Protect Property
The Big Idea: We honor God when we get things fairly.
Learning Goal: To remember that all possessions are gifts from God to be shared and protected.
The World's Lessons
It's a cruel, cruel world that says, "If you don't look out for yourself, no one will." "Cover your back, because someone else is ready to take advantage of your weaknesses." When the world around us teaches these lessons and we start worrying about our future, it's no surprise that we take what we can get, regardless of who might already own it. It starts out with small sins, like cutting corners in our school work. It can grow into more active sins, like cheating when no one's looking or taking advantage of another person's slowness or weakness. But the problem can grow much bigger—into outright theft and robbery.
Justice
Luther says that no matter how big or small the sin, the Seventh Commandment calls all of it stealing. Whenever we try to get what belongs to someone else through tricking them, it's stealing. While the things God promises to give us includes stuff like relationships, government, and good weather, God also wants to make sure we have things around us that also protect life: food and clothing, a home, some money in our pocket and shoes on our feet. To live safely in this world, we need to be able to trust that what is ours will remain ours. Thus, the Seventh Commandment condemns those who would take our things by outright theft, and us when we do the same to others.
This Commandment shows God's concern for how we get the stuff we call our own. If people are going to get along, they have to be able to trust one another in the buying and selling, goods and services.
In this way, the Seventh Commandment gets at the slippery way people tend to conduct business in the world. Overcharging a customer, cutting corners in a job, and downloading copyrighted songs on the Internet don't seem like stealing on the surface, but they all deny your neighbor a fair return on what they've given you. God calls it stealing and says, "No."
When we cheat on school assignments, when a teacher unknowingly awards a grade for a test we've cheated on or an essay we've copied, we haven't given the fair and honest amount of effort that the grade deserved. We've received a grade unjustly, and that kind of stealing comes under the Seventh Commandment too.
Even More
If avoiding stealing were all it took to keep the Seventh Commandment, most folks would be in pretty good shape. But the Commandment requires even more of us. Jesus himself said we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We're called to care about what happens to the people who share the world with us and whether they have honest, dependable ways to get what they need for life.
Thus, we're called to watch out for how others are treated in the give and take of daily life. We need to make sure their possessions are protected. We need to make sure our neighbors (both across the street and across the planet) have a means of making a living. We especially need to keep an eye out for the most defenseless in our economy: the poor.
We surely ought to ask our leaders, representatives, and rulers to bring justice and fairness to how God's daily bread is distributed in the world.
Faithfulness
It all comes back to the First Commandment: If we fear, love, and trust God, we will know God provides everything needed for this life. God's love is so rich that God really does make sure we have enough. When you know that's so, you don't have to worry about who wants to take advantage of you. You don't have to scrape and squirrel away against the possibility that others will take your stuff. You'll want to do your best work in whatever job you're involved. And you'll want to begin sharing God's good gifts of work and possessions with others who need it.
Teen Connection
We live in a "throw away" society. When something breaks, we throw it away rather than fix or recycle it. God gives us what we need, and it is our responsibility to care for it. This means ecology and economy. Landfills are piled high with stuff and restaurants throw away tons of uneaten food, all the while much of the world is poorly clothed and hungry.
There are people in need everywhere—perhaps even in our church.
How can we contribute to a better life for them?
What's your definition of wants and needs?
What does this mean? “When one person tries to get more for less, someone else gets less for more”
Opening Prayer
ALL:
Almighty God, we call to mind before you all those whom it would be easy to forget:
the homeless,
the poor,
the hungry,
all those who have been taken advantage of by others, or even by ourselves.
Help us to be good neighbors.
Help us heal all those who are broken in body or spirit, and turn their sorrow and struggle into joy.
All this we ask in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen
My Faith Story
Share about a time you came face to face with poverty.
Were you on vacation, on a mission trip, or going about your day-to-day business?
Were you out of the country, in an economically depressed region of our own country, or down the street?
How did you feel before, during, and after?
How are you connected to this people in need?
How are we all responsible for everyone in poverty?
Cartoon Connection: Can You Define "Share"?
You shall not steal. The Seventh Commandment is about more than stealing. It is about being fair and honest in all things. Sharing isn't necessarily natural. The cartoon shows how difficult it can be for people to share.
Tell a story about a time it was difficult for you to share.
What made it difficult?
When is it easy to share?
When is it almost impossible?
Open the Catechism
Babies are amazing.
Have you ever watched an infant "discover" her or his fingers or feet.
Have you ever thought about what it means to exist, to be here rather than there, to be themselves and not someone else?
A simpler question to consider is, What's mine and what's yours? A preschooler might insist that everything is MINE! But yours is not mine—which ensures that mine is not yours, either. Civilized people use fairness, honesty, and laws to determine what is what and whose is whose—among toes and other possessions.
Open the Catechism to the Seventh Commandment, and read it and its meaning. Like the Fifth Commandment, which forbids harming as well as murder, the Seventh Commandment's says that stealing includes cheating.
Tell about a time you or your families were cheated.
Did it feel like something had been stolen from them?
Repeat Exodus 20:15 several times. This shortest of all the Commandments is about things, but is based on respect for people.
Which of your neighbors—around the block and around the world—receive decent products and quality services and which don't.
Take a paper grocery bags and draw a big circle on it with markers. Color your circles to look like the world to remind you that God created our world with more than enough for all. Now print "We shall not steal" around the circle and take the bags home. Your family can use the bags to collect food and clothing donations.
Bible Connection: Enough for All
Turn to Luke 16:19-31. Read aloud. In this story the rich man lived well and with little respect for others.
What were the conditions in which Lazarus lived.
What are the consequences of the rich man's style of living?
Did he suffer after death because he was rich?
Who are the people today who are helping us hear and see the problems caused by stealing more than we need?
What words would you use to describe Jesus?
Turn to John 2:13-22, and read.
Who knew Jesus could get so angry?
What is he angry about?
Is it just the misuse of the temple as a marketplace?
They were stealing a holy and sacred space. The temple had been turned into a business. In addition, the people who arrived were required to buy animals at unreasonable prices for the sacrifice they would make.
How is this stealing?
Martin Luther saw a similar situation in the church in his day, when people had to purchase "indulgences" to ensure salvation. Luther was extremely upset and called for reform in the church, leading to the Reformation and the beginning of new churches, including the one that came to be known as Lutheran.
What unintentional acts of stealing might need reform today?
More Bible Connections
Turn to Luke 19:1-10, and read aloud.
What does Zacchaeus do for a living?
Why is the crowd upset that Jesus would choose to hang out with Zacchaeus?
Why do they call him a sinner?
The tax collectors in Jesus' day were corrupt and seen as supporters of the Romans. They did the work of the Romans and kept some of the money collected for themselves.)
How is Zacchaeus affected by his encounter with Jesus?
Is it unusual for Jesus to make this choice? (Look at Matthew 9:9-13.)
This is good news for us, because there is grace even for cheaters!
Open to Proverbs 3:27-30, and read aloud.
What do these proverbs admonish?
Are these merely more commandments—just another list of things we have to do—or do you think these have been born out of experience?
What is the wisdom in these sayings?
What would the world look like if we heeded them?
DVD: Tempting Times
Learning in Motion: The Stealing Spectrum
One side of the room is "Stealing" and the other side of the room is "Not Stealing." Walk to the place that shows the severity of the action. T
It is stealing when:
You walk away with extra change when the clerk gives you too much.
You find a wallet with no name and don't attempt to find the owner.
You return a shirt you bought after you wore it.
You take more food than you can eat at lunch.
You agree to work four hours. The work takes three hours and the person who hired you pays you for four hours.
You can fix your bike so it works for a short time, but then the problem shows up again. So you fix it and sell it to someone else.
You accidentally see the answer sheet to a test and don't let the teacher know.
Your friend moves and you realize you didn't give borrowed CDs back. You decide it's too much hassle to mail them.
You never return a library book.
You download a paper off the Internet and turn it in as one you wrote.
You buy clothing someone got paid pennies to make.
Closing Questions
In John 12:8, Jesus says, "You will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."
Does a statement like that get us "off the hook"?
If we're always going to have the poor with us, what's the point of trying to wipe out poverty?
What kinds of real things can we do to help improve and protect the property and condition of our neighbor?
Is stealing okay as long as no one gets hurt?
Could gambling be considered stealing?
What does it mean to be very poor?
Closing Ritual
ALL:
God of love, fill us with love.
Help us be satisfied with what we have.
Give us eyes to see what we can share.
Show us how we can make the world a safer place for all our neighbors.
In your name we pray. Amen
Closing Blessing
L: May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
who lived as a humble carpenter,
who healed the sick and served the poor,
who ate with tax collectors and sinners,
liberate you from the powers of greed and strengthen you to protect your neighbor and their possessions.
C: Amen
Big Fun Idea
Call a food shelf in your community. Arrange for a tour to learn how this distribution system works. Who donates? What happens to the things you donate? How are they distributed? Are there rules about who gets food and how often? Why are rules necessary? Be sure to ask what their greatest need is right now, and try to fill that need.
Big Serving Idea
Learn about work projects, such as Habitat for Humanity, in your community. If youth are old enough, arrange for a volunteer day. If age restrictions prohibit direct service, find other ways the organization could use your help. Can you collect supplies, make phone calls, or bring refreshments to the workers?