St. Paul's appeal to the followers of Christ in Corinth speaks a clear message for the Church today.  How many of us cling tightly to those who have walked in our doors, saying "If we do that (insert here whatever new idea or change that applies), they (some part of the congregation) will leave."  What we have forgotten is that we are not baptized into St. Swithin's Episcopal Church, Holy Smokes Episcopal Church, or any other Episcopal Church.  For that matter, we are not baptized into the Episcopal Church.  We are baptized into Christ!  If we hold on so tightly to our identity as the four walls within which we worship, and rest that identity on who we have been as a congregation, rather than who we are called to be, we have lost our way.  We are called to be the body of Christ in the world today - to love and to serve all of God's creation. 

Perhaps in Lent we can reflect upon our lives as a Christian people.  Are our congregations engaging together to be a living and vibrant proclamation by word and deed of the Gospel in our communities?  Or, are we clinging too closely to our separate identities, too tightly to our past, and too firmly to our own way?  One is a path to life, the other to death.  May we, as followers of Christ, always choose life.