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1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50
Epiphany 7C
The Scriptures’ “perspicuity” is for some Christians a familiar but sometimes misunderstood concept. By it Jesus’ followers basically mean that the Holy Spirit makes clear what God wants to communicate through the Scriptures to God’s people and world. So we sometimes say the Spirit makes perspicuous the Scriptures’ central truths like God’s creation of everything…
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Epiphany 6C
In 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul refers to Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as being “of first importance.” Christians generally assume that the primary importance is to our faith that receives God’s grace. But this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson suggests that Christ’s resurrection in particular is also central to our hope for life, including life after death….
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Epiphany 5C
1 Corinthians 15’s stirring recap of Christ’s resurrection and its impact is one of the great chapters of Scripture. This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s portion of it introduces Paul’s teaching about the coming resurrection of Jesus’ followers. Countless preachers and others used it to proclaim Christian hope in face of dying and death. But toward the…
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Epiphany 4C
Have you ever wondered why Paul calls love the “greatest [meizon*] of these” (13:13)? Why did the Spirit inspire him to refer to the gift of love as even greater than the great gifts of faith and hope? After all, while love is great, faith is God’s great gift that equips us to receive God’s…
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Epiphany 3C
This Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson in some ways turns its hearers’ attention away from the well-being of all people toward the well-being of Christ’s Body, the Church. Yet while it to some extent focuses on inward rather than outward matters, Paul does not ignore the “common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). Rather, he implies that the Church…
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Epiphany 2C
On this third Sunday in the year of our Lord, 2025 the RCL turns our attention toward the end of Paul’s first letter to the sometimes-contentious bunch of Jesus’ followers who live in Corinth. Hard on the heels of scolding them about some of their practices surrounding the Lord’s Supper the apostle directs his hearers’…
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Easter Day B
When I was a teenager, members of our church’s youth group would play a variety of games together. Among them was “Telephone.” In it a group of people sit in a circle as a message is verbally passed from person. Among the most humorous parts of the game is the way that message almost inevitably…
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Lent 3B
Paul brackets this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson with a paradox. In verse 18 he speaks of God’s “power [dynamis]*.” However, in verse 25 the apostle also refers to God’s “weakness” [asthenes].” Between those apparently contradictory brackets, God’s people find not only the beating heart of our Lenten observance. We also find the heart of the gospel….
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Epiphany 5B
Motivation is an immensely complex and mysterious force. The Psychology Today website identifies two sources of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. So 1 Corinthians 9:16-23’s preachers might fruitfully ask whether Paul’s motivation is intrinsic. Does it come purely from within himself? Or is his apostolic work’s motivation extrinsic? Is Paul, in other words, compelled by his…
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Epiphany 4B
Anyone who has ever tried to cross a Lego- or toy-strewn room in the dark should have received hazardous duty pay. After all, relatively few pains match the discomfort created by stepping on a small toy. So what are such “stumbling blocks’” worst enemy? Any kind of light that leads to awareness and caution. Paul…
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