[L]iving in a community that’s about everything can be absolutely maddening.   That’s what I wanted to get at in the Corinthian mash-up – for better or for worse.  One moment, Paul is telling the Corinthians that they are not lacking in any spiritual gift.  A few chapters later he is threatening to come to Corinth with a stick.   No doubt, part of his style is simply the way people wrote letters and argued back then.  Still, it’s striking that Paul’s letters to the Corinthians can be so warm, generous, and loving, but also so sarcastic, wounded, and angry.  What’s more, he moves between these emotions with dizzying speed and frequent reversals.  It’s as if he’s in throes of love.

Which, of course, he is.  Paul loves God and Jesus, but he also loves the infant Christian community in Corinth.  He loves it too much to let conflicts destroy it, or to throw his hands up, cut his losses, and move on.   And it is Paul’s bull-headed dedication to the hard, holy work of Christian community that I want to hold up today.