Minutes of Meetings with God
and with Myself

<Click here for another "Minute">

Oh, No!!! Not Again ...

The phone rang. It was a church member. There was something in her voice that told me, even before she broke the news, that some thing bad had happened. Then, she told me about arriving at the church to find that it had been broken into, again. All sorts of conflicting thoughts and feelings welled within me as I told her I would get there as soon as possible. I felt so badly for both she and her husband. They were the volunteer custodians for the month and had simply gone to vacuum, dust, and clean up the church in preparation for Sunday worship. They had arrived to find that the building had been invaded.

What made the situation very strange was, the burglars hadn't trashed the place. There were just little things that weren't right. It took more than a few minutes for it to sink in that the church building had actually been robbed. Downstairs, in the men's bathroom, the curtain was on the floor (but the window was closed and that curtain had fallen before because a nail persisted in working itself loose). The back door to the kitchen was open, but maybe someone had just not managed to close it tightly and lock it. The building is almost 150 years old and some of the doors act like they're closed and locked when they're not; then, when no one is around, they seem to spring open on their own.

It wasn't until they started to clean the upstairs, the office and the Sunday School classrooms, that it sunk in as to what had happened. Clearly, we'd been burglarized. In the church office, there were drawers pulled out of file cabinets. There were papers all over the office floor. When the couple tried to use the church phone, it was dead. So, they went up the road to another church member's house to use the phone to call me and to call the sheriff.

After I arrived at the church, the couple and I walked through the building together. Whoever had invaded the church had gone through every room and opened every door and every drawer. The thieves were familiar with how country churches tend to operate, and knew the practice of some congregations of hiding the Sunday offering behind the altar. They had even moved the altar and had checked to see if we followed that practice (we don't). They didn't disturb either the Cross or the candle sticks on the altar. They had been careful not to destroy anything.

The office was the only room that was anywhere near being trashed. It was sort of like whoever had done this had lost patience, run out of time, or had been forced to hurry through that room; so, they just yanked drawers and doors, then dumped stuff on the floor.

The church's digital copy machine was taken. That was probably a good indication that whoever stole the things had a well connected "fence," some one who could sell large and specialized stolen items. Gone were the large screen color TV, the new VCR, the new video camera, all of which had been donated as memorial gifts to help the congregation start some new ministries to young families. Our new "Family Video Night" program, and using some new videos to help with Sunday School and with Children's Church, would have to be put on "hold" until the equipment could be replaced.

We also discovered that the thieves had taken "the penny jar" from the sanctuary. The penny jar was a 5 gallon water jug that was about 1/3rd full of mostly pennies that we were collecting to remind us that one day the church would erect a new building, and that every penny would help.

The deputy sheriff arrived and began his investigation. We showed him through what we had discovered and what was missing. I expressed my relief that whoever had invaded the church had not also vandalized it. About 2 years previously, some still unidentified people had broken into the building, had broken windows, had broken dishes, and had emptied chemical fire extinguishers in the building. They had done $14,000 worth of damage.

The deputy observed that the culprits seemed to be well organized and had a plan for the burglary. The telephone wires had been cut, which would have played havoc with most alarm systems. Later, when he was looking for fingerprints, he discovered evidence that the thieves had worn surgical gloves (a ribbed palm print from a glove was clear on the black painted surface of a file drawer). The size of some of the things stolen demanded more than one person to carry them (the copy machine and the TV, for example). Clearly, these were people who had done this sort of thing before, much more than once.

After the deputy and everyone else had left, I began to straighten up the office and I began what would be a series of pretty intense conversations with God. I tried to be thankful that things weren't worse.

Mostly I was just plain angry. Here we were, struggling to do the work of our Lord, and something so senseless as this break-in and robbery happened. The things that were stolen were the things that we were counting on to use to get some new ministries going. We had already used the new large screen TV and VCR to view a 6 session video series on discipleship. We hoped to do more.

On one hand, I gave God an earful about falling down on the job of "delivering us from evil." And, I wanted the people who did that to the church to face justice. I must have sounded like the disciples who were with Jesus who wanted to call down fire upon some inhospitable Samaritans. (Luke 9:54-56) As I prayed, I slowly came to a sense that, just as Jesus didn't want anyone calling fire down upon anyone so long ago, neither would he want fire called down upon anyone today.

One of the things that I told God was, I don't want to roll over and "play dead" about this break-in. I don't want to do nothing about it. I don't want to pretend that it didn't happen. And, I don't want to pretend that it doesn't make any difference that it happened. It did happen and it does make a difference, not only for me but for the entire congregation.

And, because whoever had burglarized the church had obviously done it before, it is very likely they will do it again, to other churches (and, perhaps to homes and families). It seemed and still does seem important to do something to stop the thieves before they victimize and hurt others or get hurt themselves. It seems important to act with concern for others.

The Apostle Paul exhorts Christians: Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On thecontrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.(Rom 12:17-21 NIV)

I have been praying that our Lord would show me the best way to overcome evil with good. So the thieves will know both justice and grace. So no one else will be robbed and victimized .