Ten Words That Matter: A Biblical Business Curriculum
Dr. Tom Pace
July 30, 2017
Exodus 20:1-2, 15; Matthew 5:38-42
We’re continuing our series on the Ten Commandments and I want you to remember that the context of the Ten Commandments is that they were God’s communication to the people of Israel about how they were going to be different than the world around them. In Exodus 19 the Lord says, “The whole earth is mine but you are a holy nation, a royal priesthood. You are going to be different.”
So the Ten Commandments are that, and the Sermon on the Mount was that for Jesus’ followers. So what we’re going to look at today is how they speak about how one deals with money. How both Jesus speaks about it, and how the Old Testament talks about it.
Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not steal. Exodus 20:1-2, 15 (NRSV)
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well;and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. Matthew 5:38-42 (NRSV)
Let’s pray together. O God, open us up. Open our eyes that we might see, and open our ears that we might hear, open our hearts that we might feel. Then O God, open our hands that we might serve. Amen.
About twenty years ago I decided to go back to school. I felt like I had cobwebs in my brain and wanted to go back to studying again, so I decided to go get a Doctor of Ministry degree. I wish I hadn’t done that. Not that it was a waste or anything, but if I was to do it again I’d go get an M.B.A. which would probably be more useful in organizational behavior, the work that I do in moving an organization forward.
So I don’t really know a whole lot about business stuff. But I have done some reading of Scripture and study of Scripture, and what I’ve discovered is that the Bible says a whole lot about how we do business.
Just under half of Jesus’ parables are about money or possessions. Fully one tenth of the verses in the four Gospels are about money or possessions – 288 in total. There are less than 500 verses about prayer in the whole Bible. There are less than 500 verses about faith in the whole Bible. There are more than 2000 verses about money or possessions in the whole Bible.
Why is that? I suggest to you it’s because God knows that how we deal with money is a window or handle even on our hearts. You know that term – follow the money? I think it makes sense in our spiritual lives as well. That how we deal with that, how generous we are, how we respond to it, is so much a tell in what’s going on with us spiritually. Why would it be in the top ten of God’s commands to the Children of Israel? Because it aims not just at God’s heart but at our hearts as well.
So I want for us to pretend today that we are building our business school curriculum right out of Holy Scripture. Imagine that curriculum and I would suggest to you four levels, and the first level is this - Bible Business 101, it’s honest gain. Don’t steal.
Now there are three theological underpinnings for this commandment as simple as it seems and I want to go through them very briefly. The first one is that all things belong to God. Everything – lands, money, everything belongs to God. And so when we steal and say, “This is mine – I’m going to take this!” the real target or victim of our theft is not the other person but it’s God. We’re taking something that is God’s and saying, “You know, I’m not interested in how you’ve chosen to distribute this. I’m going to take it for myself.”
We are to be managers – stewards – of what God has given us. So when we take from others the one we’re really taking from and saying, “Now I own this” is God.
The second theological underpinning is this notion that God is Yahweh Yireh, the God who provides. And when we steal we’re saying, “I don’t really trust that you’re really going to provide.”
Just four chapters earlier in Exodus 16 the Children of Israel are in the wilderness and God provides them manna, bread from heaven to feed them when they wonder if they’re going to perish in the desert. But God is very specific. He says, “I don’t want you hoarding this. You can’t hoard it. You can only take enough for yourself and you can only take enough for one day. In fact, if you try to take two days’ worth, or you try to take enough for somebody else, other than you and your family, then it will be foul and turn into worms.” Ooo – that’s pleasant! So this commandment is built on reminding us that God is the God who provides.
I think the third reason is maybe the most important. I want to go back to where we started earlier where we mentioned that the Ten Commandments were to say to the Children of Israel, “You’re going to be different than the world around you. You’re going to operate in a different way.”
When the commandment says, “you will not steal” what it’s saying is, “This community that’s built around me will be a community of trust. We’re going to trust one another. And we’re not going to do anything to erode or break that trust.” It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. It’s a buyer beware world out there. But not with us. Not the way we do business.
Not long ago a member of my family had a computer that was kind of fouled up. He reached out to a vendor online to see if that vendor would clean up his computer for him. Not long after, that just a few hours later, he turned on his computer and everything was gone. But there was a little window that said, “You have to pay $500 to get your stuff back.” Ransomware. If you want your data, $500. So he began to call him, “Hey, you want your stuff back?”
Now he wouldn’t pay and he figured out a way to get another computer expert to sort of rebuild things. But the sense of trust that is broken, the feeling now that “Can I trust anybody now?” Here I reach out to someone who says they want to help me and this is what they do?
How can we build a community that says, “We’re not going to do that – we’re going to have a community of trust.” So don’t steal.
Now you say to yourself, “Look, I don’t steal. Well, there is that one thing on my taxes a long time ago… but I don’t steal,” you’re saying to yourself. But as the Scripture and the law have been interpreted over the years, it began to be interpreted and understood as any dishonest or hurtful gain. That’s stealing. That’s the way the prophets and the rabbis began to interpret it.
I ran across this news article from 2013. It says, “A rare Chinese bowl bought for about $3 from a yard sale in the U.S. sold for $2.2 million dollars at an auction in New York. ‘The bowl, found in New York State, was bought for a few dollars from a tag sale near the consigner’s home in the summer of 2007,’ said Cecilia Lang of Sotheby’s. The Ding Bowl is an example of northern Song Dynasty pottery and described by Sotheby’s as ‘remarkable and exceptionally beautiful.’ The bowl was purchased by a London dealer for $2,225,000 after a prolonged battle between four bidders.”
I want you to pretend you know something about pottery and you’re walking through a yard sale and you see the Ding bowl for $3. What are you going to do? Are you going to say to the person selling, “You know that’s worth millions” or will you say, “I’ll give you $2.50 for it.”
When you’re selling your car and you know the transmission is about to go out but it’s hanging in there, do you say to the person coming to buy it, “You might want to subtract about $1200 from the cost of the car because the transmission is about to go out.” Is that what you say?
You see, we even use the term – “I got an incredible deal on that, it was a steal!” We don’t really mean it was a steal, but maybe we should. Because the premise is that we are to operate with one another so that everybody wins and that it is fair for everyone, and that it’s not more fair for me than it is for you. Yes, we have every prerogative, it’s appropriate that we make honest gain. Appropriate and fair gain. But that we are to think win-win, it is not just about us and it’s not buyer beware. That’s not how we’re going to deal with each other, God says.
Bible Business 101 – honest gain. Bible Business 201 – maximize industry. I really like this passage. It’s in your bulletin there in your Inside-Out handout and it’s the passage from Ephesians, a single verse. I want to read it to you, and just the first part right now. It says, “Thieves must give up stealing. Rather, let them labor and work honestly with their own hands.”
Now what this means first and foremost (I want you to note) is that thieves can be redeemed. It doesn’t say, “Thieves should have their hands cut off.” It doesn’t say, “Thieves can be thrown out of the community.” “Thieves should be exorcised from the church.” No, it says, “Thieves should give up stealing.” There can be a transformation. Maybe you’re one of those people who thinks, “Once a thief, always a thief?” That’s not the Gospel message.
But the second thing I want you to note is this sense of working hard is so built into the Christian ethic.
John Wesley, who is the founder of the people called Methodist, required the Methodist preachers to preach 50 standard sermons. It really began as 44 and then he expanded it to 50 sermons. It’s really a pretty good deal for preachers, you just preach these 50 and you start over again, and I guess you get two weeks off to go on vacation. Then you preach them again. Saves a lot of time. It’s not so good for all of you because they’re really long and boring. So you don’t want to read all the Wesley sermons.
But Sermon Number Fifty is called “The Use of Money.” You may have heard part of it and maybe you didn’t know where it came from. It comes on three premises: “Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” You’ve probably heard that. “Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”
But the fun part of the sermon comes when you dig into the details. He says, “First, gain all you can but don’t do it at the expense of life or health.” In other words, don’t do anything that’s going to impact your health or that of anyone else. Don’t work too hard, don’t spend too long at work, don’t abuse or exploit people, don’t do any of those things. Okay, I can handle that. Then he says. “Don’t gain anything that is at the expense of mind or spirit.”
Then he goes through a long list: “Don’t sell alcohol, don’t run a club, don’t play cards, don’t….” It goes on. And you’re thinking, “You’re kind of narrowing the field here, Mr. Wesley.
Then he says, “Don’t do anything at all that will hurt anybody else. Gain all you can but don’t do anything that will hurt anybody else.” I want to read to you one of the specifics: “We cannot consistently with brotherly love sell our goods below the market price. We cannot study to ruin our neighbor’s trade in order to advance our own. Much less can we entice away or receive any of his servants or workmen whom he has need of. None can gain by swallowing up his neighbor’s substance without gaining the damnation of hell.”
Okay. Don’t entice away anybody else’s employees, don’t undercut the market so you can gain market share, don’t…...man! Look, work hard but there are some clear ethics involved if you’re going to follow Bible Business 201 – maximize industry.
Here’s number three. Once you’ve graduated and passed 201 you can move onto Bible Business 301 and that’s giving and sharing. I want to finish the verse in Ephesians that I started. It’s printed there in your bulletin. “Thieves must give up stealing, rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands.” Then Paul puts a beautiful little twist in there. He says, “So as to have something to share with the needy.” That’s the purpose for the hard work. It’s so you have something to give away.
What would it be like if we measured our financial success not by how much we’ve made or by how much we’ve saved, how much we’ve amassed – our wealth. But instead we measured our financial success by how much we gave. That’s something we all could do as a percentage of our revenue. “That’s how successful I am – I gave X amount.”
Even in the Old Testament they make this parallel between holding back on your giving away, holding back on your generosity, and that is compared to robbing God. Maybe you’re familiar with the prophet Malachi who says, “Will anyone rob God?” He’s speaking on behalf of God here. “Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In your tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the warehouse.”
Look, we don’t approach this with a legalistic way, but we do understand a tithe. When I invite you to bring your tithes and offerings, what we’re saying is these are to be first fruits, not what’s left over. But they’re to be the first fruit. We used to say our checkbook but we don’t say that anymore because no one carries a checkbook. Our bank account is to be a reflection of our priorities. If you want to know what’s first in your life take a look at your bank account. So give, share.
Now when you graduate from giving and sharing, bringing in your offering, all of that, Bible Business 401 is radical generosity.
Jesus just gets under my skin sometimes. He says, “You’ve heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek turn the other also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give them your cloak as well.”
Seriously? St. Luke’s has more attorneys than Carter has pills. I’ll ask the attorneys – would that be advice to your client? You’re being sued for XYZ – but give them more that! You wouldn’t do that.
Someone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you? If you gave to everyone who begs from you between home and the church or home and work and if you started at every one of those corners, and gave to every one of those people with a sign – would you have any money left? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. Is that a reasonable request?
“Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.” We’ve got some bankers here – does that sound like good advice to the bank board? Don’t refuse anyone – doesn’t matter if they come and in ask for money, just lend it to them.
Now why would he use this picture? We’ve been talking about the Commandments. As Jesus dealt with them, he set a higher standard and a deeper standard. At the same time. He said, “Look, this isn’t just about the law. We’re going to set a higher standard.” And the standard that he set was often hyperbole. He says, “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it from you. Cut your hand off if it’s going to cause you to sin. You’ve heard it said, ‘don’t kill’ I tell you that you’re not even allowed to get angry.”
Come on! What is the point here? What he’s saying is, “You’re never going to reach the goal but that’s still the goal. You’re always going to be striving. You’re always going to be reaching for that.”
The issue is that we want to know how much is enough? How much am I supposed to give? What’s the right number? How much is enough? If I could have a dollar for every time someone asked me, am I supposed to tithe on my gross or my net? What about my capital gains? Do I have to include those in my tithing? If you’ve got that question, my answer is the same – I don’t know – what do you think? Because that’s the issue. You’re never going to give enough.
Generosity is listed as a fruit of the spirit. How much is enough kindness? Is 10% kindness the right amount? Maybe 25% kindness. So I’m going to be kind 25% of the time and then that’ll be enough… of course not. How much is enough love to share? Is it this much or this much? How much? How joyful are you to be? I know some people who are just too joyful. They need to take a chill pill. Well, the truth is that they’re still not joyful enough. Because God is always at work to help us become, to grow.
And here’s the amazing thing. This is what gets me up every morning to come to work or come up here on Sundays and share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the Good News. Because at the same time it’s never enough, it’s also always enough. You could choose not to give a single dime to anybody and it would not change God’s love for you one iota. God gave his Son Jesus Christ for you, no strings attached. None, no hoops to jump through. Just, “I give this to you. I love you that much that I’m giving you everything. No strings attached.” That’s enough.
But what happens is that once we understand that, once it’s like something breaks here and breaks here and that pours into our hearts and lives and minds, then something happens inside us. And we’re changed, we’re a new creation. Suddenly all we want to do is give more and more away. Give ourselves away more and more. Be kinder, more generous, more loving and more joyful. All of those things. That’s the high standard to always be reaching.
Now the other part is that it’s a deeper standard, too. What I mean is that this isn’t just what I do with my money, my possessions, this is about our life, our heart. How we treat other people. To be generous is not just about money, it’s about giving of ourselves.
Pastor Adam Hamilton pointed me to a book by a woman named Kathryn Watterson. It came out in 1995 and it tells the story of a rabbi and his wife. The rabbi’s name is Michael Weisser and his wife’s name was Julie Michael. They moved to Lincoln, Nebraska for him to be the associate rabbi and cantor at the synagogue in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was 1991 and they moved into their new house, and when they got there the phone rings, they answered and an unidentified voice said, “Jew-boy, you’re going to regret the day you moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.” Then they hung up.
So they go on about their business, and three days later a package arrives in the mail. They carefully open it and inside is a bunch of anti-Semitic literature with a note that says, “The KKK is watching you!” They take the package to the police there in Lincoln and the police say that they think they know who it is. The police say, “It’s probably a man named Larry Trapp and he’s the Grand Dragon of the KKK and he lives just a couple of blocks from your house. He’s probably not happy about your moving into the neighborhood.”
So on the way home, the rabbi and his wife have a conversation and they decide they’re going to take an alternate approach. They get Larry Trapp’s phone number and they start to call him. They say, “Mr. Trapp, we just want you to know we love you and we’re praying for you.”
Ah, I forgot to include one piece of the puzzle. The police explained that Mr. Trapp had diabetes, was almost blind, was in a wheelchair, and both of his legs had been amputated from the disease. All he did was sit in the dark and nurse his hate all day long.
So they continued to call him and leave messages of encouragement on his machine. One day Mr. Trapp answers the phone. The rabbi says to him, “Hey, do you need anyone to take you to the grocery store? I know it must be hard for you to get around.” There was silence on the other end and then Mr. Trapp said, “I’ve got that taken care of.” But then he said, “But thank you.” Just a little crack.
It wasn’t long before Mr. Trapp actually called the rabbi’s house again and this time he said, “I want to stop doing what I’m doing but I don’t know how.” That night the rabbi and his wife got in their car and they drove over to see Mr. Trapp. They sat with him for three hours and they listened and they shared and they talked. They established a friendship that began to grow. A couple of months later Mr. Trapp joined their synagogue and converted to Judaism. On December 31, 1991 he received a call from the doctor saying that his disease had progressed so far that he only had a few months to live and they were going to call in hospice care for him.
Michael and Julie, the rabbi and his wife said, “Mr. Trapp, you’re going to come live with us.” They moved him into their spare bedroom and she quit her job because he needed full time care and couldn’t afford it. Neither could they. And she stayed with him until he died.
See, radical generosity. I could tell you all sorts of stories about people who have made a fortune and gave it all away, and how radical generosity that is. Radical generosity is about who you are, what you do with your life. You have one single solitary life. What will you do with it? What the Scripture tells us is we give it away. We pour it out, we lay it down.
There are folks out here who have made a lot more money in business than I ever will, and they’re really good at it. But the Bible does give us some things that all of us can do whether you’re good with money or not.
One of my favorite verses has a word in it that feels like a business word. This is the King James Version: “What profiteth a man if he gains the whole world but loses his life?”
Gracious and loving God, we thank you that you are an incredibly generous God and that you provide for us. You call us to be stewards of this amazing creation. That you challenge us to live differently than the world around us, to be a community of trust, to be a community of generosity. We pray that the generosity that you show in your son Jesus Christ would thaw our hearts and that we would respond with a generous life. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.