AREN’T YOU PRIVILEGED
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – February 28, 2016
In October of 2014, police in North Carolina received a phone call from someone saying that their neighbor’s home, the home of Ricky and Stacey Tyler, was being broken into. Police got to the scene in just a few minutes, got into the house, and found a teenager inside named DeShawn Currie, whom they quickly pepper-sprayed and contained. Deshawn was pretty confused about the whole thing. And do you know why? Because the home the police found him in was the home he lives in. Deshawn is the foster child of Ricky and Stacey Tyler and had been living with them for the last year. DeShawn was coming home from school, letting himself in the side door when the neighbor called the police. And why did she call the police?
On the one hand, you could take into account that criminal activity had escalated in their neighborhood over the last couple of weeks and she was trying to be proactive in preventing another burglary. On the other hand, you could assume that the neighbor would have never called the police if DeShawn were white. His foster parents, Rickey and Stacey, are white. So are their other three children. DeShawn, their foster child, is black. Many are convinced that he was not given the privilege of receiving the benefit of the doubt, a privilege that someone like me, a white man, may have been given had I been the one opening the side door that afternoon.
There are a lot of things I don’t know about that particular situation. But I do know this. I know that the question of who in this world is privileged and who isn’t can sometimes be a pretty emotional, personal, and complicated thing. I know that privileged treatment leads some to some pretty high places and others to something quite different. And whatever the reality has been for you personally, I want you to think about this question: When it comes to being privileged – is that something that you want to be? Do you want to be privileged?
The first dictionary definition of the word privilege is “favored.” If you are privileged, you are favored. And don’t we like it when we are favored to win something? Wasn’t Mary, the mother of Jesus, favored? The angel greeted her by saying, “Greetings, you who are highly favored.” And I think Mary understood being highly favored as a good thing in that situation. A second definition of the word privilege is to be “exempt” or “free from certain obligations.” And is there anything in your life right now that you would like to be exempt from? Maybe you would want to be free from cancer, or sickness, or pain, or a bad situation that has placed on your heart an unbearable weight. Being favored and free are not bad things. It’s just that finding a definition of privileged that equally applies to everyone has been a challenge for our world.
But it hasn’t been a challenge for our God. His definition of privileged has been the same from the very beginning. And his is one that includes everyone here this morning. He looks at your life and he sees the different burdens that you carry. He sees how often you are on the wrong end of someone else’s decision to hand out preferential treatment. And today, on a day on which we look back on history, he uses Israel’s history to remind us of the favored, freed, privileged status we have always had as his children, as well as what it means that we get to live as such in this world that has so much trouble giving you anything close to the same thing.
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Paul mentioned some of the most famous moments in Israel’s 40 years in the desert. He talked about the pillar of cloud God placed over them, the time God parted the Red Sea for them, and the miraculous ways God provided food and water in the desert every day of their 40-year desert wandering. But he mentioned one other thing in this section. Four times in these four verses, he used the word “all.” All of Israel saw the same things. They all saw God going with them, working for them, and providing for them, even in impossible situations.
And the reason Paul brings it up here in his letter to Corinth is because he wants them to see the same thing. If you compare the people of Israel with the people of Corinth, they were incredibly different. Different genetics, histories, skin color, economic situations, different preferences for music, entertainment, and styles of clothing. But there was one important thing they had in common with Israel that Paul wanted them to value above everything. They have the same God. The same Rock. And “That rock was Christ,” he said. God is not one who gives anyone special, preferential, privileged treatment. He is a God who gives everyone special, preferential, privileged treatment.
This means that, whether you live in Israel, Corinth, or Milwaukee, whether you are pasty white, dark as night, or anything in between, whether the people around you treat you like a celebrity or a nobody, whether you are dirt poor or phenomenally wealthy, you can see the same thing Israel did –that your God is one that goes with you into your home and your job, who is working for you even when everything else seems to be working against you, and who will provide for you, even in impossible situations like the loss of a job, or a hospital stay, or a cancer diagnosis. Paul wants you to know that you are privileged. Say that out loud: I am privileged.
That’s the first lesson Paul teaches us from Israel’s history. The second is this: You can receive every privilege God can give – and still lose everything.
5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
These were all well-known sins that Israel committed during their years in the desert. In verse 7, the idol worshipping is the famous golden calf incident. The sexual immorality in verse 8 refers to when 23,000 Israelite men had an orgy with the Moabite women, which God punished by killing those 23,000 in a single moment. Putting Christ to the test in verse 9 is when Israel became impatient with how God was taking care of them in the desert and started complaining about their situation; so God gave them something else to complain about when he sent poisonous snakes to bite them. And finally, the grumbling in verse 10 was when some of the Levites were complaining that they weren’t getting enough credit for all the hard work they were putting in, so God opened up the earth underneath their feet, the earth swallowed them, and no grumbling was heard from them ever again.
And notice there were two things all these sins had in common. Firstly, all the Israelites who committed them had seen God going with them, working for them, and providing for them in impossible situations. They didn’t suddenly forget those things happened. They didn’t stop worshipping God. They were just trying to worship God and enjoy a little sin on the side at the same time. The second thing all these things have in common is that they didn’t get away with it. God noticed. And he didn’t just let it go. He killed 23,000. He sent poisonous snakes. He opened up the earth and swallowed them.
And the reason Paul was sharing this with his friends in Corinth is because he knew what was going on in their church at the time. Based on Paul’s letters, we know there was adultery, incest, drunkenness, lawsuits against one another, and people playing favorites. They were still going to church. They still believed in God. Like Israel, they were just trying to enjoy a little sin on the side at the same time. Paul was using Israel’s history to remind them that, if they think they can get away with those things, don’t be surprised if one day God shows you something different. And he even gave them a sure sign of when a person is in danger of losing their privileged position in God’s Kingdom. See if you can identify it in these next verses.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Did you catch the sign in verse 12? “If you think you’re standing firm, be careful.” The sign that you’re in danger is thinking that it could never happen to you. In other words, if you think you don’t have the same weakness as Israel did, it’s proof that you already do. There wasn’t a single Israelite who said, as they were leaving Egypt, “I’m going to worship an idol someday,” “I’m going to cheat on my wife with a Moabite woman,” or “I’m going to complain that the God I just saw separate the Red Sea isn’t doing a good job taking care of me.” Just like there isn’t a Christian on the day of their wedding who says, “One day, I’m going to commit adultery.” No parent who holds their newborn baby in their arms says, “One day, I’m going to resent you.” Nobody who joins a church says on the day of their confirmation, “I’m going to play favorites; I’m going to like some of you more than I like others.” And yet these things sometime happen. Why? Because our sinful hearts really are capable of every sin, and one of the most dangerous enemies of all is one that you think is never coming. Because the places where we’re most vulnerable are the ones where we think we don’t need any protection.
Paul pointed to Israel’s history as proof of how quickly someone can stray into a path they never saw coming. And the reason Israel did was because, somewhere along the way, being the favored, freed, privileged children of God that they were didn’t matter as much as something different. Have you noticed how many in the world today have fallen for the same thing; how often someone cares more about how famous someone is, white or black, rich or poor, skinny or heavy, man or woman? And do you think we do a good job noticing how often our hearts desire the world’s definition of privilege more than the one God has given? Do you more often feel like you’re standing firm or like you’re falling?
My boys have a video game they play called Minecraft, which is basically like Legos on a TV screen. It’s amazing the buildings they can put together on this game. Carson was playing the game one day when he called me over and said, “Dad, I built castle, and I want you to see if you can get through it. So I started ‘walking’ through the castle he had built and eventually came to a fork in the hallway. “Do you want to go left or right?” he asked. “Left,” I said. So he took me left, and I ended up going through a door and falling into a blazing fire. And Carson started laughing. He invited me to try again. So this time, when I came to the fork in the hallway and he asked me which way I wanted to go, I said “right.” So I went right, walked down the hallway, opened the door, and ended up falling into a dark bottomless pit, as Carson started laughing again. And do you know why he was laughing? Because there really was no way out. I was going to fall no matter which way I ended up going.
Do you know how that feels? Moses thought he did. “Who am I?” he asked when God told him to lead Israel out of Egypt. But God reminded Moses that he was asking the wrong question. As we walk these challenging hallways of life, the question shouldn’t be “Who am I?” but rather, “Who is our God?” Each time Moses pointed out how unqualified Moses was, God pointed Moses back to who God our is.
And did you notice how Paul answered that question in verse 13? He is faithful. He is the God who one day came to a fork in the hallway and had the choice to walk right back to heaven or fall into the dark bottomless fire pit of hell. And he was faithful to his promise to go with you, work for you, and provide for you, even in impossible situations. Even if it cost him his life, his blood, and his skin. He is the God who has favored you with his grace in Christ and, by his sacrifice, has set you free from carrying the heavy burdens of guilt, fear, doubt, worry, and sin. And if you are favored and freed, that means you are, by definition, privileged.
As you sit here this morning, you are privileged. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, you can wake up feeling privileged. When the world tells you that you’re not yet good enough, you can tell them that you already are privileged. When your peers want you to change and become someone different, you can stay exactly who you are and still feel privileged. When you fall into sin, when you’ve been faithless to him, you can look at the cross and remember that you are privileged to be forgiven. When you are seized by the temptation to feel anything different, you have the right to stand up and keep walking the sure path to heaven, because you, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the declaration of our faithful God, are privileged.
And that is who you will always be to him. And as long as we stand together on the same Rock that accompanied Israel in the wilderness, and see the priceless value we have in him, this world can define us however they please. But they cannot and will not take away the privilege we are guaranteed to receive.
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