Almighty God, by the hand of Moses
your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last:
Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King,
may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your
children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
I
know the 1 Corinthians passage today isn’t the most fascinating Scripture
reading that we have, but we can learn a lot by reading the beginning of a
letter. And you can tell a lot from a letter by its mechanics. For example, how
do you sign the letter? Is it a formal “sincerely” or a warm “with love?” And
how do you address the letter- “my dearest so and so” or do you use all the
proper titles? Just looking at the signature and address line, you’ll learn
something. So as we consider the beginning of 1 Corinthians, let’s pay
attention to the mechanics of the letter.
