Talking about the ten shall-nots can bring a person up short.
I picked up my Bible to check the next Commandment. First I read: Neither shall you steal. Short and to the point. So I read on: Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor.
I put my Bible down and two thoughts popped into my mind. First I recalled a little white cream pitcher. Then I thought, everyone lies from time to time.
Let me tell you about that little white cream pitcher first. Many years ago, my husband and I were out to dinner with some of our friends from church. After dinner the waitress brought coffee to the table. On the tray was this little white cream pitcher. I loved it. I love tiny things. I made an off had comment: “This little pitcher needs to go home with me.” And the conversation went on from there. The dare was given. I met the challenge.
“It was all in fun!” Right?
“Didn’t hurt or harm anyone.”
“The restaurant owner had lots of little cream pitchers!”
The pitcher came home with me.
While still thinking about the seeming harmless habit of taking what is not ours. I remembered all the white bath towels taken from motels. It was at a tennis tournament in Palm Desert California. It was hot! Really HOT! And people had taken towel to cover their head, to reflect the hot desert sun, while sitting in the stadium. Now that wouldn’t have been so bad; but then they left the towel in the stands after the matches had ended for the day.
“Hotels have lots of towel!” Right?
Now I admit, I took a washcloth I kept it wet, with the ice from a plastic cup, to wipe my face, neck and arms. But like a good girl (; I took it back to my room and put it in the pile of other used towels and washcloths.
After all this remembering, thinking and reading about these shall-nots, the question came: How could I preach on Commandments I had clearly broken?
But I sucked up my courage and began to write.
Don’t take what is not yours.
Don’t say things that are not true.
Simple childhood lessons. Lessons I’m quite sure that all of us learned both at school and at home. Good little boys and girls did neither. That was the understood truth of life. Every child knew it. And it wasn’t important because God said so. It was our parents and teachers that kept us in line.
And yet, from nursery school on, those two rule got broken easily and all the time. We told tiny little lies to protect our young pride. We took something just because we wanted it at the time. Neither violation hurt anyone else. However, as children grow so do their offence's. And we find out that the things we do and say begin to outwardly affect those around us.
As the week wore on, I was having a difficult time deciding how to approach these two prolific habits of human history. So I did what I often do in times of a major mind block. I looked up what it means “to bear” in my trusty Greek dictionary. Bearing is something that can be known by the senses. Through human conduct. Our outward demeanor. A manor of speaking, or doing, that correspond to our inner reality — our feelings.
Bearing is a witness. Someone who relates something. Gives an account. Attests to. To “bear false witness” then is: To smear, to say something untrue, to misrepresent. It is not telling, or living, the truth; or at least the whole truth.
The Book of James, description of this human habit, could be helpful when is comes to how we use our tongues.
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5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire….. 8 but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. (James 3:5f)
These are fairly specific words for bearing false witness.
I had to laugh when I looked up the word steal. The Greek word is klepto. I think my husband called me that, or something like it, when we got home from dinner with that little white pitcher in my possession.
A klepto, a popular slang word in the 1960s by the way, is one who acts with subterfuge. One who breaks trust. Or who fails to honor another’s possessions. Simply put, we take something from someone else that is not ours.
But all that is too simplistic.
So I am going to try Jesus’ method of expanding the concept.
Taking a possession, a car or book or electronic object — A cute little white cream pitcher. Is one thing.
However we often steal in much less obvious or provable ways.
A glance of an eye steals, copies, another’s answer.
A tongue that robs someone of their integrity, identity or reputation.
Or my personal soapbox: A parent who steal, robs, and bear false witness by having their children Baptized. “Because they are suppose to.” Or because it makes them look good. Or because it is the thing to do. And then never keeps their promise to teach their children about God’s love. They make sure the child gets the “God given gift.” But they never allow the child to actually open that gift. They don’t bring them to Sunday School, where they can learn about God. They don’t read them Bible stories at home. In other words, they both bear false witness and steal.
End of tantrum.
Stealing, bearing false witness can be, and is extremely, subtle. And often goes undetected.
Jesus tells a pointed parable that relates to both stealing and false witness. Most of us are familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
A man, walking alone on a road, is beaten and rob by thieves. Then leave him to die. Two priest coming along saw the dying man; but crossed the road to the other side.
The thieves stole his possessions and beat him.
But listen to the subtle message in this parable: The two priest, both at different times, passed by the beaten man crossing to the other side of the road, to avoid helping him.
Do you get the message that one line reveals? It is a powerful example of false witness.
Priests, those groomed to follow God’s law, God’s will. Those who are to take care of their neighbor. Passed by the dying man. Leaving him to die alone. They misrepresented, they bore false witness by their actions, about who they were suppose to be. About who they represented.
The message? They acted in public as God’s Holy Men. But in private, on that lonely road, with no one else could see, they were not “Holy” at all!
Clarification: The beaten man was a Jew — an insider. One who was considered a neighbor to a Jewish Priest.
The Samaritan, “a stranger.” Not a Jew. A man considered an outsider. Acted with integrity and faithfulness to God’s will and purpose.
The Priests failed to love their neighbor.
They bore false witness without saying a word.
This parable brings both the seventh and eighth Commandment into clear perspective.
Now! Back to today.
Let's pull ourselves up by our boot straps and confront ourselves. Ask yourselves the same question I asked myself that week of sermon preparation. I asked myself: “Where are you in this parable? How would Jesus tell my story” or yours?
Or maybe the easier question might be, and truly we do like easy: Where do we want to be in Jesus’ parable?
I’ll say it again! Reading these rules for life do call us to attention. Because we all, each one of us if we are honest, stand humbled by Jesus’ pointed little two sided story. Not one of us escape responsibility.
It was true when Jesus walked this earth so many thousands of year ago. It is true this very day.