This commandment is probably the only one you will find placarded around South Ruislip.

READ Exodus 20:1-20

 The Ten are not laws but commandment. Their purpose is not to be a basis of legislation but of godliness – how we are meant to live. Surprisingly a lot of people think they are. The legislation follows the Ten Commandments but they are set apart from the rest because they address they foundations of our relationships rather than the social restraint of legislation.

10. No envy – Do not covet is a matter of the heart. 

9. No Lying – Do not give false witness is a matter of the tongue. Jesus says “Out of the heart the mouth speaks.”

8. No steal – Do not steal is a matter of our attitude to possessions.

The purpose of the Sinai experience was “… so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning” Exodus 20:20

It is about relationship. If we are in a proper relationship with God these 10 rules inform our behaviour, mould our thinking, change our perception of what is good and righteous.

 

 Stop Stealing! 

 Ephesians 4:28 Puts it quite simply

²⁸He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

The word share here is very significant and we will come back to it later.

Robbery costs. Look around you, how much do we spend on security and insurance against theft? Secure doors, double locks, window locks, Surveillance cameras, security codes, exit sensors to catch the thief exiting, alarms, the list is endless. Robbery is often associated with damage and violence. We are told that most stealing is driven by drug addiction. Today I not only have central locking but engine immobiliser, wheel locks and number plate locks. Sometimes the security is so good it traps the owner in their own car!

 

 TAX EVASION

Lord Ashcroft has made the headlines this last month. But he has not stolen anything, or committed a crime, he says. He just does not pay tax like the rest of us. Instead he bankrolls the Conservative Party.  One comment which is a sober comment on our nation was that the rich never pay the full amount of tax. So what is the problem? Well if you are a conservative nothing. But for the poor of this land the idea that by saying “I don’t want to live here” you don’t have to pay tax seems an affront. Just add to that his statement that I will take ‘permanent’ residency when he became Lord Ashcroft and we move into command number 9. No lying. Lord Ashcroft says “But I didn’t mean permanent, when I said it” And he is not alone. This week we have a labour peer offering to pay taxes, how nice for him to be able to choose!

But do you declare all your income to the Inland Revenue? Is it only wrong when it is someone rich and powerful? In which case where is your dividing line on stealing? Under £1? Under £100? Under £1000? Or do you believe in being scrupulously honest? You should. Jesus said you should He said    

   "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

 Matthew 22:21; Mark 12:17;Luke 20:25

 You also should claim tax exemption when you can but whether you can legitimately be an offshore Lord or Member of Parliament is another matter. Ask the candidates whether they pay tax in this country. But make sure you are paying your taxes, whether it is income tax, Council tax, Road tax, VAT,

 

 ATTITUDE TO POSSESSIONS

We live in a complex society where it is not always clear where we get our money from. We all understand that receiving ‘stolen goods’ is a crime but that only applies to property that was taken without consent. Increasingly we have a Robin Hood mentality although it comes out as “Rob the organisation and feed myself” Whether it is government, big company or even church, we think that ‘they’ can afford it, ‘they’ wouldn’t notice and anyway ‘they’ deserve to be ripped off. In which case where is your dividing line on stealing? Under £1? Under £100? Under £1000? Or do you believe in being scrupulously honest? You should.

Jesus said: Luke 16

¹⁰"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

 

Why? Because we envy our neighbours car, his house, his wife, his computer, his holidays, and we want it now. So maybe the problem is that at heart of our thinking is materialism.

 

John Lennon sold the dream “imagine” - Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can. If we didn’t have possessions, maybe so much could be done for good. But we innately possess things. And there is no revelation to say that we should not. Jesus did not say that possessions were evil. He did however say

 

 

“The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1Timothy 6:10

 

It is our love affair with possessions, our materialistic society, which drives our capitalism and its greed and its theft and abuse. So every 15 minutes you are taught to covet your neighbours whatever. And who cares whether you can afford it, the credit card company will take the waiting out of wanting. And when that runs out we steal and rob.

 

Lets get to the heart of the matter.

1Chronicles 29:14

“Everything comes from you, and we only give you what comes from your hand”

 GOD GIVES US EVERYTHING

God created the world and he created humans and put them in the garden of Eden to enjoy it. He gave us this rich amazing world where food grows like mad, or will do the second the spring proper arrives! There is enough food in the world to feed the world, even the 60 billion of us. Greed and possessiveness, hoarding by the EU and others means that where there are  shortages and drought the excesses are not sent. And the same applies to energy. We want everyone else to cut down on their Carbon production but please, I need my car, my air-conditioning, my quality of life.

We soon become possessive. But it is not our money, our food our energy. It comes from God. And we are stewards of his creation. And it is how we work our stewardship out that matters.

But I earned it! I worked for it, how you dare suggest that my money is God given. It is mine! This attitude was endemic in Malachi’s time.

Will a man rob God?  Malachi 3:8-12

 

One of the first steps to getting your attitude to money right is to pass some on to someone else. That is when you discover how possessive you are. So the word of the Lord in Malachi’s time is relevant to today. Economists will actually tell you that trading increases wealth. God says giving increases wealth. You empower the poor to spend what they are given and that in itself increases trade and therefore wealth. However, I do not think God was thinking economically, I think God knows that faithful sacrificial giving changes the way you think about money and possessions.

 

But ‘Do not Steal’ goes further.

 NO TO SLAVERY

Exodus 21:16 specifies the death penalty for kidnapping (the first step for slave trading)  It is not only wrong to steal possessions, it is wrong to steal people. Steven Fry the other day wrote off the ten Commandment because it did not address slavery. But then you would not expect an atheist to know his Bible. Nor apparently has he noticed it was Christians who set about ending slavery in the world. Why? Because the Bible values every person. Because the Bible bans the slave trade. Our ignominious past in which we robbed the world and built our glorious British Empire should shame us.  But slavery has not gone away. You can buy adults and children for sex who have been traded and imported into this country. Our government has recently downgraded the operation to uncover and free the slaves.

 

 FAIR TRADE

Here is a question to ask? Do you pay for Fair trade goods or the cheapest? Which leads on to the question, Is it right to receive goods where the price paid either does not go to the producer or too little of it? Does ‘Do not steal’ mean that you have to check the integrity of the source of your goods?  Or do you think that ignorance is a valid excuse? In our media we are frequently reminded that the major traders are buying cheap labour (that is a form of slavery) in China, etc. so that we can have ever cheaper clothes and so on. The Label Fair Trade does not guarantee that robbery does not take place but it does mean that the company is paying a significant portion of the price you pay to the producer. It is the very nature of our greedy society to want more and so take advantage of others whose economic plight forces them to accept the deal. That affects farmers in this country supplying our supermarkets as much as international trade agreements that get better deals for rich nations and keep the third world dependant on aid.

 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

It may not be a problem in this country too often but ‘Do not steal’ involves the necessity of telling the truth about what we trade. In our complex, digital society, you rarely have the price on a commodity, the price is on the bin and in the company computer. The danger is when corruption is not being monitored. So check your receipt so that you are being charged for what you buy and not something else. Our local authority has a department dedicated to checking that the weights and measures are correct. It is called the Trading Standards Service. The National Measurement Office (NMO) is an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

 

This brings us to the matter of fair wages.

 A FAIR WAGE

Being a Christian is about being a responsible person in regard to your possessions. You respect others property and their right to it, you understand that your possessions come from God and are to be shared rather than kept for yourself. You will also believe that a worker or producer should get a fair return.

The capitalist mantra is to allow economic forces to rule, to get the cheapest labour and maximise the profit. But that is why the gap between the rich and poor in this country is widening. The shareholder gets his dividend and the work force gets the minimum wage and redundancy. We all protest when Bankers get big bonuses when the company is propped up by the tax payer, our pension funds demand greater profitability so they can pay out our pensions. Capitalism itself is founded on greed so we will always have to restrain our tendency to steal legally from others. On the other hand, a company needs to remain competitive, so how far should a Union go in pursuit of a better deal?

 

 But the Bible does not condemn having possessions. Being rich or poor is not a measure of spirituality. But Jesus was pretty blunt about wealth.

^{Luke 18:24}

²⁴Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

 ²⁶Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"

 ²⁷Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

 

So what is the problem with possessions? Well we had it explained last week. In 1 Timothy 6 17-19

 ¹⁷Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. ¹⁹In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Jesus put it this way:

 Matthew 6:19-24

  ¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 ²²"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

 ²⁴"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

The heart of the matter is that possessions too easily become our security and our hope. The boundary between having possessions and making an idol of your possessions is rather grey than black or white.

 

So how important is your home? Take it away and how would you feel? Jean Patterson is finding giving up her home in Parkfield Crescent after 50 years a real struggle. So much of her life in invested in it. And yet it is of no value to her as a home Clare House is. But Jean is learning to let go.

 

What about giving up the car? The ability to take others and go where you please, when you please?

 

What about your TV?  If that was taken away what would you do? Or your computer, or your garden or your … well you identify it. Is it your security blanket or are you putting your faith and hope in God? Where is your heart this morning?  The antidote to possessions and therefore the antidote to stealing is not increased security or even a fairer society, neither of which is wrong but neither will they solve the problem. The solution to stealing is to invest in heaven. So how do you do that? Well the same way as you invest in wealth. You spend time and energy and money on it. Jesus said just that about money.

^{Luke 19:13}So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. 'Put this money to work,' he said, 'until I come back.' 

 Perhaps the most amazing statement by Jesus is in

^{Luke 16:9}I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

So possessions are to be used to improve friendship. I don’t think that is suggesting we can buy friendship. You only get a shallow friendship if it is based on the money you spend. Nor is it suggesting you should not spend your money wisely so that you live within your means.  In essence it comes back to learning that our wealth is given to us to give away and to share!  We reject John Lennon’s no possessions and we reject capitalism’s acquisition of possessions for ourselves. We receive from God all we possession and , just as he gives, so should we, not only in our tithing but in our spending. So it is good to share meals together, to share a car, to invite friends to stay.

That is what we are to do with our possessions. But most of all we must invest in heaven. In heaven the streets are paved with gold so our money is of no value.  But what do we invest there? Heaven is where God is. So we lay up treasure in heaven when we invest in our relationship with God.  And what does God value? Love, joy , peace, goodness, faithfulness, hope. And we invest in those things by sharing them. What does our verse from 1Timothy 6:11 teach us?

 To pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

 

 The antidote to stealing is godliness, being content with what you have, knowing that it comes from God. We have to learn to hold lightly to our possessions being happiest when we can share them and spend them to gain friendship.