e-vo for week of January 23

Dearest e-votees-

For our focus this week let's put our eyes and minds and hearts on our assigned text from the 1st letter (epistle) of Paul to the church at Corinth.

May the words of this e-vo and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. (see Psalm 19:14)

Peace,

Karl

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Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank Godf that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 1:10-18, NRSV

The seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John is a prayer of Jesus for himself, for his followers back then and for all followers even to this day--including us. Jesus prays that we might be one just as Jesus and the Father are one. Our text from 1 Corinthians speaks to how short the church in the time of Paul fell from that mark of unity.

An honest look in the mirror or a little bit of observing in the newspaper or at our church assemblies this day reminds us how short we as the church still fall of this mark.

An honest meditative look into our own hearts and motives reminds us how far we as followers of Christ are still are from this mark of unity.

Paul ends our passage today with the jarring thought that words of human wisdom can empty the cross of its power. If we appeal to our own reason and our own mental and rhetorical resources we lean towards rendering the cross ineffectual.

In this time of so many words available in spam e-mails and on blogs and throughout the internet with, at times, so little thought put behind them we do well to turn our hearts and minds toward the cross.

In this time of so many words and images available on TV and on thie internet and on the radio and in print with, at times, so little undergirding reflection we do well to turn off and unplug and contemplate the cross.

In this time of so many promises made in debates and in advertisements with so little power to deliver on them that we do well to look at the promise of John 3:14-16 hanging on the cross and find salvation.

God, it seems like foolishness that a torture stake that was used almost 2,000 years ago might be central to our lives in this modern world. It rubs against our modern sensibilities. But your Word tells us salvation is to be found in the one who was found on the cross. Help us trust in your saving power. Help us welcome others into this foolishness. Amen.