Do Not Be Unaware

Isaiah 55: 1 - 9

1 Corinthians 10: 1 – 13

March 23, 2025

I am not very sophisticated with technology. It is embarrassing to admit, but often times - when prompted by a question on a tech weakness from me – I understand about the first minute or so of Ben’s and Lee Lee’s explanation before I am lost. I hate every update on my phone and those apps that I have been told I can’t live without. We recently had to move from Microsoft 10 to Microsoft 11 and it drove me crazy. Thank goodness I have a very patient Stephanie who can walk me through the update changes.

Now I may be an extreme example, but – from general conversations over the years – I think that many of us have only a superficial understanding of how the phones, computers, or other tech devices in our lives actually work. And that’s okay….. 95% of the time. For the overwhelming amount of our usage a superficial awareness of how our tech functions is okay….. until it isn’t. And then we are in trouble.

We call the Geek Squad. We call the Apple Store. Many companies have IT troubleshooters under contract to bail themout when technology fails. If we are really fortunate, we have teenaged nieces and nephews, or grandchildren, who love us and are patient enough to walk us through our tech problems.

For tech neophytes, being out on the cutting edge of phone, computer, or software technology is great as long as everything works. But when it doesn’t, we can quickly get into trouble.

Paul is writing to a church, forming out in the wilderness, that has only a surface understanding of the faith, in a land filled with temptations. Corinth was a sophisticated town, filled with commerce and people from across the Mediterranean, with temples and places of worship almost beyond description. The pagan religious world was intimately connected to Corinth political and economic life and so believers in this new and emerging faith of Christianity wrestled with what it meant to be faithful in a land filled with spiritual alternatives.

These Corinthian Christians knew just enough to fall in love with Jesus, but they weren’t quite sure how that worked in their sophisticated world. They were transformed by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ; they were connected to God and one another in this new church out in the wilderness; but they weren’t quite acquainted with the deeper implications of faith. To be fair, no one was. It was all too new.

The new believers of the Corinthian Church were struggling with the notion of Christian freedom in a culture that offered many life and moral alternatives. Could they participate in pagan celebrations, banking on grace and forgiveness, if it furthered their economic prospects? Could they attend the neighboring temple’s parties and festivals if it allowed them to network and set up business deals? Could they continue in political alliances, even if those alliances led them into some questionable behavior, and just count on mercy, grace, and forgiveness?

It's funny. We are talking about believers in a church 2,000 years ago. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Do we not….. still, have the same questions today?

Paul wrote to these new believers, to a church in a pagan land, to remind them of the dangers of idols, of the need to take an informed stance, and of a faithful God who remains faithful even when we are not. Let’s take those main points in reverse.

The people of God – a people who had been cruelly oppressed, a people who had cried out to God in their distress, a people who had been threatened with the death of their male children – these people who had been led miraculously out of bondage by Moses through the parting of the Red Sea were a grumbling and contentious lot.

God delivers them, and soon they are making golden calves. God brings them quail and manna from the heavens, and the Israelites are reminiscing over the food that they use to have in Egypt. They thirst in the desert and Moses – as directed by God – strikes a rock and thousands have fresh water to drink.

At every critical step, at every point when it seems as though Moses has led Israel out into the desert to die God shows up, even as his people grumble and complain.

Friends, we are the children of a faithful God. This God does not allow us to be tempted beyond which we are able to respond….. and thrive. We are the children of a faithful God who raises up men and women to provide for us wisdom and leadership when the future in front of us seems stormy and unclear. We are the children of a faithful God……. even when we are not, and so we must receive forgiveness, learn, and continue to strive to be the people God created us to be.

I believe this is the antidote to the cheap grace that Paul is identifying in the lives of Corinthian Christians. The presence of a grace-filled God who is quick to forgive is not license to engage in questionable behavior. A unique and priceless grace gained in the death and resurrection of Jesus becomes unavailable in our desire to promiscuously cheapen it. We are the people of a faithful and forgiving God. That does not give us permission to bank on that grace and engage in unfaithful behavior.

How do we avoid that questionable behavior? By no longer being satisfied with a superficial faith that carries us only in the easy times. We need to be attentive to a Holy Spirit who beckons us beyond the superficial and into the deep waters of our faith.

Friends, you know I love you. But it is exactly because of that love that I am moved to say that too many of us are satisfied with a faith that can be acquired at the Dollar Store and then wonder why it breaks under the first application of tension or struggle. Like with our technology, we are content with only a superficial knowledge of the faith until life gets complicated and that superficial understanding can no longer carry us.

God offers to us spiritual food beyond our ability to finish, more than we can digest in any one sitting, more than we could ever make sense of in 10 lifetimes. The knowledge is there in the writings of Scripture, in the teachings of theologians throughout the centuries, in the examples of believers before and currently around us. Most importantly, in the Holy Spirit we have a guide and constant mentor before us, alongside of us, sometimes pushing us to spiritual maturity.

God, in the example of Jesus and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit helps us to face our cultural wilderness with conviction and patience. God will not abandon us in our trials, but instead will journey with us through them to faith victory.

Finally, Paul wrote to the believers of the Corinthian Church, and he writes to us today, to beware of the possibility of idols in our lives. Now we read that, and we think of the false gods made of wood or stone, festooned with gems and made pretty, and pointing ancient people to the pagan gods of their own making. They were filled with superstition and ignorance. We know so much more today. I wonder.

And yet, are not the gods of our own making today claiming their own followers? The gods - the idols - of ultimate self-sufficiency or control. The gods - the idols - of wealth, prominence, and prestige. The gods - the idols of philanthropy and good works. The gods - the idols - of power, nationalism, and might. The gods – the idols that drive us to seek to impress or coerce.

The idols are alive and well in our day and believers equipped and satisfied with Dollar Store faith find it difficult to not succumb to their call. Committing to a faith beyond the Dollar Store, committing to a faith that moves us into spiritual deep waters, committing to a faith that bears witness to the transformation we have experienced is a faith grounded in the pursuit of spiritual knowledge, grounded in the love we have received in Jesus Christ, and realized in service as an expression of that love.

Friends, this is faith that makes a difference. This is a faith that stands the tests of time and whatever cultural winds might blow.This is a faith committed to God’s glory and message. May it be your life, my life, and our lives together. Amen