God's field

Good morning brothers and sisters,
Paul has just finished talking about how he and other teachers do share wisdom with spiritually mature Christians, though the wisdom they share is different than the world's wisdom. Now he continues by describing that the Corinthians aren't mature yet. Paul has to feed them milk instead of solid food in terms of his teaching. The mark that they are immature is that they are divided and people make too much of who their teachers are. Paul describes teachers, specifically himself and Apollos, another important early Christian teacher, as servants of God. Like field hands, Paul planted and Apollos watered, but the growth comes from God and it is God's field. Different churches, different denominations, different political affiliations; it's easy to make too much of the subsets in our life. The point is that we belong to Christ as members of the one church, the one body of Christ. We are one in the Lord, and as one we will grow strong.

Since we're thinking about unity, this week is the week of prayer for Christian unity. During this week keep the worldwide church in prayer and pray that the unity we already have in Christ would become more visible. On Monday there will be a service for Christian unity sponsored by the North East Church Cluster at St. John the Evangelist on Humbolt St. The evening begins at 6 with a soup supper and the service begins at 7. I really hope to see you there; these ecumenical services are fun and inspiring. I've been sad in my time here how few people from Laurelton attend them. In addition, we could really use a few ushers for the evening. Let me know if you're interested.

Blessings,
Sam

1 Corinthians 3:1-10

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, 3for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? 4For when one says, “I belong to Paul,” and another, “I belong to Apollos,” are you not merely human?


5What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. 9For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building. 10According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it.