Thou Shalt Not ... Generally Speaking
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"Thou Shalt Not ... Generally Speaking" by Keith Hewitt
"Judgment and Mercy" by John Fitzgerald
Thou Shalt Not ... Generally Speaking
by Keith Hewitt
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
“Does the name Joseph Corbel mean anything to you?”
Max took a bite out of his sandwich and stopped, not chewing while he stared briefly into the distance; he shook his head. “Doesn’t ring a bell. Should it?”
“How about Joey ‘Cobra’ Corbel?”
“Is he that UFC fighter from New Jersey?”
“Uh...no. Joey ‘Cobra’ Corbel was a gangster -- a criminal -- from Chicago. He started out running numbers in the Eighties, worked his way up to loan sharking, then kind of stumbled into the cocaine trade when one of his loans went bad, and he had to, uh, take possession of the collateral.” It was Jerry’s turn to take a bite of his sandwich, then; he chewed it carefully, swallowed and added, “He died five years ago.”
“Natural causes?”
“More or less.”
Max looked across the cafeteria table, arched an eyebrow without saying anything.
“Someone stuck a .22 pistol in his ear and shot him six times. That’s fairly natural for a coke dealer, I think.”
Max shrugged. “I suppose so. So why the sudden interest in dead drug dealers? You watching one of those crime biography shows?”
“Not exactly. I sort of remembered the name, then I did a lot of research online, in the last couple days. At home,” he added, “Not here.”
“Not like I care what you do in your down time. Looking up dead criminals can’t be any bigger waste of time than watching cat videos. Or those stupid vine things. I just fix ’em when they go down, Jerry, I don’t judge what people do on them.”
“Good. Well, I mean...” He hesitated. “I wasn’t just doing it recreationally. I didn’t want there to be any trace of me looking for him at work.” He hesitated.
“Go on. We’ve got another thirteen minutes left before lunch is over.”
Jerry leaned forward, then, lowered his voice. “I was looking because I saw his name come up on a list of dormant accounts. He’s got an account with us, with just over seventy-eight thousand dollars in it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really. It’s been untouched since he died.”
“No next-of-kin? No junior leg busters?”
“Never married. He was what my mom used to call a ‘confirmed bachelor.’ Never married, no kids. No siblings. Parents dead. No known relatives.” He sounded like he was going down a checklist. “You know what that means.”
Max nodded. “It means the account’s going to be turned over to the state pretty soon.”
“Yep. After five years, it gets flagged and It becomes state property, available for use in the state budget. And doesn’t that seem like a colossal waste?”
Max took the last bite of his sandwich, washed it down with lukewarm coffee. “I’m not sure I get you. I thought you told me once you stopped paying attention to politics when Nixon resigned.”
“I did. And I’m not talking politics, I’m talking about a waste of perfectly good money. It’s not like he earned that money, and it’s not like the state’s going to do anything smart with it.”
“You’re being very cryptic, Jerry. And I think I prefer it that way, if you’re not saying what I think you’re not saying.”
“Well, I think I am. Look, I told you -- you know it’s been a bad couple years for us. First with Marge losing her job and moving back in with us -- and then Kelly getting sick. It’s been hard. And expensive. I’m barely holding on by my fingernails, Max. The mortgage is a month behind, the cars are at least two or three months behind. We’ve got medical bills, bills that Marge ran up before she moved back -- and I’m supposed to be retiring in a couple of years. I’ll probably need to, to take care of Kelly.”
“I know, Jerry,” Max said softly. “It’s been hard. And I’ve been praying for you.”
“Then maybe this is the answer to those prayers. It’s like seventy-eight thousand dollars just dropped into my lap.” He looked over his shoulder casually, scanned the nearest tables; nobody seemed to be paying attention. “I’ve got it figured out. I do a couple of small transactions, to take it off the inactive account list before I have to run the final report and submit it. Then I transfer almost all of it to an offshore account -- somewhere untraceable. In two years I retire, and it’ll be three years after that before the account shows up as inactive, again. We get our feet back under us, have a little money in the bank -- ”
“Someone else’s money.”
“That’s the beauty of it, Max -- it isn’t anyone else’s money. There is no one living who has a claim to that money.”
“Including you.”
Jerry dropped his half-eaten sandwich on his plate, wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I should’ve never said anything. I don’t know why I did.”
“Jerry, you know that that money belongs to the state, by law.”
“The state has about as much right to claim it, as I have to claim the Crown Jewels of Luxembourg. They wrote the law. They’re the ones stealing it, if that happens.”
“So you’re basing your moral argument on the idea that it’s OK to steal something, if you’re planning to do it before somebody else does?”
“Well -- no. Not exactly. But it’s dirty money, to start with. And I have good use for it -- it can keep me afloat, Max. I’m desperate, here. I’m juggling bills and logrolling and whistling show tunes all at the same time, and I don’t know how long I can keep it up. My wife and daughter are counting on me, and I’ve got no intention of letting them down by losing the house...or having our cars repossessed.”
“I see.” Max was silent for a long time, then, and Jerry just waited. Eventually, Max looked at his watch and said, “Lunch is almost over.”
“And that’s it? ’Lunch is almost over?’ You’ve got nothing else to say?”
“Did you want me to say I’m OK with it? I’m not. Did you want me to say I’m going to turn you in? I’m not. Did you want me to talk you out of it? You seem pretty sure of yourself, so I wasn’t planning on it.”
“Because you can’t.”
“Because you’re basing your moral decisions on conditions. Something that’s wrong under certain conditions is right under other conditions. You need money, so theft is acceptable. It’s not like you don’t understand the right thing, you’re just working around it. So I don’t have anything to add.” He started to pack garbage into his lunch bag.
“You’re being unreasonable!”
“Am I?” He finished packing garbage, rolled the bag up and squeezed it. “You love Kelly, right?”
“Of course.”
“But you’d cheat on her, right -- under the right conditions? I mean, you’re telling me that if it’s OK to steal, if you really, really need it, then it must be OK to -- “
“Those are two different things!” Jerry said loudly, realized a couple of heads turned momentarily, to glance at him. He lowered his voice again. “Those are two different things, and you know it!”
“Pot, kettle, Jerry. Tomato, tomahto.” He paused, looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then turned his eyes back to his friend. “Look, here’s the deal. Stealing, adultery, murder -- those are laws God gave us, and he doesn’t make them conditional. He doesn’t say, ‘thou shalt not, unless...’ They’re unconditional, unwavering -- just like his love for us. God doesn’t say, ‘I love you, unless...’ He doesn’t say, ‘I’ll love you, if...’ So it seems to me that it’s pretty clearcut what the right thing to do is. Anything else is just rationalization. But it’s not my job to judge you, so -- ” He trailed off, shrugged.
Jerry didn’t answer.
Couldn’t answer.
It was later that afternoon when the inactive account report surfaced again, in his work queue. He called up the report on his screen, looked through it line by line, found once again -- as he knew he would -- the final estate of one Joey ‘Cobra’ Corbel, inactive since a business meeting went fatally bad...
$78,134.95
While he was staring at the entry, his cell phone buzzed -- a look at the screen showed it was his mortgage company. With a roll of his eyes, he turned back to his monitor. A couple of swift keystrokes was all it took to save the list without any changes, and print it for submission to the state -- with Corbel’s account included.
“Darn it, Max,” he said under his breath, “now I know why I told you.”
Keith Hewitt is the author of two volumes of NaTiVity Dramas: Nontraditional Christmas Plays for All Ages (CSS). Keith's newest book NaTiVity Dramas: The Third Season will be published September 2012. He is a local pastor, co-youth leader, former Sunday school teacher, and occasional speaker at Christian events. He lives in southeastern Wisconsin with his wife, two children, and assorted dogs and cats.
* * *
Judgment and Mercy
by John Fitzgerald
Luke 13:1-9
Our World War II veterans are perishing at a rapid rate. Before it is too late, we need to hear the tales of surviving this brutal conflict which our heroic group has to share. A dear friend of mine tells of being in the battle at Iwo Jima while a teenager. Now, an elderly gent, this man reflects on witnessing four of his buddies taste death while only a stones throw away. The question remains all these years later -- why has his life been spared and close friends died in the same sphere of combat?
The same question can be asked in a number of different ways. A car accident happens with two people involved -- one life is taken the other walks away without a scratch. A deadly disease is spread at work -- most people are unharmed but one worker dies as a result. A tornado strikes with one house destroyed causing loss of life. Everyone else in the same neighborhood of this house has no damage done.
Jesus gives a response to these questions in our scripture reading. The Lord describes two tragic situations which form a background for his teaching. One incident had to do with Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate. People wanted to know if these innocent men died in a violent way because of their sinfulness. A second episode involved a tower which collapsed and killed eighteen victims. Christ explains what happened in each of these unfortunate occurrences and then comes to his message.
The heart of what our Lord has to say in this instance is found in verses 3 and 5 of our Bible lesson: "Unless you repent, you too will all perish." Calamity is viewed as a warning to confess sin and get right with Christ Jesus. We never know when accident, injury, or acts of nature will strike. We better have our heart in good relationship with Christ before it is too late. Death may stalk us and the opportunity to repent has come and gone.
This is a lesson about divine judgment. The wrath and decrees of a Living Lord are not something to trifle with. Scripture declares that every person will have a judgment day upon death. Unless we repent of our wickedness, the Lord may be forced to keep us out of His Kingdom. A Holy God cannot tolerate the stain of sin. Only as we are made clean by the blood of Jesus can we approach the place of pure light.
God's searching judgments cannot be denied or ignored. However, there is another quality of our Savior which is equally important. There is an element of mercy which comes from the Lord and is present each day of life. Jesus is merciful to us because we deserve punishment but instead are offered forgiveness.
Every one of us daily commits actions worthy of God's affliction. We are a rebellious, corrupt people. Yet the Lord displays mercy in spite of our hard hearts. This characteristic is demonstrated in the second story from our biblical passage.
Jesus tells his audience a parable about the fig tree. A man had this fig tree and it did not produce any fruit after three years of growth. The customary thing would be to cut this tree down due to its lack of bearing good fruit. But the tenant farmer pleaded for one more year to produce figs before its owner uprooted this tree.
The Lord gives us second opportunities, or one year more year in this case of a fig tree. We have done nothing to earn another shot at leading a life pleasing to God. It is only the mercy and grace of Jesus which allows for us to escape a horrible ending.
Today we are in the middle of a Lenten season. Lent provides the chance to meditate upon both judgment and mercy which comes from Christ. May we take a hold of gentle mercy and repent from the evil which separates us from God.
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 28, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Thou Shalt Not ... Generally Speaking" by Keith Hewitt
"Judgment and Mercy" by John Fitzgerald
Thou Shalt Not ... Generally Speaking
by Keith Hewitt
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
“Does the name Joseph Corbel mean anything to you?”
Max took a bite out of his sandwich and stopped, not chewing while he stared briefly into the distance; he shook his head. “Doesn’t ring a bell. Should it?”
“How about Joey ‘Cobra’ Corbel?”
“Is he that UFC fighter from New Jersey?”
“Uh...no. Joey ‘Cobra’ Corbel was a gangster -- a criminal -- from Chicago. He started out running numbers in the Eighties, worked his way up to loan sharking, then kind of stumbled into the cocaine trade when one of his loans went bad, and he had to, uh, take possession of the collateral.” It was Jerry’s turn to take a bite of his sandwich, then; he chewed it carefully, swallowed and added, “He died five years ago.”
“Natural causes?”
“More or less.”
Max looked across the cafeteria table, arched an eyebrow without saying anything.
“Someone stuck a .22 pistol in his ear and shot him six times. That’s fairly natural for a coke dealer, I think.”
Max shrugged. “I suppose so. So why the sudden interest in dead drug dealers? You watching one of those crime biography shows?”
“Not exactly. I sort of remembered the name, then I did a lot of research online, in the last couple days. At home,” he added, “Not here.”
“Not like I care what you do in your down time. Looking up dead criminals can’t be any bigger waste of time than watching cat videos. Or those stupid vine things. I just fix ’em when they go down, Jerry, I don’t judge what people do on them.”
“Good. Well, I mean...” He hesitated. “I wasn’t just doing it recreationally. I didn’t want there to be any trace of me looking for him at work.” He hesitated.
“Go on. We’ve got another thirteen minutes left before lunch is over.”
Jerry leaned forward, then, lowered his voice. “I was looking because I saw his name come up on a list of dormant accounts. He’s got an account with us, with just over seventy-eight thousand dollars in it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really. It’s been untouched since he died.”
“No next-of-kin? No junior leg busters?”
“Never married. He was what my mom used to call a ‘confirmed bachelor.’ Never married, no kids. No siblings. Parents dead. No known relatives.” He sounded like he was going down a checklist. “You know what that means.”
Max nodded. “It means the account’s going to be turned over to the state pretty soon.”
“Yep. After five years, it gets flagged and It becomes state property, available for use in the state budget. And doesn’t that seem like a colossal waste?”
Max took the last bite of his sandwich, washed it down with lukewarm coffee. “I’m not sure I get you. I thought you told me once you stopped paying attention to politics when Nixon resigned.”
“I did. And I’m not talking politics, I’m talking about a waste of perfectly good money. It’s not like he earned that money, and it’s not like the state’s going to do anything smart with it.”
“You’re being very cryptic, Jerry. And I think I prefer it that way, if you’re not saying what I think you’re not saying.”
“Well, I think I am. Look, I told you -- you know it’s been a bad couple years for us. First with Marge losing her job and moving back in with us -- and then Kelly getting sick. It’s been hard. And expensive. I’m barely holding on by my fingernails, Max. The mortgage is a month behind, the cars are at least two or three months behind. We’ve got medical bills, bills that Marge ran up before she moved back -- and I’m supposed to be retiring in a couple of years. I’ll probably need to, to take care of Kelly.”
“I know, Jerry,” Max said softly. “It’s been hard. And I’ve been praying for you.”
“Then maybe this is the answer to those prayers. It’s like seventy-eight thousand dollars just dropped into my lap.” He looked over his shoulder casually, scanned the nearest tables; nobody seemed to be paying attention. “I’ve got it figured out. I do a couple of small transactions, to take it off the inactive account list before I have to run the final report and submit it. Then I transfer almost all of it to an offshore account -- somewhere untraceable. In two years I retire, and it’ll be three years after that before the account shows up as inactive, again. We get our feet back under us, have a little money in the bank -- ”
“Someone else’s money.”
“That’s the beauty of it, Max -- it isn’t anyone else’s money. There is no one living who has a claim to that money.”
“Including you.”
Jerry dropped his half-eaten sandwich on his plate, wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I should’ve never said anything. I don’t know why I did.”
“Jerry, you know that that money belongs to the state, by law.”
“The state has about as much right to claim it, as I have to claim the Crown Jewels of Luxembourg. They wrote the law. They’re the ones stealing it, if that happens.”
“So you’re basing your moral argument on the idea that it’s OK to steal something, if you’re planning to do it before somebody else does?”
“Well -- no. Not exactly. But it’s dirty money, to start with. And I have good use for it -- it can keep me afloat, Max. I’m desperate, here. I’m juggling bills and logrolling and whistling show tunes all at the same time, and I don’t know how long I can keep it up. My wife and daughter are counting on me, and I’ve got no intention of letting them down by losing the house...or having our cars repossessed.”
“I see.” Max was silent for a long time, then, and Jerry just waited. Eventually, Max looked at his watch and said, “Lunch is almost over.”
“And that’s it? ’Lunch is almost over?’ You’ve got nothing else to say?”
“Did you want me to say I’m OK with it? I’m not. Did you want me to say I’m going to turn you in? I’m not. Did you want me to talk you out of it? You seem pretty sure of yourself, so I wasn’t planning on it.”
“Because you can’t.”
“Because you’re basing your moral decisions on conditions. Something that’s wrong under certain conditions is right under other conditions. You need money, so theft is acceptable. It’s not like you don’t understand the right thing, you’re just working around it. So I don’t have anything to add.” He started to pack garbage into his lunch bag.
“You’re being unreasonable!”
“Am I?” He finished packing garbage, rolled the bag up and squeezed it. “You love Kelly, right?”
“Of course.”
“But you’d cheat on her, right -- under the right conditions? I mean, you’re telling me that if it’s OK to steal, if you really, really need it, then it must be OK to -- “
“Those are two different things!” Jerry said loudly, realized a couple of heads turned momentarily, to glance at him. He lowered his voice again. “Those are two different things, and you know it!”
“Pot, kettle, Jerry. Tomato, tomahto.” He paused, looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then turned his eyes back to his friend. “Look, here’s the deal. Stealing, adultery, murder -- those are laws God gave us, and he doesn’t make them conditional. He doesn’t say, ‘thou shalt not, unless...’ They’re unconditional, unwavering -- just like his love for us. God doesn’t say, ‘I love you, unless...’ He doesn’t say, ‘I’ll love you, if...’ So it seems to me that it’s pretty clearcut what the right thing to do is. Anything else is just rationalization. But it’s not my job to judge you, so -- ” He trailed off, shrugged.
Jerry didn’t answer.
Couldn’t answer.
It was later that afternoon when the inactive account report surfaced again, in his work queue. He called up the report on his screen, looked through it line by line, found once again -- as he knew he would -- the final estate of one Joey ‘Cobra’ Corbel, inactive since a business meeting went fatally bad...
$78,134.95
While he was staring at the entry, his cell phone buzzed -- a look at the screen showed it was his mortgage company. With a roll of his eyes, he turned back to his monitor. A couple of swift keystrokes was all it took to save the list without any changes, and print it for submission to the state -- with Corbel’s account included.
“Darn it, Max,” he said under his breath, “now I know why I told you.”
Keith Hewitt is the author of two volumes of NaTiVity Dramas: Nontraditional Christmas Plays for All Ages (CSS). Keith's newest book NaTiVity Dramas: The Third Season will be published September 2012. He is a local pastor, co-youth leader, former Sunday school teacher, and occasional speaker at Christian events. He lives in southeastern Wisconsin with his wife, two children, and assorted dogs and cats.
* * *
Judgment and Mercy
by John Fitzgerald
Luke 13:1-9
Our World War II veterans are perishing at a rapid rate. Before it is too late, we need to hear the tales of surviving this brutal conflict which our heroic group has to share. A dear friend of mine tells of being in the battle at Iwo Jima while a teenager. Now, an elderly gent, this man reflects on witnessing four of his buddies taste death while only a stones throw away. The question remains all these years later -- why has his life been spared and close friends died in the same sphere of combat?
The same question can be asked in a number of different ways. A car accident happens with two people involved -- one life is taken the other walks away without a scratch. A deadly disease is spread at work -- most people are unharmed but one worker dies as a result. A tornado strikes with one house destroyed causing loss of life. Everyone else in the same neighborhood of this house has no damage done.
Jesus gives a response to these questions in our scripture reading. The Lord describes two tragic situations which form a background for his teaching. One incident had to do with Galileans who were slaughtered by Pilate. People wanted to know if these innocent men died in a violent way because of their sinfulness. A second episode involved a tower which collapsed and killed eighteen victims. Christ explains what happened in each of these unfortunate occurrences and then comes to his message.
The heart of what our Lord has to say in this instance is found in verses 3 and 5 of our Bible lesson: "Unless you repent, you too will all perish." Calamity is viewed as a warning to confess sin and get right with Christ Jesus. We never know when accident, injury, or acts of nature will strike. We better have our heart in good relationship with Christ before it is too late. Death may stalk us and the opportunity to repent has come and gone.
This is a lesson about divine judgment. The wrath and decrees of a Living Lord are not something to trifle with. Scripture declares that every person will have a judgment day upon death. Unless we repent of our wickedness, the Lord may be forced to keep us out of His Kingdom. A Holy God cannot tolerate the stain of sin. Only as we are made clean by the blood of Jesus can we approach the place of pure light.
God's searching judgments cannot be denied or ignored. However, there is another quality of our Savior which is equally important. There is an element of mercy which comes from the Lord and is present each day of life. Jesus is merciful to us because we deserve punishment but instead are offered forgiveness.
Every one of us daily commits actions worthy of God's affliction. We are a rebellious, corrupt people. Yet the Lord displays mercy in spite of our hard hearts. This characteristic is demonstrated in the second story from our biblical passage.
Jesus tells his audience a parable about the fig tree. A man had this fig tree and it did not produce any fruit after three years of growth. The customary thing would be to cut this tree down due to its lack of bearing good fruit. But the tenant farmer pleaded for one more year to produce figs before its owner uprooted this tree.
The Lord gives us second opportunities, or one year more year in this case of a fig tree. We have done nothing to earn another shot at leading a life pleasing to God. It is only the mercy and grace of Jesus which allows for us to escape a horrible ending.
Today we are in the middle of a Lenten season. Lent provides the chance to meditate upon both judgment and mercy which comes from Christ. May we take a hold of gentle mercy and repent from the evil which separates us from God.
John Fitzgerald lives in Leesburg, Ohio, with his wife Carolyn and has served as pastor at the Leesburg Friends Meeting for the past 27 years. Cornfield Cathedral (Fairway Press, 2013) is the second book authored by Pastor Fitzgerald. John has earned a Master's of Ministry Degree from the Earlham School of Religion in Richmond, Indiana.
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 28, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2015 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
