Faithful Witnesses
Pastor Mathew Magera – 4/2/17 – Sermon 222
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
If you had to draw a picture
of a thief, what would they look like? Would it be a truthful representation of
someone who steals? Would it possibly look like you? Have you ever stolen
anything? Have you ever said anything bad about another person? I'm guessing
you can say yes to these last two questions without much thought. If you're
still unsure on something you have stolen, think of something small, so small
it may seem insignificant, and you'll find yourself answering yes before too
long. Stealing is easy. Spreading false rumors is easy. And they can be tied
together. When you talk bad about someone, particularly when there is no proof
of what you are saying, you have stolen their reputation for your own good. You
have taken something away from them and you are not a truthful witness. Both of
these commandments have to do with taking something from our neighbor either
through stealing possessions or by stealing reputations. Each of us has failed
in this area.
The Bible says, “you shall
not steal.” The Bible also says, “you shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor.” Luther supports these commandments by encouraging us to not take
anything that is our neighbor's in a dishonest way. Do not betray or slander
our neighbor or lie about our neighbor, but defend them and speak well of them.
Why do we take from our neighbor in the first place? Whether it be possessions,
property, or reputation. Why do we take from our neighbor? We take from our
neighbor because we want something that we don't have or that we want more of. Thinking
about this, I reminded myself how I highly disliked taking economics classes in
high school and in college. It's a subject that just goes over my head, but the
reason we take from our neighbor appears to be a basic lesson in economics. We
take from our neighbor because we want something that we don't have. They have
the supply. We have the demand. But, our demand is usually coupled with the
value we perceive.
A few weeks ago, a certain
member of the congregation forwarded me an email with a few stories in it. The
first was a story of a man who bought a new refrigerator for his house. He had
no need for the one he was replacing, so he put it in his front yard and put a
sign on it that read, "Free to good home. You want it, you take it."
For three days the fridge sat there without anyone looking twice. He eventually
decided that people were too mistrustful of this deal. So, he changed the sign
to read, "Fridge for sale, $50." Within a day, someone stole it.
We take from our neighbor
because they have something that is valuable to us and we will do anything we
can do to get it with the least amount of cost. If I have my eyes on something,
my brain is automatically determining the value of that something in relation
to my life and it is also determining the cost of getting that something. If I
have to work too hard to get it or if I have to lose something else in order to
get it or if I won't have enough left over after I get it then I consider the
costs to be higher than the value of that object, so my next best goal would be
to start minimizing the cost. If I can get something of value and cut costs, I
will. The sinner in me will go beyond all boundaries to cut costs even if it
means cheating my neighbor. These two commandments work to catch us when we are
self-centered and self-focused. We take from our neighbor for our own gain, for
our own reputation, for our own good. On top of it, thinking about cost and
value, we end up placing little value on our neighbor and not realizing the cost
of our neighbor losing in our self-centeredness.
But there has to be
something deeper than that. What could possibly be worth so much that we have
to put down our neighbor in order to receive it? How can the value of something
surpass the cost of a neighbor's loss? It really all boils down to our instinct
for survival. Life can be a fight to the death battle for survival and our
instincts will do all we can to survive, even if it compromises our neighbor,
even if it cheats them or puts them down. We do our best and our worst to put a
grasp on things to make our lives better because we are naturally convinced in
their power to bring us life and joy. We are so convinced of this that we are
working to bury our neighbor for the sake of our gain. Take this example.
Imagine you are sitting in a wooden chair and your neighbor next to you is also
sitting in a wooden chair. You look down at the legs of your chairs and see
each chair has four legs. Those four legs seem to be doing a good job holding
you and your neighbor up, but maybe five legs could make a substantial
difference in the durability of the chair you are sitting on. So, to ensure
your survival, you saw off one of the legs on your neighbors chair so that you
can glue it onto the bottom of yours, giving your chair more durability at the
expense of your neighbor whose chair can no longer support them and eventually falls
over. You've taken something from them that they have for their own survival in
order to benefit you. Here's another example. Imagine trying to stay afloat in
a large lake or ocean. If you come across an object, a floating branch, a life
preserver, or even another person, our response will be to get leverage and to
try to pull ourselves up while at the same time pushing down on the other object
or person. In the case of a person, we are considering their worth no greater
than that of something to give you good position. We are saying we are worth
more than they are. What are those legs that you are sawing off your neighbor's
chair so that you can be more stable? Who are you pushing down on so that you
prevent yourself from sinking? Who are you exploiting? Who are you cheating?
You know. Jesus knows.
Jesus knows our weaknesses.
He knows we are seeking to survive. He came to give that survival to us but
we’re so accustomed to looking in the wrong directions for it. The truth is
that we have something out there that is of immeasurable value and it doesn't
cost anything to receive. We all have our neighbor’s chair leg and that leverage
in our minds and it seems powerless to stop those temptations to take that
which would promote our survival and compromise our neighbor at the same time.
But, we simply are doing what sin wants us to do. Sin focuses our attention on
ourselves and so these natural reactions are just years and years of the
evolution of sin. We think we need something that we don't really need or can
get in a more honest way. The life that we are trying to grasp for in sin is
only a temporary life. It may extend our life for a while longer but no matter
how long we've lived, there will be a day when our bodies die. Rather than
grasping onto something that we will eventually lose our grasp on one day, God
writes these commandments so that we might place our survival into his trusted
hands by doing what we can to protect our neighbor's property and possessions
and to speak well of them in all situations.
How can you protect what you
neighbor has? How can you speak well of them? Each one of them? We need to
become faithful witnesses of the Gospel, trusting in its power to save us and
those around us. We need to become faithful witnesses of the Gospel so that the
world might also know its power. We need to become faithful witnesses of the
Gospel so that our community might also know its power. We need to go against
that grain. There is a lot of stealing. There is a lot of false witnessing
going on in our world. But, we have the alternative. We carry the alternative
with us in our hearts in our hands and in our feet. We have that gift that was given
to us on the cross. It has been shared with us, we who have worked to preserve
our own lives, we who have compromised the neighbor for our gain. That gift has
been shared with us so that we would be able to shift that focus from us to
those who we would not normally think of. We have been called and sent to share
this with our neighbors so that they too would know that the best things in
life are not stolen, that the best things in life do not put your neighbor at
risk.
Jesus is that example for us.
He lived his human life not centered on himself but lived it out for the sake
of others. He even gave his life for the sake of others. He suffered so that we
might live. He died so that we might not die. He puts our focus on the eternal
where sin does not want us looking. Jesus puts our attention on that which
lasts not that which disappears. We are less than two weeks from Holy Week
where Jesus will demonstrate his love for the world by washing his disciples
feet, giving them the new commandment to love one another, where he will break
the bread and raise the cup as a new testament showing the sacrifice that he
will make, where he will willingly go to cross, be crowned in thorns and bleed
and die. In these actions, Jesus shows us that there is one thing that we
cannot steal, one thing we cannot take, because it has already been given to us
free of charge. There is one thing that has been given to us out of love and we
didn't have to pay anything for it, but Jesus did. Jesus lives out the life
that we should aim to live out. He lives for the neighbor, he lives to forgive
our sins when we live for ourselves, and with that forgiveness he equips us to
forgive the sins of others, to be renewed in trying again, to be free from how
we messed up yesterday and to be given the opportunity to live for today. Now take that life to others for the sake of
him who suffered greatly to give us this very opportunity. You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness. Rather, give and raise up because Jesus gave
and was raised up for you. To God be the glory, now and always. Amen.