Weekly Sermon of
Dave Johnson

 Episcopal Church of the Resurrection 

“Your Way Out” (1 Corinthians 10:13) 

March 23, 2025 

 

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

 

I recently came across a list of signs you may be an Episcopalian. Here are a few: 

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You might be an Episcopalian if you recognize your neighbor or rector in the local liquor store and go over to greet them. 

You might be an Episcopalian if you watch Star Wars and when they say, “May the force be with you,” you automatically reply, “And also with you.” 

You might be an Episcopalian if you ever find yourself saying, “But we’ve never done it that way before.” 

You might be an Episcopalian if you know that the Senior Warden and Junior Warden are not positions in the local prison. 

Lastly…(and this is actually really sweet) you might be an Episcopalian if you feel completely at home at the altar rail. 

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A recurring theme in the assigned lectionary readings during Lent is temptation. Temptation is something all of us, Episcopalian or not, experience. In seasons of temptation all of us need to find a home at the altar rail and receive help from God. As you know temptation is one of the primary adversities we face. In the collect for this Third Sunday in Lent, we ask God for help: 

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Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul (BCP 218). 

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Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves”? Maybe this collect annoys you. Admitting “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves” is humbling, but it is the first step in overcoming the adversity of temptation because God always gives grace to the humble. About this collect retired Episcopal priest and scholar Paul Zahl observes: 

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First, we admit to God the plain fact that “we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves.” Is this plain? Is it obvious? Or is it a fact subject to dispute? Step One of the Twelve Steps concurs. World history concurs—at least if you reckon that the wars and holocausts in the twentieth century took more lives than every single conflict in the nineteen centuries preceding. Your personal history probably concurs, at least if you have ever been mired in a hole so deep that left to the devices and desires of your own heart you could only sink further into it (The Collects of Thomas Cranmer 37). 

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The last verse of today’s reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians is good news for those facing the adversity of temptation: 

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No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

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The word translated “testing’ here is often translated “temptation.” In this verse we are assured that with every temptation God always provides “the way out.” In other words, when you are facing temptation, look for the exit sign, look for the way out, because God always provides one. 

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Earlier in today’s passage Paul discusses four specific kinds of temptation to which the Israelites succumbed in the wilderness: idolatry, sexual immorality, putting God to the test, and complaining. Paul emphasizes that before succumbing to these temptations in the wilderness Israel had been delivered from bondage in Egypt: 

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I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). 

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It is the same in the church isn’t it? Even those who have somehow experienced the love of God in their lives and been baptized and received Holy Communion—and yes, even Episcopalians—are not immune to temptations to idolatry, sexual immorality, testing God, and complaining. 

 

In the wilderness the Israelites were tempted by the idolatry of the nations with whom they interacted like the Moabites or Ammonites. In our lives temptations to worship idols abound. These idols might not be images of Baal or Ashtoreth; they are simply anything we worship instead of God. The big three of course remain money, sex, and power, but there are many others—you can fill in the blank. 

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The great sixteenth century Reformation theologian John Calvin described the human mind as “a perpetual forge of idols”—in other words, our minds our idol-making machines. We can forge anything into an idol—our careers, our money, our kids’ “success”, our stuff. We are constantly tempted to make an idol of anything besides loving God. Idolatry caused the downfall of many Israelites in the desert and can be just as dangerous to us. Likewise, John closes his first letter with this warning: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). 

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The second temptation Paul warns of is the temptation to sexual immorality, which also proved the downfall of many Israelites, and was often linked with idolatry and pagan religious rituals that essentially were orgies. I do not need to delineate about the rampant sexual immorality in our culture today—you are fully aware of that. Although as I have said before, there is a technical theological word for someone who is immune to temptation to sexual immorality: liar. 

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The third temptation Paul warns of is the temptation to test God. This is pushing the boundaries of what you know is right and wrong, seeing how far you could go, how much you could get away with. As you know Jesus was tempted to put God to the test and thankfully overcame it. Paul bluntly warns, “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed.” 

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The last temptation Paul warns against is the temptation to complain, or as some translations read, “murmur” or “grumble.” Even though the Israelites had been delivered by God from generations of slavery in Egypt, they often still complained about and to Moses. God is not a fan of complaining, which is why Paul again bluntly warns, “Do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed.” In other words, complaining is always destructive. People who always complain—murmuring and grumbling—are energy vampires, who will exhaust you if you let them. Biblically, the opposite of complaining is thanksgiving—as the psalmist wrote, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving” (Psalm 100:4). Thanksgiving takes you into the presence of God. Complaining takes you nowhere. 

 

Are you dealing with any of these four temptations Paul warns about? Are there idols your mind is busily forging? Are you getting tripped up by some kind of sexual immorality? Is there an area in your life where you are putting God to the test, pushing the boundaries of what you know is wrong to see how much you can get away with? Are you always looking for something to complain about? Is your complaining making you an energy vampire? Is there anything in your life that has humbled you and reminded you that you have no power in yourself to help yourself? 

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That is where the good news of the gospel comes in. Again, as Paul put it, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out.” 

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The way out of temptation that God has provided is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is your way out. 

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Scripture assures us that in Jesus Christ “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). This means when you are facing the adversity of temptation, you are beckoned to “approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that (you) may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). 

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Moreover, when Jesus carried the cross to Mount Calvary, when Jesus could have called legions of angels to help him provide a way out, he did not do so. Instead, Jesus died on the cross to give you a way out. Jesus died on the cross to atone for the countless idols your mind has forged, to atone for every episode of sexual immorality, to atone for every time you tested God, to atone for every complaint you have ever uttered. 

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When it comes to temptation Jesus Christ is your Savior who helps those who have no power in themselves to help themselves. 

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When it comes to temptation, Jesus Christ is your Way out. 

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This means today, especially if you are dealing with the adversity of temptation, you remain completely at home at the altar rail. 

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Amen.