evidenced a completely different approach to all resources. He, in essence, said, “What’s mine is God’s and I’ll share it.”

I remember an incident from my freshman year of college. We’d evidently had a torrential downpour of rain accompanied by high winds in Nashville that day. I was in my room when one of the guys with whom I shared an on-campus apartment peaked into my room and quickly said, “Oh, I borrowed your umbrella today. The wind blew it inside out, so I threw it away. Sorry!” I was angry that he had taken the umbrella without permission and that he had casually thrown it away when it was turned inside-out. In the rather heated conversation that followed, I remember him saying that he was raised to share with others—“what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine…” And I remember being outraged that he would dare to suggest that what was mine was also his.

But I’ll confess that for too many of my years I’ve been more of a “clutcher” than a “giver”—hanging tightly to what is mine. I’m not proud of that, but I know it’s my natural inclination…to protect my stuff, to hoard what is mine, to get it all where I know where it is and then keep it that way! And I’m convinced that the 8th Commandment goes beyond the mere prohibition against taking what is not mine from someone else. I’m convinced that the 8th Commandment takes us to the heart of the issue—and calls for us to live lives of integrity as we generously share our God-given resources with others in a spirit of joy—taking our hands off of our stuff and letting God get His hands on it whenever and however He wants!

That’s how Jesus lived. That’s how Jesus responded to others. That’s what He is calling each of us to do. And the world is watching to see if we can get this figured out…if we can abound with such generosity! Frankly, some Christians are incredibly generous!—such an embodiment of the heart of the issue behind the 8th Commandment!

But let’s be honest with ourselves and admit that such Christlike generosity isn’t always evident in our lives. Our hearts are calloused to the poor and needy around us and around the world. We easily become absorbed in the accumulating of savings accounts and stocks and properties and things—all so we can be “secure.” And while there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with these things, it can all too easily make us into “takers” instead of “givers.” Jesus wants us to be “givers”—whose hearts overflow with desire to respond to the needs of others! Are you a “giver” or a “taker”?

Christ-followers are called to live generously! We don’t work just to satisfy our own desires and needs, but also to provide for others. This isn’t to say that we can never enjoy what God has given us, but most of us have far more than what we need and we need to be thinking about what we can give to care for the needs of others. This is really the only way that money loses its grip on us, its power over us. Kent Hughes put it like this—
Every time I give, I declare that money does not control me. Perpetual generosity is a perpetual de-deification of money. (Kent Hughes)

Will you be a man or a woman of integrity and generosity? Many of us must admit that we still have a long way to go on this journey. There’s no shame in that—but only in refusing to allow the Lord to move us from where we are to where He wants us to be in these matters. If you need His forgiveness and the forgiveness of others today, I encourage you to ask for it. If you need Him to reshape your heart to free you from your bondage to things and open up your spirit to giving generously, I encourage you to ask Him to do that. He’s so anxious to meet that need today!