THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
#8: NO STEALING

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Have you ever been robbed? Someone broke into your home or business or car or locker at school and took something? I have. A few years ago, someone broke into my car while it was parked on the street and took some things from the back seat. They were not expensive or irreplaceable, but it was a rotten feeling none the less...not so much that something I owned was stolen, but the feeling that part of ME had been violated. Has that ever happened to you? There is a tie between us and our property that has nothing to do with the worth of a particular object, and the thought that someone would just STEAL part of US gives us the chills.

Jack Benny's New York hotel suite was once robbed and one of the things taken was his wife Mary's most treasured piece, a magnificent diamond ring. Jack was in Pittsburgh at the time and only heard about what happened from a reporter. He phoned several times to get the details from Mary, only to be told on each occasion that she was out. When he finally got her, his first question was, "Where on earth have you been?"

"At the jeweler's," she said, "looking for another ring."

"What? At a time like this you're out looking for a diamond?"

"Sure," said Mary, "it's like falling off a horse. If you don't get right back on, you never ride again."⁽¹⁾ Ha!

Unfortunately, burglaries occur all the time. If statistics are any guide, most of you have had something stolen. We read that one in four Americans will be a crime victim each year, and most of those crimes will be thefts.⁽²⁾ The downtown church I served in Florida some years ago was regularly burglarized. There were muggings and purse snatchings (and even a murder) in the parking lot. Choir members were told to bring valuables with them into the choir loft during worship to protect them from being stolen from the choir room. Someone even came into the sanctuary and stole the cross from the communion table. It was a fun neighborhood.

It has been said that the only reason the stars are still in the heavens is that we cannot get our hands on them. There is more than a grain of truth in that. A study by the University of Florida says that one out of 12 customers in a store at any given time could be a shoplifter, and the latest estimate is that each American consumer pays around $400 a year to cover the cost of those losses.⁽³⁾ Insurance companies say that 30% of all business failures each year are a direct result of internal theft: fraud, embezzlement, and so on. Hotel managers say that one out of every three guests steals something.

People love the idea of getting something for nothing. Why do people spend so many millions in state lotteries around the country? Because folks want to support education? Right. Something for nothing.

Those of you who follow the stock market will recall the debacle of a few weeks ago when we came uncomfortably close to an economic collapse. The money managers at a private concern in Greenwich, Connecticut (Long Term Capital Management) had borrowed billions and billions of dollars in unsecured loans to finance what amounted to bets on the direction of international currency transactions. Those bets, had they paid off, would not have added one bit of value to the world economy; they would simply have lined the pockets of a few already-very-wealthy investors. No goods or services would have been offered in exchange for the gains. It was all a gamble. It lost, and almost spelled disaster. People were looking for something for nothing. It was nothing but greed.

Do you remember those news reports of 29-cent transistors being sold to the Air Force for $112? Or 15-dollar claw hammers going to the Navy for the bargain price of $435? Or the Pentagon paying $9,609 for Allen wrenches that you and I could get for 12 cents?⁽⁴⁾ Why would defense contractors do such a thing? Because one level of management wanted to impress the next level of management who wanted to impress the board and the stockholders who would then reward these clever minions with appropriate raises and bonuses. Greed. Pure and simple.

Of course, the problem is nothing new. People have been that way for centuries. When God said to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, "You shall not steal," there was nothing startling about the commandment. Theft had never been considered an acceptable way to acquire property. All the ancient codes of law in the nations that surrounded Israel spelled out penalties for thieves: in most cases, either mutilation or death.

The case law we find in Exodus 22⁽⁵⁾ gives the penalties in the covenant community. Five oxen for a stolen ox, and four sheep for a stolen sheep, but only two for one if the originals are returned unharmed. If the thief is unable to make restitution, he "shall be sold for the theft." A slave. Actually, rather lenient sentences compared to Israel's neighbors, except in the case of a night time cat burglar who literally took his life in his hands (he could be killed if caught in the act, and no one would have to answer for it). The Jews did not need to be reminded that burglary and highway robbery were not honorable professions. But they did need a reminder that God's standard for them, and for all generations, was honesty - honesty in all the ways we deal with one another, honesty in the way we respect other people's property.

A word here about property. Contrary to some egalitarian philosophies which make statements such as "Property is theft,"⁽⁶⁾ the Bible sees nothing wrong with people owning things. If there were a problem with that, this commandment would have never been given. Right or wrong, THINGS help to shape our identities - the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the homes we live in, even Mary Livingston's diamond ring, all say something to the world about who and what we are. To be sure, there are folks who go overboard in their conspicuous consumption, but simply because some do not handle property well is no reason to say therefore no one should own anything.

In general, good middle-class capitalist church types like you and me would agree with that. And, frankly, we might sit back and feel a little self-righteous about this one. We understand about ownership and private property. We have not robbed anybody lately. Oh? Well, maybe some office supplies or stamps from work, or even personal business conducted on the boss's time - A-hem! Wrong...and we know it. Fudging on the tax return. Wrong...and we know it. Not repaying debts as we ought. Wrong...and we know it. We are not guilty of armed hold-ups or muggings. So what! We are talking about taking what rightfully belongs to another, regardless of how we do it, and we need this reminder.

Of course, at this time of year, church people hear that familiar verse from Malachi, "Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say `How are we robbing you?' In your tithes and offerings."⁽⁷⁾ I bring that up not to beat you over the head about your annual Estimates of Giving but to call to mind just what the tithe and the various offerings were set apart for in the Israelite economy. Obviously, one of their purposes was for the maintenance of the temple and those who served there, just as it is today. But another use for the money given to the Lord was for the care and sustenance of those in the society who were unable to care for themselves. The covenant community realized that it had a responsibility in this regard, and they met it through the money they brought to the Lord.

In the newspaper⁽⁸⁾ sometime back was a story that brings me up short. Judy lives on welfare in the Watts section of Los Angeles with her two sons, Michael and Tiger. Every month, after she pays her bills she is about $25 light. There is always a lag between the time her money runs out and the food stamps come in. If the food stamps are late, she and the boys go hungry. They were a week late this time. She grew faint and vomited from hunger. Michael lay on the bed next to her and asked, "Mama, what are we gonna eat?"

"Suck your thumb and take a drink of water," Judy answered.

Michael sneaked into a neighbor's house, raided the kitchen, and came back with bacon and eggs. "Son," said Judy, "it's wrong to steal this stuff."

"Hell," Michael replied, "we got nothin' to eat."

Would you excuse something like that? If you would, you are not alone. The Bible says, "Thieves are not despised who steal only to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry."⁽⁹⁾ But note that stealing to feed yourself or your family is not glossed over. The penalty for someone who is caught is seven-fold restitution.

Still, everyone of us can relate to what Michael did. We know there is a terrible inequity between the "haves" and "have nots" in our society. It means that babies born into acute poverty are at the outset denied any realistic chance of "making it." But, in our heart of hearts, we also believe that God intends such children to have what is necessary for an abundant life. If they do not, whose fault is it? If they have been robbed of their future (and that does appear to be the best way to describe their predicament), who did the robbing? "Bad" people? No. They are robbed by power arrangements and structures that have long since relegated them to a permanent underclass. To those arrangements and structures, the command shouts out, "You shall not steal!"⁽¹⁰⁾

In this, the richest nation on earth, we would wish such situations would never occur. But another part of the reason they do is that the church abdicated its historic responsibility years ago. Members did not give enough for the church to properly care for those in need, so government had to step in to keep people from starving to death. We complain bitterly about it, about high taxes that support social programs that do not work the way they should, that let people like Judy and her boys go without food. We complain about welfare fraud and cheats. But because our forebears misused the bounty that the Lord had provided, did not give to the church as they should have, we are paying the penalty today.

You have heard me worry before about the line in the Lord's Prayer we recite each week, the sentence that says, "Give us this day our daily bread." What concerns me is that that same line is prayed by millions of desperately poor and hungry people around the world. Now, it is obvious that God has provided daily bread, and frankly, much more than we need. But it occurs to me that God is answering the prayer of those starving millions at precisely the same time and in precisely the same way as ours is being answered. In infinite wisdom, God is using us in a divine "warehousing" operation and giving us the responsibility to see that proper distribution is made. If that is the case, then we are some of the biggest thieves in history. We have been stealing the very life from countless suffering people around the globe by keeping so much of what we have in the "warehouse" for ourselves. If the force of the commandment "You shall not steal" is to remind us of the right of ownership and the necessity for basic honesty in dealing with THINGS (even food), then "in all honesty," we had better realize that the right of ownership also belongs to those who own nothing. We have a responsibility to share. Our support of programs like Urban Ministry, Pennies for Hunger, CROP WALK and our offering today for the victims of Hurricane Mitch help us begin to make things right, but those are ONLY a beginning.

Paul had something to say to the early church to which we need to pay attention: Ephesians 4 - "Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy."⁽¹¹⁾ Some of those new Christians had apparently been highwaymen and burglars before coming to Christ; obviously, not an appropriate lifestyle for a disciple of Jesus. Note what he says. He does not say stop stealing and work honestly so that you might support yourself. He says stop stealing, and work honestly...so that you might have something to GIVE! OK. After all, we cannot legitimately give something we have stolen, something that is not ours to give to begin with. I wonder what Paul would say to us. Perhaps the same thing. And not just to get us to keep our hands off what is not rightfully ours, but because a GIVING community...a generous community...is what ought to characterize Christ's church.

As one commentator has it, "Giving is a positive addiction that is stronger than all the negative addictions that can lead to stealing. Giving is a thrill that makes gambling seem tame. Giving is a kick that makes heroin seem a drag. Giving is an excitement that makes shoplifting seem dull. Giving is one thing that is stronger than greed!"⁽¹²⁾ Amen.

In that thought we come closest to understanding God's mind and motivation in laying down this law. Throughout this series, I have been emphasizing that the Ten Commandments are, at their heart, God's way of putting together a just and decent society. The Decalogue is a social justice document. Obviously, when one person or entity wrongfully takes what belongs to another, that is unjust and ought not to happen. But a society that cares about EVERYONE's property, including whether each one has enough, is the decent society, and unquestionably one that would gladden God's heart.

Are we there yet? Sadly, no. But one day, that blessed day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord...on THAT day, it will all come together.

Meanwhile, remember the word. Those who want something for nothing, those who would break into my car or your home or take Mary Livingston's diamond ring, those who filch from the office, who cheat on their taxes, who do not give a day's work for a day's pay, who do not pay their debts on time, and all of us who fail to properly share. Echoing down though the centuries, remember the word. "You shall not steal." Care about EVERYONE'S property, and be generous. It is a word we need to hear. It is a word we need to live.

Let us pray.

O God, we are grateful for your instruction. We too want a just and decent society. Help us to do our part to attain it. We pray it in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen!

1. Clifton Fadiman, Gen. Ed., The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1985), p. 55

2. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer: The Prayer, the Creeds, the Commandments, (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox, 1990), p. 240

3. Bob Fenske, "Shoplifting," Northern Iowa Globe-Gazette, 1/26/98, via Internet

4. Winn, p. 242

5. Exodus 22:1-4

6. Pierre Joseph Proudhon

7. Malachi 3:8

8. Quoted by Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmanns, 1983), p. 202

9. Proverbs 6:30

10. Walter Brueggemann, CD-ROM, "The Book of Exodus," The New Interpreter's Bible, Electronic Edition, Disk 3 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997)

11. Ephesians 4:28

12. Winn, p. 243

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