The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.

Lent 3C1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Dear heavenly Father, strengthen us by your Holy Spirit so that we may endure the temptations placed before us and look to your faithfulness for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Many of you may have watched the Olympic Games before. You might remember a number of great victories, but do you also recall an epic and humiliating failure?

Cast your minds back to Sydney in 2000. Australian Jane Saville was leading the women’s 20km walk and was about to enter the main stadium. She was in front, just about to enter a stadium filled with cheering Australians. But just before she entered the stadium, she received her third and final flag for loss of contact with the road, and she was disqualified. She wasn’t even allowed to finish!

It must have been absolutely devastating to have done all the hard training, sacrificing so much to attain these goals (which may only come once in a lifetime), and the final result is embarrassment, shame, humiliation, and disqualification. What a waste of time and effort!

In the same way, St Paul tells us we could be in danger of being disqualified for heaven!

Even though we may have been baptised as an infant, gathered for worship almost every Sunday, received the Lord’s Supper at every opportunity, worked on so many committees, and cleaned the church so many times, Paul says we could miss out on entering heaven! How humiliating would that be?

And if we faithful ones, who have given up so much of our life to worship on Sundays and serving so hard during the week, are in danger of missing out, what does this say to those who only grace a church’s interior for funerals, baptisms, weddings, and the occasional Christmas and Easter?

Despite the fact we have such a gracious and loving God, are we in danger of being disqualified? If God is our Rock and refuge, could we unconsciously roll away from him through our actions and miss out?

Well, St Paul encourages us to learn from the example of the Israelites in the wilderness.

You see, they had been slaves in Egypt, but God heard their cries for mercy and freed them from slavery; defeating the Egyptian army and all their gods.

He provided a safe and dry passage through the waters of the Red Sea, and then while they wandered about in the wilderness, he graciously provided all the food and drink they needed to survive.

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During all this time he led them with a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, assuring them he was actually with them. Not only this, but he personally spoke to them out of the cloud at Mt Sinai, giving them direction and purpose.

God did all this because they were God’s chosen ones. They were God’s favourite people. They were ‘in’ with God, sweet with God, and God looked after them.

St Paul even goes so far to say this Rock, which mysteriously provided water when they needed it, was actually the pre-existing Christ travelling with them.

They had experienced God’s gracious salvation, love, and mercy in such a way no-one has ever experienced before or since!

But despite all this, most of these highly favoured people perished in the wilderness because God wasn’t pleased with them!

After all God had given them and done for them, God was angry with them and punished them, and so they were disqualified from entering the Promised Land.

But you might ask, isn’t God supposed to be always loving and forgiving and merciful and friendly and peaceful and gracious and patient and so on? Why did he punish and exclude them if he’s such a loving God?

Well, you could say that’s between God and the Israelites, but Paul interprets God’s punishment to them as a warning for us.

He warns us how God’s people have often disqualified themselves by their actions. God still wanted to love them, forgive them, provide for them, and be merciful to them, but some had clearly rejected him by their actions.

It was their actions which showed their hearts had rolled away from God. Their actions showed their lack of confidence in God’s gracious and undeserving promises which he gave them through his word. Their constant complaining and rebelling against him showed God they didn’t fear, love and trust him. Therefore God didn't disqualify them; they disqualified themselves!

So, are we willing to learn from God’s people in the past, or do we think we know better? Are we willing to put God to the test hoping he won’t test us in return? Are we willing to see how far we can push the boundaries of his grace hoping we won’t be disqualified?

I mean, think of it, do we ever test and question God’s love if bad things happen to us or to others around us? Do we question how a loving God allows so many floods, fires, and disasters? Do we ever ask God to do something for us before he gets our attention or trust? Do we consciously and knowingly sin against him and those he loves, hoping he'll keep on forgiving us?

If God’s own favoured people who were once sweet with him and had received so many blessings from God were disqualified, don’t you think we could be too?

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So, are we are in danger of being disqualified? Have we become complacent? Do we reckon our baptism, confirmation, Holy Communion, pious works, or singing enough Christian hymns or songs are going to have a magical protection over us? Do we figure if we just ‘go through the motion’s of being a Christian, then we’re all sweet with God?

Perhaps you find this passage very challenging. Perhaps you’re aware of your weaknesses and what sins continue to tempt and test you. As soon as you think you’ve gained control over yourself, you sin again. As soon as you sin again, you begin to despair of yourself and wonder if it is worth the trouble to try to resist temptation.

If our actions can disqualify us, then where’s our hope? What about the promises and faithfulness of God which are supposed to remain long after we’ve broken our own promises and become less-than-faithful?

Well, the good news is the promises of God and the faithfulness of God still remain! You see, that's the other thing we learn from the past - just how patient and loving God is to his own rebellious and cantankerous people! The problem isn’t with God’s faithfulness or even with his judgments and expectations. The problem is with us!

Despite his constant love, we’re in danger of turning away from him and going our own way which leads to our own disqualification.

Jesus’ and Paul’s call to repentance takes seriously the possibility of disqualification, but it also takes seriously God’s faithfulness which gives us hope and confidence for us to receive mercy, forgiveness and salvation!

You could say the call to repentance is the Gospel. If he didn’t love us and want to show us mercy and forgiveness, then he’d let us keep going on our merry way without a word of warning. He wouldn’t care. He wouldn’t stop us from going to our own destruction. He wouldn’t call us to come back to him.

But he does care. He does love us. He keeps calling us to trust in him, even when things aren’t the way we want them to be. He wants us to live with him forever. Therefore it’s not too late. Repent and live!

Paul also says we won’t be tempted or tested beyond what we can endure, no matter how much water comes our way. God is faithful and won’t let our temptations get beyond us. This doesn’t mean he’ll always take away all our trials and troubles. He won't always stop the floods and disasters. God didn’t take away the trials, temptations and troubles from the Israelites in the wilderness, but he remained with them through all their struggles.

He was their ever-present cloud which reassured them he was with them. He was their guiding light in the darkness. He was their Rock who provided life-giving water. He was their provider who supplied them with their daily bread. He was their faithful God.

He never abandoned them, no matter how much they rebelled against him, whinged to him, and tested him. In the same way he won’t abandon us. He is still our faithful God.

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The examples of the past can give us warning, but also give us hope. You see, there is hope in our struggles, because God is faithful and won’t abandon us.

God doesn’t demand the impossible and won’t let our struggles get out of control. He wants us to rely on his strength, his mercy, his provision, his ways, and his Word.

God is faithful and still desires us to enter the Promised Land. He will give you the help you need in order to endure your testing times, and perhaps a way to escape from them.

Disqualification doesn’t happen to those who trust in God. The Israelites stopped trusting him and so they disqualified themselves. Therefore, don’t give up. Keep trusting in him and his faithfulness to you.

Don’t give up in the fight against your temptations. Turn to God and trust he’ll help you in your times of need. He won’t let you be tested beyond your ability to endure it. And even if you do fail, turn back to the Lord, and you’ll receive mercy and forgiveness, because God is faithful.

This is how we can say: the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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