NOTE FROM PASTOR J R FOR SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2024
This Sunday is the “Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany.” I was honored to preach Cornerstone MCC in Mobile, AL last Sunday, and that city is all abuzz with the beginning of the Mardi Gras parades, balls, and festivities.
Mobile’s annual Carnival of Mardi Gras is the oldest Mardi Gras celebration in the U.S. It was started by French Nicholas Langlois in 1703 when Mobile was the capital of Louisiana. In my visits to New Orleans over the years for Mardi Gras, I always noted how this Southern state with a very checkered past on racism, seems to be so welcoming to anyone during Mardi Gras. However, that welcome seems to dissipate on Fat Tuesday at midnight as the police sweep through the city to “restore normalcy and order when Mardi Gras is over.” The things you were welcomed to do during Mardi Gras became a stumbling block to “normalcy and order,” after Mardi Gras ends.
That was in the back of my mind when I first read this week the assigned Epistle Text from I Corinthians 8:1-13. In this passage, Apostle Paul addresses a vital aspect of Christian living – the balance between knowledge and love for others. He speaks to the Corinthians about this in terms of eating food sacrificed to idols, a contentious issue in that church. Paul gets to the heart of the matter. It wasn’t really about the food sacrificed to idols; it was about the importance of being sensitive to the conscience of others in our freedom, choices and especially our attitudes to others with which we disagree. It’s about learning to be a “Radical Welcomer” all the time; even when people do things you don’t agree with and not being a “Stumbling Block.”
Join us for worship this Sunday in-person, by ZOOM, Facebook Livestream, or YouTube as I will be speaking about this in my sermon called “Radical Welcomer” or “Stumbling Block!” Which are you? based on “I Corinthians 8:1-13.”
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