Westwood Presbyterian Church

November 1st, 2009

197 Browning  Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3K 0L1

REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS

8th Commandment - Thou Shalt Not Steal

     When I was in grade 5 one day walking home from school I found a $10 bill lying on the sidewalk. There was no one around – no one was looking for it – so I picked it up and took it home. I told my parents I had found the $10 bill – they suggested that I should call the police and tell them that I had found this – and did they know anyone who had lost $10. So I called and explained the situation, the police officer on the other end of the line had trouble controlling his laughter – “No, no one has reported losing $10. I was free to keep the money.”

     We have a phrase for this – “Finders keepers; losers weepers.” A saying that affirms the line: “Possession is 9/10ths of the law.” What I possess is mine – and I need only look after what is mine – making sure that it stays mine. In that kind of world we hear “Thou shalt not steal” as a protection of our private property from someone coming along and taking it. We hear in this command protection for what we own being ours.

 

     There is a great principle of Biblical interpretation – and it is this – “The Bible interprets itself.” What that means is the first thing we need to do when asking ourselves what a part of the Bible means is “Are there other places in the Bible that talk about this issue and what do those passages say, will they help us understand what is being said in the passage that we are looking at?” With this command “Thou shalt not steal” it is very helpful to do that.

     A look through the Bible shows that two kinds of theft are spoken against on a regular basis – stealing from God and stealing from the poor or from those with fewer resources than one’s self.

 

     To the first – stealing from God. The passage we read from Leviticus neatly puts the case. The text comes in the middle of a conversation about the land. The Promised Land was given to the people of Israel by God – it was a gift, the fulfillment of a promise. The land could not be permanently bought or sold – there were a series of 49 year leases. For every 50 years the land went back to the family that had originally been given the land by God. When the people of Israel arrived in the Promised Land, the land was divided among the people – and while the family might “sell” that piece of land – the land would come back to the descendants of that family in the year of Jubilee. So every generation and a half there was a reorganizing of the land – and everyone got a fresh start.

     Now we say, “That is crazy, didn’t they understand about title and property and all those good things.” But we need to understand that God held the title to all the land – it was His – as He so bluntly says in the passage from Leviticus, “The land is mine.”

 

     If the land is God’s then the land is not ours to own, we are not its owners, we are its stewards. The land, and let us think beyond the issues of ground and earth, to think about the land as meaning all of the creation. The earth is not ours to use for our personal benefit and throw away, because it does not belong to us. The creation belongs to its maker – God, who has placed us in the midst of creation to enjoy it, to use it, but not to own it. To benefit from it, but not to abuse it; for we are its stewards and not its owners.

     While in our culture we do not return the land to the families who originally were given the land, we do have a reminder in our midst that we have to pass the land – the creation – the earth – on to someone else: the generation that comes after us. The call to not steal – invites us to not steal from our children and our grand-children. To not live now in this world in such a way that will make it difficult for future generations. The call to not steal – invites us to examine how we are living in the land. Are we living in ways that steal from the future blessing God wishes to give our children and grand-children?

 

     For the people of Israel – the land was the source of their economic well-being. The crops they grew fed the people and the livestock – the sheep they pastured on the land gave wool for clothing and fine fabric – the vines produced grapes that became wine – the ore they took out of the ground was turned into metal of iron and silver and gold. The land was where the wealth of the nation – and the wealth of individuals came from. Even those who were teachers and priests, merchants and government officials owed the funds they received to the produce of the land. Thus when God said, “The land is mine” God was also saying what you have financially came from me. The things you own are from me – not just the land, but everything that the land produces is also from me, it is mine.

     That gives us a frame for understanding the famous words from Malachi – “Will you rob God?” and the people answer – “When have we robbed God?” To which God replies – “When you do not bring your tithes and offerings to me.” All we have is from God, everything is a result of his good and gracious gifts to us. We did nothing to control where we were born or who we were born to – both of which were gifts from God. While we may have studied hard or worked long hours to rise to our position and status – the truth is that the ability to study and learn is a gift from God, the ability to work hard is a gift. And then through our lives, if we are honest with ourselves, we will notice that there were moments of grace, moments when unexpected good happened to us, when someone took notice of us, when someone helped us – and without those acts of grace we would not be where we are today. All of that good that has come to us – is God’s gift.

     The issue of giving to God is not that God needs our gift – the issue of giving to God is that we need to give the gift. Giving away out of the abundance that God has given to us forms us as people, as people who live with God’s blessing with open hands. We move form being people who live clenching “our” possessions to being people who live open-handedly in the world. We live lives of gracious thankfulness and generosity which shows up in our following the example of God who is gracious and generous. In our being generous people we acknowledge the source of all that we have, our generosity bears witness to our understanding that all we have comes from God.

 

     Jesus raises the same point in the dialogue he had with the religious leaders who sought to catch him in a trap. Jesus was asked if it was right to pay taxes to the emperor – the occupying government – to which Jesus replied “Give to God the things that belong to God, and to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar.” That sounds like clever word play until we read it against what God says in Leviticus 25 – “the land is mine and everything that comes from the land is mine.” So what belongs to God? – everything. What belongs to Caesar? – nothing, since everything belongs to God.

     That does not mean we should stop paying taxes – we pay taxes because God asks us to respect the authority of the government. And so we pay taxes not because the government tells us to pay taxes, but because paying taxes is part of our obedience to God.

     The first focus we find in the Bible as we explore what it says about “Thou shalt not steal” is to not steal from God.

 

     The second focus we find in the Bible around “Thou shalt not steal” is to not steal from those who are poor or who have less than we do. A few examples will show what I mean:

• The people of Israel were to lend money to people who were in need – but without charging interest. Lending money was not to be the means by which those with this world’s resources got more. The charging of interest was seen as theft.

• An Israelite who saw someone’s ox taking a wander down the road was required to capture the ox and return it to its owner if they knew who it belonged to. If they did not know who it belonged to they still needed to capture it, feed it, care for it, until the owner came looking for it. Under no circumstances could they keep it as theirs, or hide that they had it. To do so was theft.

• The story of Naboth’s vineyard drives home this point. King Ahab saw the vineyard of Naboth, and he wanted it. Ahab offered Naboth money, but Naboth would not sell. Ahab offered more and more money, but Naboth continued to refuse saying it was ancestral land. Finally Ahab killed Naboth and seized the land. The one with power uses his power to get more. And in the account, that is the final straw as from that moment on Ahab’s days as kill are numbered.

Here the invitation of the command is to live open-handedly with those around. The thought of lending money as a business transaction and not charging interest is ridiculous, we reject the idea out of hand – we say, “We could not afford to live that way.” But on the other hand – the Bible invites us to ask ourselves how can those who borrow money and have to pay interest – how can they live that way. At what cost to others does our benefit come.

     The driving force of these texts is that we should not take from people what they use to make a living, we should not so box people in that they are unable to support themselves financially. That means specifically not taking away the tools they need to make a living – not taking the mechanics tools as collateral, ensuring that the hair stylist has tools they need to work. In protecting the tools that people need to do work, we as a society recognize the need of people to work, and to move from being dependent to becoming contributors. When we safeguard what people need to work, we ensure their dignity and allow them to fulfill the image of God in them – part of which is the gift of work. Instead of giving a bit of money which probably means the person will come back for more help, this is giving the tools the person needs to support themselves.

     The command to not steal has moved from being the protection of my private property – which by its very nature is inward looking – feeding a self-centered view of the world – to a care for the community to ensure that people have the means of supporting themselves – which by its nature is outward focused – seeking to reach beyond oneself.

 

     Surprisingly the command “thou shalt not steal” which on the surface seems to encourage the development of a fortress mentality, wherein we protect what we have, putting up walls between ourselves and the world outside – in fact, drives us in the completely opposite direction. For the command invites us to live open-handedly, generously, in the world. We are invited to be people who are formed by our generous giving to God, and our generous guarding of the poor and the at-risk from losing their chance to support themselves.