George Santayana is credited with saying, "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them." It is a common quote used often in our society. And it is also the moral of today’s epistle text. Paul offered the Corinthians a history lesson by reminding them of what had happened to the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings. You remember the story: The Children of Israel were released from Egyptian slavery to the Pharaoh; they were pursued by the Egyptian army, yet God saved the Israelites by parting the Red (Reed) Sea allowing the Egyptians to perish. The pillar of fire at night and a great cloud during the day led the Israelites. Daily provisions of manna and quail were given to them to sustain them while in the desert. Moses struck a rock, and water came forth. Although not found in our Bible, Jewish legend holds that the rock moved with them offering them water wherever they wandered. Having God’s presence with them everyday in a tangible way must have been inspiring. God offered them miracle after miracle, saved their lives, sustained them in the desert no less, yet they still complained, grumbled, and had bouts of unbelief.

One of the reasons they complained was that life was hard in the desert, as if life was expected to be easy in the desert? Service as slaves in Egypt certainly must have been difficult, but their grumbling included this sentiment, "At least we had onion soup to eat." Leeks and onions were part of the slaves diet in Egypt.

If God had delivered them from being slaves, why were they grumbling now? Why did they disobey? Because some believed that they did not have to do anything else to follow God. They thought that once they had received the Emancipation Proclamation signed by God that their troubles were over. After all, they were the chosen people, descendants of Abraham. God’s promise was that they would be as plentiful as sands on the seashore and the stars in the sky. Father Abraham’s descendants were chosen for service not for privilege. Entitlement was never part of God’s plan for the Jewish nation. The expectation of some sort of cosmic welfare system delivered by God because they were chosen seems a bit ludicrous to us. The bottom line reason for their wilderness wandering was that they hadn’t done enough. Their expectation of God doing all the work while they took no responsibility or failed to do their part was not God’s design.

Many of the Corinthian believers also thought that since they had been baptized and received communion that they simply could do anything they wanted. Their extreme libertarian ways said "anything goes," so they ate even meat which had been offered to idols. Their actions were loose, because they thought they had arrived. After all, even when they had done something wrong they knew God’s amazing grace would forgive them.

Yet Paul reminded them of the plight of their Jewish ancestors who wandered in the desert for forty years. They assumed because they had already joined the church at Corinth that there were no more requirements of them. Their baptism was the end-all ticket for them. The Corinthians thought that communion was enough to keep them in good standing with God. It was as if they had punched their ticket at the salvation time-clock and thought nothing else was ever expected. They hadn’t done enough.

Have you ever been a part of a group with these kinds of people? A civic club carries the names of many members, yet 80% of the work is performed by 20% of the people. Everybody in the group wants their picture in the newspaper, but only a select few are available for the grunt work. When the group receives favorable reviews, the members use the pronouns "we" and "our." At other times, these kinds of people refer to the group as "they" and "them."

We can all recall scenarios when someone hasn’t done enough. A child will bring home a report card with all good grades except one, and the parent becomes fixated on the bad grade. A spouse works around the house, checking many mundane duties off the list, and when the married partner hears the litany of completed duties of the day and asks, "What about __________?" the hard-work of the spouse loses its appreciative sparkle. When an employee accomplishes everything on the job description satisfactorily and even excels in some areas, the performance gets shadowed because of a perceived misunderstanding with the boss. Many often think that they haven’t done enough.

Let’s face it: most of us go through life trying to get it right. Very few of us intentionally choose to let people down. Most do not deliberately seek to disappoint another person. The majority of people want to get along with the people they love. Yet sometimes, a feeling creeps in that we haven’t done enough. If we could have just done one more thing. If we could have just controlled our temper that outburst would have never happened. If we could turn back the clock, we would choose a different course of action. Hindsight is always 20/20; looking in the rear-view mirrors of our lives, all of us can recognize mistakes which we wish we could undo. But we cannot turn back the clock. What’s done is done.

We can learn from our mistakes, and we should . . . we better. If we continue to make the same mistake, perhaps something pathological is occurring. If a pattern is not working, why do we continue doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results? Remember, those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. We should learn from our mistakes.

But we should also have our eyes and ears open to learn from others’ mistakes. This does require judgment; this does require reflection. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to learn from the mistakes of the Children of Israel. We would do well to heed his counsel. The Children of Israel made some dire mistakes. Evidently, the Corinthians were also making some poor choices. During the season of Lent, this time of reflection and introspection, we are encouraged to take inventory of our lives to find where we are making mistakes. What are we doing wrong that we should stop doing?

Most of us have been baptized, yet that is not enough. Most of us are members of Hampton Baptist Church, yet that is not enough. Most of us claim a belief in God and most of us call ourselves Christian, yet that is not enough. Some believe that if they partake of the Lord’s Supper, if they receive communion, that is all they have to do. That is not enough.

Some self-proclaimed religious martyrs think that if they die for their faith, they will receive a free ticket to Paradise and be welcomed by virgins. I’ve got to believe that is not enough.

We know of some high-profile religious figures who after being placed on pedestals by their followers, have taken a mighty hard fall. Just being on a pious pedestal is not enough. Reading from The Message translation, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "We are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence." (Verses 11b-12)

Paul was warning the Corinthians not to cheapen the grace which God offered them by defiling themselves. Neither arrogance, meaning that would never happen to me, nor entitlement, meaning somebody owes me something, are boxes to be checked on the heavenly citizenship card.

So what haven’t we done enough? Inventory. Maybe we have lived so fast and have been driven so hard that we have failed to look in the mirror at how we are failing God. Maybe what we haven’t done enough is examining our lives through the filter of the cross. Where are we disgracing the grace of God through the gift of Jesus Christ? And perhaps what we haven’t done enough is simply repenting, turning from what we know to be wrong attitudes, disparaging thoughts, or damaging actions, because we know in our heads that history can repeat itself and often does. Desolation and disappointment did come to the Israelites in the wilderness, even though they were God’s chosen people, because they made poor choices. We owe God more than acts of baptism, church membership, and worship attendance. And God will help us overcome every temptation that plagues us not only into thinking that we have arrived, but also will offer us the grace to help us overcome any feelings of inadequacy when we think we haven’t been able to do enough. We can never do enough to merit the grace bestowed to us, but thankfully Jesus has already done enough for each of us, and now we are being asked to continue to follow him past baptism and communion into daily service, living lives that are pleasing to God. AMEN.