Reflection on Exodus 20:17 and Luke 12:13-21

 

The final commandment(s) read(s): “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  I cannot tell you the amount of times that I have coveted my neighbor’s donkey.  All joking aside, we get the point; we are not to desire anything that is not rightfully ours.  We, the people of God, who have been set apart to be God’s representatives on this good earth, are not to be driven by our desires.  Rather, our lives are shaped by God alone and all God desires.  Rather than our lives revolving around what we do not have, we are thankful to God for what we do have, and we shape our life to revolve around God.

Do you remember that pastor a few weeks ago who made national news because he got mad that his congregation did not buy him an expensive designer watch as a gift?  It is not really a gift if you are demanding it, is it?  Even though this man was set apart to be a man after God’s heart, we can embarrassingly see that he was a man whose heart was after a designer watch. 

You shall not covet.  Rather, you shall trust in the Lord and trust that the Lord will provide.

Whenever I think of coveting, I think of Joey.  Joey was the absolute opposite picture of one who covets.  I am not certain that Joey ever coveted in his entire life.  Joey was born with Down’s syndrome, but what abilities he lacked because of his disability was made up by his absolute joy in life.  Whenever he was in the room while another person was opening presents, he squealed with excitement to see what gift the person got.  Not once did he ever express, “I wish I had that” as other children do.  Nor, did he ever try to take a gift or play with a gift someone else received.  Rather, he was nothing but enthusiastic that the person got whatever gift they were given.  “You are really going to like that!” he would say to you as he put his arm on your shoulder and watched you examine your prize. 

Joey did not covet.  It never crossed his mind to be envious of another person’s things.  He was just happy that you were happy.  Let me say that again: he was just happy that you were happy.

I used to look at him at such times and feel bad for him.  I felt bad because he seemed to be lacking something intrinsic to who we are as people.  His inability to be envious (his inability to covet as the rest of us all do) sort of made me feel bad for him, as if he were a little less human and less than who he should be.  I was wrong.

In fact, it is coveting that makes us a little less than who we were created to be.  It is our desire and craving for what someone else has that makes us less human…less than who we were created to be. 

Remember the story of Adam and Eve?  Remember how they were in this lush garden in the middle of Eden and how they had their every need met by God?  They were created to live with God and to trust God for all their needs.  And, they did.  The Lord provided everything that they could possibly need.  All the Lord had made was theirs.  In this vast garden of plenty there was only one rule, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (NRSV, Genesis 2:17).  There was one simple rule that they had to follow in order to be the people that God created them to be.

Apparently, one rule was too much.  You know how the story goes: the serpent pointed the woman in the direction of the tree from which she should not eat.  After the woman protested briefly, the Bible says that the woman, “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise” (NRSV, Genesis 3:6).

Guess what the Hebrew word for “desired” is right here?  You guessed it; it is “covet.”  The Bible is trying to teach us that it is coveting that sent us down this path away from being who we were created to be.  It is coveting that sent us out of the garden, away from the Lord.  It is coveting that separates us from the Holy One.  It is desiring something else, and not trusting in the Lord, that puts us in the state we are in this world.

This is so true.  Is it not coveting resources that are not rightfully ours that causes the destruction of the rainforests…the lungs of our earth?  We are suffering from this coveting. 

Is it not coveting other people’s power and privilege that causes the corrosive lies and deceptions within our politics?   Our nation suffers from this coveting. 

Is it not coveting what others have that focuses our attention on nice phones and designer handbags and ever bigger and nicer homes rather than focusing our attention on our neighbors…those people who God put right in front of us to love and help?  Our relationships suffer from this coveting.

It is not coveting that leads us to focus on gaining more and more, and protecting all that we have rather than focusing on the richness of God and focusing on everyone for whom God cares?

Jesus emphatically teaches, “Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  One’s life does not consist of pouring all attention into our desires.  One’s life does not consist of coveting.  “You shall not covet.”

It is not coincidence that coveting is the last commandment.  The opposite of coveting is trusting the Lord, which is the first commandment.  This is a commandment sandwich.  Not coveting is the bottom piece of bread and the commandment to have no other gods is the top piece of bread, and the whole sandwich is about trusting and following the Lord. 

Trusting that God will provide for us is refusing to covet.  It is good and healthy to thank the Lord whenever the Lord provides.  After-all, God is good and faithful. 

So why does that trust in the Lord break down into coveting?  What is this desire to gain and accumulate and build up barns all about?  What is at the heart of it all?

The story of Adam and Eve tells the tale.  The woman, and the man who was standing right beside her, coveted the knowledge that only God had so that they could be in control.  It is about control.  They did not trust that God had their back.

This same story continues as their son Cain worries because his offering to God is not found to be as acceptable as his brother Abel’s.  Cain wonders, “Is God’s holding out on me?  Does God love me?  Will God provide for me?”  He does not trust God, so he takes matters tragically into his own hands. 

Again and again the Israelites fail to trust that God will provide as they gather extra manna in the desert, though told not to; and ask for a golden calf to be their god just as God was providing them the gift of the law; and ask for a king and a temple when God was right with them the entire time, hovering above them in the cloud and the fire.  Again and again we fail to trust God.

And, again and again, God proves to be trustworthy.  God does not kill Adam and Eve when they eat from the tree, even though God promised they would die that very day.  God shows mercy.  God is trustworthy.

And, God does not destroy Cain after Cain murders his brother, but protects him against harm from others.  God shows mercy.  God is trustworthy.

And, God does not obliterate the chosen people as they rebel over and over again throughout Israel’s history.  There is always a remnant left.  God’s people are never completely destroyed.  God shows mercy.  God is trustworthy.

Our desire to seek control, and our desire to seek to gain more and more rather than seeking the Lord, also does not mean our utter destruction by the hand of the Lord.  God shows mercy.  God is trustworthy.

On the cross, Jesus dies so that we can be shown mercy.  He dies so that our sins…our coveting…will die with him.  Jesus shows us mercy, so that we can have a new life…the life that God meant us to live in the first place…a life in step with him.

Joey lived that life.  And no, I am not saying that Joey was perfect.  I am not one of those people who will unfairly idolize someone with a disability.  Joey would stare at you and then scream in your face making your ears bleed.  There was nothing holy about that.  But, one thing that Joey did not do was covet.  Instead, he was always joyous and thankful for anything that brought someone else joy.  There was no hint of envy.  With an exuberant joy, he celebrated with those who celebrate, and for that I do lift him up.  In that way he was in step with the Lord.  Joey lived a life of selfless gratitude, and would have certainly joined the Psalmist in singing the praises of the one who gives us all good things; the one in whom we can trust; our most Holy Lord.

“Praise the Lord!” the Psalmist sings.  “Praise the Lord, O my soul!  I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long” (NRSV, Psalm 146:1-2).

Reflection on Exodus 20:16 and Luke 6:37-42

 

I want you to imagine for just a moment that you attend an elementary school, and that you have been called to the principal’s office.  Do not worry, you have done nothing wrong, but you were a witness to something that happened at recess.  By the swings, you witnessed a normally calm and quiet classmate (who had little to wear but old jeans with holes) punch the class bully in the face.  A fight ensued that ended in bruises for both, but the principal wants to know who started it all.  “Who took the first swing?” he asks pointing directly at you.  “Whoever started it will be punished.”

This should be an easy answer, obviously the quiet kid, down on his luck, took the first swing.  But, it is not that easy because you are quite certain that the bully taunted him relentlessly until the fists were forced to come out.  You know, because the bully has done the same to you!  Surely, if someone deserved punishment, it was the bully and not this poor kid who normally would not hurt a fly.

So, you could answer that the bully took the first swing and make him pay for all the times that he indeed started the fight but was never caught or punished.  That would be a lie, of course, but it would have the effect of delivering the justice that the bully rightfully deserved.  How should you answer?  Should you lie?

The commandment reads, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  In other words, you shall not tell lies about someone else, especially if there is great consequence for doing so. 

Notice that this commandment is not simply, “Do not tell lies,” though some of our Sunday School teachers taught us the commandment in that way.  God, as portrayed in the Bible, does not appear to be against all forms of lying.  Remember the midwives in the beginning of the book of Exodus who refused to kill the first born boys of the Israelite people as commanded by Pharaoh?  If you recall, they lied to Pharaoh when they did not kill the babies as expect, saying that the Israelite women were just too fast at giving birth.  The Bible says that these women were commended by God and rewarded with blessings because of their lies.  Their lies saved lives, and God thought it was the right thing to do.

But, notice that the women did not bear false witness against a neighbor.  They did not lie about someone with the intention to cause them harm.  They were saving little babies!

Those who do lie about other people in order to cause them harm, tend to spread pain and suffering to others rather than causing them to be saved.  There is an intentionality to cause harm, or at least ambivalence toward whether or not harm is caused that drips off heavily from this commandment about telling lies about others. 

When a child lies about stealing some candy and says that it was their brother or sister who did the stealing, that is bearing false witness.  That is intentionally lying and harming someone else so that they do not get in trouble themselves; it is for personal gain.

When a political candidate takes a small sound bite of their opponent saying, “I like to kill children,” and plasters it all over the TV when their opponent really said, “I like to kill children’s most feared policies, such as cuts to their nutrition,” that is bearing false witness.  That is intentionally lying about what someone else said, trying to damage their credibility, for personal gain.

When you share what you heard, “That Phil the dairy farmer had to sell all of his cows!” without first finding out if Phil actually had to sell all his cows (which he did not), that is bearing false witness.  It is a complete ambivalence about telling the truth just so that you can share a juicy bit of news.  Your attitude of not really caring about the truth harms someone else.

God cares a lot about telling the truth about other people.  And God cares a lot about us caring whether or not we are telling the truth about our neighbors.  Lying about our neighbors starts to cause division as those who trust us line up to support us and those who care about the neighbor line up behind them.  This is how family feuds start.  This is how wars start.  This is how nations and peoples become divided.  When we care more about our side “winning” than we do about telling the truth and holding to the truth, all the work that God has done to bring us together can fast crumble apart. 

There is a philosophy that says: “The ends justify the means.”  In other words, if your side wins, it does not matter what you did to win.  If you are good and the result is good, then the evil you commit to get to the top or to stay on top does not matter.  The lies you tell do not matter.  The truth that you squash does not matter.  The people who you hurt along the way do not matter.  They were either evil, or they, unfortunately, just got in the way.  The damage done, in the end, does not matter as long as you got the outcome you desired.

But, it matters to God. 

The damage that we do to the people that God shaped and molded out of love with God’s very hands matters a lot to God.  Not telling lies about your God created neighbor, and not harming them in word and deed matters a lot to God.  It is almost as if God desires more than anything that we love our neighbors as ourselves. 

Luke 10:27 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Mark 12:31 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Matthew 22:39 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Galatians 5:14 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

James 2:8 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Leviticus 19:18 says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

I could continue. 

It kind of makes me wonder if God wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves?

Here is the thing: Jesus died on a cross to save us.  He gave his life so that we might live.  He did everything in his power to benefit us.  He did this all out of love for us.  He loved his neighbor as himself.  What a waste that sacrifice is if we take that love shown us on the cross and trample on it just so that we can haphazardly tromp over the dignity of those he gave his life to save.  “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  Instead, you shall love your neighbor just as Jesus has loved you.

In fact, Jesus wants us to take it one step further.  Jesus desires that we not only know God’s laws, but that we would also be wise.  So, one step further than not lying about our neighbors is not judging them in the first place.  After-all, is not judgment against someone at the root of speaking poorly about them?

Do you want to know what foolish people do?  They speak poorly of other people’s character when their own character is quite poor.  They judge when there is plenty about which they themselves could be judged.  Jesus says that they are like a blind person leading a blind person.  They both fall into a pit.  They both bump into everything around them and cause destruction. 

Do you want to know what a wise person would do?  They would take the log that is stuck within their own eye out first so that they could see the speck that is causing their neighbor to be blind.  That way their actions would be caring and loving rather than destructive.

But, that sort of love and help of both self and neighbor would defeat the whole point of bearing false witness against the neighbor.  We bear false witness against our neighbors because we want them to be hurt, we want them to be pushed down or knocked out of the way.  We want to see them in the worst possible light.  We want to see them with a hue of green and rot.  We want to see them as evil.  We want to point to them and say, “Look at them, they are bad.  Look at us, we are great and good!”  We want to judge them based on superficial factors such as age, gender, or race because we have been told by the world that the only way to succeed in life is to ensure that everyone else fails.

But, we are not children of this world sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ.  We are children of the light.  We are children of the truth.  We are children of love.  We are children of the Most High, our Almighty God and Father, and God’s Son, Jesus Christ!  We desire that everyone might have the light of God’s love and goodness shown on them.  We desire this because we know that every single person on this good earth has the right to point up to the heavens and declare with the Psalmist, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made!  Wonderful are your works [O God]!” (Psalm 139:14).

So, we care about lying about our neighbors.  We are careful about bearing false witness against them.  Instead, we strive to see our neighbors and everything they do in the best possible light.  We do not spread lies about them.  We do not speak in ways that would cast darkness upon them.  We do not assume they are evil.  We do not assume their intentions are evil. 

Instead, we speak in ways that show love.  We walk in the ways of Jesus who seeks, even to this day, to draw us closer to one another.

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Reflection on Exodus 20:15 and Luke 12:22-34

 

When I think of the commandment that says, “You shall not steal,” my mind automatically races to the day that I returned home from vacation to discover the lower rooms of our home glistening with pools of water and possessions soaked, falling apart, and beginning to gain a musty odor.  I do not know if you have experienced the theft of your possessions by flood waters, but if you have you understand the initial sense of complete helplessness you get as you slog through the waters, staring at the enormity of the destruction.  Where do you even begin to recover from such an event? 

But, that devastating sense of helplessness very quickly turns to hope as you look out the foggy windows and see the faces of friends and church members arriving to help in the huge task of cleaning up, rebuilding, and giving an ear to your devastation.  I cannot express how grateful I am to God for all of you who helped us as we gazed helplessly and hopelessly at our theft by flood.  That help in our time of need was the positive sense of the commandment to not steal in its purest form. 

“’Positive sense of the commandment?’  ‘What do you mean by that Pastor Jira?’”

All of the commandments about loving our neighbors (not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, not speaking poorly of our neighbor, not coveting) can and should also be viewed in their positive sense.  Take stealing for example; the great Reformer Martin Luther put it this way in his Small Catechism: “We are to fear and love God, so that we neither take our neighbors’ money or property nor acquire them by using shoddy merchandise or crooked deals, but instead help them to improve and protect their property and income.” 

Did you hear the positive sense of the commandment?  We are to help our neighbors, “improve and protect their property and income.”  Not only do we not steal from our neighbors, we also make certain to help our neighbors protect their things, repair their things, and help them to secure their income.

That is exactly what I saw out my window that day as I waded through the muck and wreckage.  I saw the people of God, sent by Jesus Christ to love us and help us to protect and repair our property and things.  I saw the positive sense of the commandment to not steal.  I saw love.  As if Jesus himself was walking toward me, I saw love walking toward our house carrying gloves, mops, vacuums, cleaners, and willing hands.  It was a beautiful sight.

And, it is that positive sense of the commandment (those hands and feet offering help) that I want you to keep in mind as we wade into this commandment about stealing.  It is that positive understanding that will help us to answer some of the ethically sticky questions concerning the commandment.

Now, we all know that it is plain wrong to just go into a store and take something that is not yours.  Kids find out quickly that there is a severe punishment for taking a toy off the self without paying for it.  But, not all instances of stealing are quite so cut and dry.

Is it stealing to take some time during work to accomplish a task that you need to accomplish for your family?  Did you just steal some time from your employer?

Is it stealing to try a grape in the grocery store in order to make certain that it is sweet?  Why do we not try a strawberry, or quick cook up a piece of steak to make certain that it is tender?  Why do grapes get a stealing exception?  Some stores will give you samples.  It is obviously OK if they give it to you, but is it OK for you to just take it without asking?

Is it stealing someone’s hard earned money if you sell them something that you know does not work, or is likely to fail very soon?  Are used car salesmen stealing when they knowingly sell a car that is just on the edge of failure, or is that the buyer’s fault for not getting it checked out first?  Similarly, it is stealing someone’s hard earned money when you sell a cheap product that will not last long?

Is it stealing someone’s talent and hard work when you pay them a low wage?  They agreed to the low wage, did they not?  Does it make a difference if there are lots of jobs in the community?   Does it make a difference it there are few opportunities for good employment in the area?

Is it stealing for a company or government to take personal property intended for the common good?  What if it is taken for a road?  What if it is for a parking lot?  What if it is for a homeless shelter?  What if it is for a company’s employee recreational center?

Is it stealing your neighbor’s reputation when you speak poorly of them in order to gain an advantage against them?  Maybe, you are running for an elected office? 

Is it wrong to take a couple pieces of bread from the window sill of someone well off in order to feed a starving child who will die otherwise?  Or, has the well off person stolen life from those around them by refusing to help when they have the gifts to help?

The Lord says, “You shall not steal” and that seems real clear until you start applying it to the messiness of life. 

Luckily, the Biblical tradition seeks to help us out as we try to figure out the ethics of theft.  The Biblical tradition would like us to think about these commandments in the positive sense.  Are you helping to protect and preserve your neighbor’s property and income, or are you aiding in damaging it?  If you cannot answer that you are helping, then you are likely breaking the commandment.  

Can people live on the wage you provide?  If not, you are probably stealing.  

Are people improved by your actions or harmed?  If they are harmed, you are probably stealing.

Thinking of it in that sense, most of us have probably stolen in some sense of the word.  I know that I have.  But, here is the thing; God does not need you to be perfect in order for you to be loved.  That time that I took a single, bright, little, red Lego which had fallen under the lip of the shelves in the toy store probably will not land me in the depths of the fiery pit.  Jesus has gone to the cross to save me from not only that failure but ones with greater consequence. 

God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.  Your neighbor needs to you care about them, their property, and their prosperity.  Your neighbor needs you to take the commandment about stealing seriously.

This is hard.  I fail to preserve and protect my neighbor and their things all the time.  And, failing to do so reveals a crack that has formed in my faith.  Jesus points out this crack clearly when he instructs: 

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.” 

And Jesus continues in the same way,

“Do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” 

According to Jesus, the crack in our faith that stealing reveals is: trust.  Taking what is not ours, or worrying about not having enough reveals that we lack trust that the Lord will provide.  Adam and Eve do not trust that the Lord will provide wisdom, so they steal it from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The Israelites in the wilderness do not trust that God will give them food, so they store up extra manna and suffer when it rots.  I do not trust that all will be good again when I stare hopelessly at the flood waters and that lack of trust brings me to despair.

But, then I look out the window.  I look through the humidity clinging to the window and see the people of Jesus Christ coming near.  I look out the window and see the people of God who care about my property, my well-being, and my life.  I look out and see the people of God who take positive sense of the commandment about stealing seriously.  I look out and see the love of Jesus Christ walking my way, and it makes a difference.

“You shall not steal.”  You shall “improve and protect other’s property and income.”  It is love.