(A) Dont rob God. See Eccles5v1to7.

The Teacher warns us to be careful when we come into God's presence. We should remember our limitations and be careful what we say. God is in heaven and you are on earth so let your words be few. We should not make promises to God that we do not keep. This is a kind of robbery. We keep from God what is his due.

Every year a Christmas Fayre was organised at Debenham High School. Each form in the school was supposed to run an activity or stall that made money for both the school and charity. My form was reluctant to organise anything. So I said that I would hold my putting contest - again! I hoped that a few from my form would turn up on the night to give me a hand. No one turned up. Such was the desire of the boys and girls in my form to please their old teacher that not one volunteered to help. Now I may not have much charisma but I know how to make children feel guilty. Next day I really went to town and told my form how disappointed I was that they had such little regard for their teacher that he was left to do everything himself. I asked them how they would have felt in my situation. Every other teacher in the school had someone to assist them.... One boy obviously felt very bad by the time I had finished. He said, "Mr Reed I never realised you felt so strongly about it. I am very sorry. I promise to help you next year."

Next year came - and again I received no support. I had not forgotten Jonathan's promise. I said to him, "Well, Jonathan twelve months ago you solemnly promised to help me at the Christmas Fayre." He began to bluster, "But Mr Reed I...." I didn't want to hear. He had robbed me of the assistance he had promised. He had made a promise he had no intention of keeping.

Jonathan made the promise to make himself feel better. It is very easy to make God promises to feel better about letting him down.

I know a young man who is always offering help. When taken up on his offer he is inclined to get resentful and to feel imposed upon. Sometimes we make promises to acquire a good reputation. We want others to admire us and feel good about us. Talk is a cheap way to gain a reputation for helpfulness. Men and women through the ages have made promises to God to gain credit with him. It was relatively easy for the children of Israel to promise God that they would keep his laws and ordinances as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. It was a lot harder for them to abide by their word.

It is no good protesting that our vow was a mistake. I am afraid plenty do this where the marriage vow is concerned. The husband or wife breaks the vow they made not only to one another but before God. The unfaithful husband robs both his wife and God his maker.

(B) Don't rob others. See Eccles5v8to9.

If anything this short section of Ecclesiastes is more relevant today than it was at the time it was written. It deals with the oppressiveness of bureaucracy. In the last 50 years there has been a huge increase in the numbers of bureaucrats. All of them have to be paid for out of taxation. They exist in large part to administer the burgeoning number of rules and regulations pouring forth from the various government institutions. Many of these rules put burdens upon businesses, charities and the providers of public services. The politicians and bureaucrats, like the Pharisees of old, put these burdens on men's backs and do not lift a finger to help.

I suppose for something like 25 years a man has supplied me with a few eggs. He comes to the door every week and sells me 9 eggs for about a £1. Next year he will stop egg production because a new regulation comes into operation that would compel him to stamp each individual egg with the date it was laid. This would necessitate him spending £7000 on a specialist piece of equipment. Why should a small-scale egg producer be forced out of business by such an unnecessary regulation?

The same is happening with many private residential homes for the elderly. The proprietors of the homes are being told that they must provide each bedroom with an en suite shower and toilet. Loving kindness and tenderness are much more important to the old than an en suite shower and toilet. They are not being given the choice. If the proprietor cannot afford the changes being imposed then the home closes and the old folk forced to go somewhere else whether they like it or not.

Examples could be provided without number. Red tape bedevils so many essential activities - farming, teaching, policing and health care. It is threatening to damage churches. We shall soon be expected to make provision for the handicapped whether or not we have any handicapped folk attending our churches. We have had several deaf people in our congregation and so we installed amplification and a loop system to help them enjoy the services. However, why should we have to provide a toilet that is accessible to wheelchairs if none of our congregation is in a wheelchair? Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. This is not a maxim understood by bureaucrats.

A plethora of rules and regulations rob men and women of: time, effectiveness and peace of mind. Anyone who makes unnecessary problems does the same thing.

Children who didn't do their homework or meet their deadlines wasted hours and hours of my time. I had to chase them up. This often meant supervising the idle in detention during the lunch break. If the student was especially recalcitrant and didn't turn up then I would have to go and look for him or her. I had absolutely no sympathy with the habitual shirkers who consistently robbed me of my time, my effectiveness and my peace of mind.

It is a disgrace that small businesses are kept waiting for payment. Christians should always pay promptly what they owe. The Old Testament teaches that a labourer should be paid the same day for his labour - so that he can eat. Christians should never rob a man of his effectiveness and peace of mind by postponing payment for services rendered or goods provided.

Christians should be careful not to waste the time of their leaders by burdening them with unnecessary problems. I know a pastor whose phone is always ringing. One man even phoned him up to ask what colour suit he should wear to church. Some people just love attention. They pester their pastors or elders just to get the attention they crave. They rob their pastors of time and effectiveness. They rob their fellow church members of the time the pastor should be spending helping them with real difficulties.

We should all be willing and glad to help people in real difficulty. I am actually sorry that so few people phone me up to ask for help - now there's an irony! I used to have an old neighbour who would some times call in because he had run out of bread or milk. On another occasion he locked himself out of his house. I was pleased to assist him. He came to me in genuine need. I have little time for Christians who are forever stirring things up in the church to remain in the limelight.

(C) Dont rob yourself.

It is possible to rob ourselves by loving money too much. First of all wealth can rob a man of happiness. See Eccles5v10to12. There are four ways wealth can make a person unhappy:

(a) A man who loves money never has money enough. I can understand very poor people doing the lottery but what amazes me is that well to do people also buy tickets. A rich man who loves money is never content because there is always someone richer than him. A fabulously well paid footballer, on £70,000 a week, might be as discontented and miserable as someone on £7000 a year if they discover that another member of the team is on £75,000 a week.

(b) Wealth attracts false friends. Sadly as goods increase so do those who consume them. The prodigal son discovered this. After he had squandered his wealth in wild living he had no friends left. If you are very rich it is difficult to tell whom your real friends are. I know a very prosperous farmer who has made millions of pounds who likes to consort with his old cricketing buddies - men who knew him and were friendly with him before he got rich. Another farmer of my acquaintance told me that sales men, business men and reps who were very friendly to him during his working life had no time for him in retirement. A poor man does know whom his friends are.

(c) Possessions do not benefit the owner to any substantial degree - except to feast his eyes on them. There are better things to feast the senses on - all of which are free. Nothing that man has made can compare with the dew on a wild rose early on a June morning. No music is sweeter than the clear, liquid, notes of the blackbird on a fine, still, summer's evening. No sight is richer than a tangled hedge bedecked in autumnal purple and scarlet. No object can raise my spirits like a happy baby, the rare smile of a pretty woman or a word of heartfelt thanks.

(d) Wealth can make us anxious - but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.In the days of the Teacher there were no banks. It was quite possible to be robbed of everything: to lose all your silver and gold. During the great fire of London Samuel Pepys escaped to the countryside where he had to bury his treasure. There was no secure place to leave it. There was no police force and precious little law and order.

Rich men are not immune from anxiety today. Many investments are not quite safe! It was not so long ago that some of the Lloyds underwriters made huge losses. Even modest investors like me have seen the value of their investments drop in recent years as the Stock Market has collapsed.

The poor man has nothing to lose and nothing to go wrong! He has altogether a simpler life and so long as he has enough to eat and clothes to wear can be happier in poverty than the rich man in wealth.

Secondly a man can be robbed of prudence. See Eccles5v13to17. He can be robbed of:

(a) Health through over indulgence - wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner. There are no obese people in rural Africa or India. It is only in the rich west that over weight is a problem. It is not unknown for young people who get rich quick to ruin their lives with drink and drugs.

(b) Due caution through complacency. It is possible for success and wealth to engender the belief that nothing can go wrong; the good times are here for ever.

(c) A healthy anticipation of death. It is significant what the Teacher says about the fortunate man whom God gives wealth, enjoyment and happiness in work: He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. This isn't necessarily a good thing. It is important to reflect on the end of life when, as a man comes naked from his mother's womb, so he departs. We need to make preparations for that day of departure and not be so preoccupied with enjoying ourselves in the here and now that we never give it a thought. Jesus said, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mt16v26.AV.

(D)Conclusion. See Eccles5v18to20.

The conclusion of the Teacher to his thoughts on wealth and possessions is very different to that of Jesus. Most worldly people would fully agree with the teacher that the best thing to do is to enjoy material prosperity and to be happy at work.

Jesus says, and I will quote on this occasion from the AV: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal,
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal;
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Mt6v19to21.

I love that passage. It sums up just how different the Christian should be from the worldly man or woman. Jesus himself laid up treasure in heaven. He was stripped of everything in life. But he endured the cross, despising its shame, for the joy set before him. There is nothing cynical about Jesus. He did not cry out upon the cross, "Vanity of vanities all is vanity," but, "It is finished."