"Hands Off" - 5th Wednesday of Lent

Although definitely not a fan of The Simpsons, I was intrigued by the synopsis of an episode from their second season. In this episode the moral question was laid before the audience, that of just what we would get away with if we could. It's a cruel world that says, "If you don't look out for yourself, no one will." "Watch your back, because someone else is ready to take advantage of your weaknesses." When the world around us teaches these lessons and when our own sinfulness starts worrying us about our future, it's no surprise that we take what we can get, regardless of who might already own it. It starts out small with sins of omission, like cutting corners in our work. But the problem can grow much bigger – into outright theft and robbery.

After seeing Ned Flanders reject an offer from a man to get an illegal cable hook-up, Homer chases after the cable man and wants to be hooked up for free. He likes the new channels he gets, which the family watches with him. Lisa, however, feels suspicious about this. Following a Sunday School lesson regarding the existence and nature of Hell, Lisa becomes terrified of violations of the 10 Commandments, the adherence to which she is assured will keep one’s soul safe from Hell. She fears that because Homer violated the Eighth Commandment, he will go to Hell when he dies. She additionally opposes other examples of common thievery all around her. She convinces Marge to pay the cost on two grapes in a grocery store which she has eaten but not paid for. Lisa pays a visit to Reverend Lovejoy at church, where he suggests that Lisa cannot turn her father in to the police (since she must continue to Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother, according to the 4th Commandment), but he instead encourages Lisa to not watch anything on Homer’s cable hook-up, setting a good example.

Homer invites his friends from the power plant, as well as Moe, and Barney to watch “The Bout to Knock the Other Guy Out!” on cable. Lisa tries to boycott the party and doing so results in Homer making her stay outside. Meanwhile, Bart has set up posters on the back door for his showing of an adult channel for 50 cents (although he does set his age requirement at eight), but he is caught a few seconds later by Homer. Homer’s conscience eventually bothers him, more in the form of his daughter’s distress than a moral objection to stealing cable, and he gives in to Lisa’s protests, begrudgingly choosing not to watch the last minutes of the fight. Marge, Maggie, and Bart (otherwise reluctant) join them as well. He sits the fight out and when everyone leaves, he hesitantly (and unprofessionally) cuts his cable hook-up, despite Bart’s objection. Of course in true form of Homer–wisdom he accidentally cuts the electricity to all of Springfield in his random wire-cutting before finally cutting the cable wire.

We are presented this evening with two commandments that we probably most unwittingly infringe; that of adultery and stealing. While we do kill in ways other than murder, such as killing someone’s reputation or destroying their faith, it is often less done than these two. We don’t always honor our parents, or keep the thought of God holy, but it is as much about our attitude towards any of the commandments as it is in the actual carrying them out. Over the years of public media, electronic and print, we have become almost immune to the affect the commands have, or should have on our lives.

“You shall not commit adultery”: “We are to fear and love God so that in matters of sex our words and conduct are pure and honorable, and husband and wife love and respect each other.”

The purpose of the 6th commandment is the same as for the previous two; protection. In the same way that God protects the gift of life in our homes and neighborhoods, God also wants to protect what is nearest and dearest to life itself, friendship and love. From the beginning of creation God has been concerned that all people have some companions that no one is left alone. Next to life itself, companionship is one of God’s best and most important gifts. God wants to make sure that we have plenty of it while we await his return.

When a man and a woman become one in marriage, it has all the marks of a friendship. They enjoy one another’s company, confide in one another, and depend on each other for help. As they come together in marriage, they are united so they can be together without fear or shame, sharing all they have - their days, months, and years; their abilities and disabilities, their gifts and needs, their whole selves.

Marriage is both private and public. It is a private companionship, one that belongs to husband and wives by themselves. As children are added to the family marriage also become public. The husband and wife become parents, either by birth or adoption. The community has interest in marriage, too. Communities of people begin in marriages and families, receiving not only more people but the help and service each family gives.

“You shall not steal”: “We are to fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or property, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his property and means of making a living.

Why does God worry about property? In each of the other commandments he’s been protecting life in one way or another. Is property as important as life - important enough for God to be concerned about? Think about it this way, before things are yours or mine to use, they are God’s to own. God directs our use of possessions for the benefit of others. Thus the commandment has a sharply honed negative edge. We are not to take from others, either through outright stealing or in legal but still wrong ways. This applies to us both as individuals and as members of contending human communities. All things belong to God. They are given to us both to enjoy for ourselves and to use for the good of others.

God is also concerned about our property because there are some things we can’t live without. Food and clothing to start with and that means money with which to buy them. We need a place to live and medicine when we are sick and the list can go on; in essence “daily bread”, as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. God has forbidden anyone to take them from us unfairly.

God doesn’t give us property to be kept only for ourselves. God gives it to us to be used for God’s benefit and the benefit of our neighbors. God won’t stand for selfishness, greed and hoarding. Each day God gives us everything we need to live while we wait for his return.

As with the commandments as a whole, the 6th and 7th commandments are also interrelated. If you really think about it, when one commits adultery one is stealing. That stealing is not necessarily, but does include at times, the stealing of someone else’s spouse such as in the case of King David and Bathsheba. When we commit adultery we are also stealing from others. We are stealing from our own spouse if we are married. The love that we vowed to hold exclusively for our spouse we steal away for someone else. We steal from God the vows that we made to faithful to our loved one. We steal from the family that we have formed. We steal from the community the security of family structures. We could even reflect back on last week’s lessons and see that when we commit adultery we are killing as much as we are stealing. When we commit adultery we kill the whole concept of the sanctity of marriage.

Fidelity in marriage and business are equally on slippery slopes. Like Marge not paying for the two grapes she ate at the grocery store, we often overlook the small acts that seem so inconsequential. Jesus spells out the expectations of the 6th Commandment when he says that if we even look at another person with lust in our eye for that person over and against our own spouse, we are committing adultery. In the same manner when we steal, it might be a bit of change here or there a grape or two that we taste to check the quality before buying. We can also steal something intangible. Like I said with adultery when we steal from another we are actually stealing security and trust from the community. We can also steal a person’s sense of self worth. We can steal a person’s reputation by speaking falsely about them, of which we will speak more next week. We can steal a person’s sense of spiritual security as well.

Stealing, like adultery, then is not to be confined to narrow limits but must extend to all our relations with our neighbors. On one hand it is forbidden to do our neighbor any injury or wrong, or even to consent or allow such a thing, but to interpose and prevent it. On the other hand, it is commanded that we promote and improve his interests in family and property, and when our neighbor suffers, that we help, communicate, and lend both to friends and foes.

Luther says in the Large Catechism that no matter how big or small all of it is stealing. Whenever we try to get what belongs to someone else, property or spouse, through unjust dealings, it's stealing. The daily bread God promises to give us includes things like relationships, government, and good weather, as well as food and clothing, a home, some money in our pocket and shoes on our feet. To live safely and securely in this world, we need to be able to trust that what is ours will remain ours. Thus, the Commandment condemns those who would take our things, including our spouse, or anyone’s spouse, and it also condemns us when we do the same to others. God, who creates life, demands honor for those who bring it into existence.

Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We're called to care about what happens to the people who share the Creation with us and whether they have honest, dependable ways to get what they need for life. We’re called to watch out for how others are treated in the give and take of daily life.

As we fear, love, and trust God, we will know and live knowing that God provides everything needed for this life. God's love is so rich and abundant that God really does make sure we have enough.