Living Between Advents
This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 12/3/17 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churche s. The text is 1 Corinthians 1:3-9. Imagine that you spent a year and a half getting a new church up and running. When you left to work with other churches, the church was growing. Leaders were emerging and the congregation seemed healthy. All was well. Then a delegation from the young church arrives. They bring word—via a letter—and that letter carries bad news. The church is fighting. There are visible factions. Some are in danger of returning to their old lives to serve their former gods and to resume life as they once knew it. Others are lording their so-called knowledge over those whom they deem weaker in the faith. The weaker members are being intimidated by some of the stronger, more experienced believers. This resulted in some being anxious about their own status before God and they were apparently confused about the second coming of Christ. Class divisions are...