The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany-Rev Melanie Lemburg
Epiphany 4B_2021 January 31, 2020 Our reading from First Corinthians for today plops us down right in the middle of a conflict that is happening in the church in Corinth. First Corinthians is chock full of ways that Paul is writing to try to quell conflict among this particular group of followers of Jesus. We’ve seen factions at work in this letter—Paul writes that he has gotten reports from “Chloe’s people” of some serious conflicts in Corinthian community. In our passage for today, which seems to be, at first glance, about food, Paul is writing to the Corinthians about what it means to be a community of the followers of Christ. He is writing about how often we are called to make sacrifices on behalf of other members of the community, sacrifices of our own preferences in order to shore up our fellow believers in the church. A couple of weeks ago, one of my seminary classmates shared a reflection with us about what it means to be commun