I spent several days this past week at a conference discussing the interrelatedness of religion and violence. Despite the harsh realities of the subject, it was a time filled with great hope, mainly because the three major religions of the world were well-represented, both with the speakers and in the attendance.

We live in a world today that appears to thrive on divisiveness and factionalism. Being in an election year doesn't help, because it seems as if the very purpose of each candidate is to point out the shortcomings and what is inappropriate and unsuitable with the other candidates.

Taken together, today's scripture lessons get to the very heart of the contradictions of living life together. We hear both consolation and distress. The consolation is heard in both the OT and the Gospel texts. Isaiah assures us that "...the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-on them a light has shined." The Gospel text tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy; Jesus is the light! On this Third Sunday of Epiphany, we are reminded that as disciples of Jesus the Christ, we are living in a new day, that we are participants in a new creation.

But then we hear the contradiction as told from the Corinthians text. We hear that in this young Christian community there are divisions, there is quarreling going on. (Why is it a reading like always seems to show up on the day of our annual congregational meeting?)

Taken together, these texts today challenge us that this "new creation" we celebrate during Epiphany must be actualized by us. It is by the way we live. It is up to us to incarnate this season of Epiphany. It is up to us to manifest God's light in our daily life and conduct. Only then will our society be confronted with the empirical evidence of the reality of this new creation.

We meet a young, growing faith community at Corinth, struggling with new ideas, apparently impassioned for the faith, yet still uncertain of their identity at their young age. And in their struggles, at least four factions have developed that are threatening to rip open the community from the inside. And then we hear Paul, himself impassioned, maybe a little angry, but mostly a concerned pastor struggling to make sense of the power of Jesus Christ and his cross in helping this wounded faith community come together and reconcile and heal their differences.

How Paul deals with all this becomes most important. When it came to the issue of divisions in the church, Paul could have commended their obedience. He could have said: "I am the pastor! Do what I say1 I am in charge! I'm the apostle! You better listen to me, or else!" But he did not do any of that! What he did do becomes most important!

Paul encourages a response prompted by thee grace of God in Christ. His "appeal" is that they "agree with one another" and that "they be perfectly united in mind and thought." In both of these, Paul is not demanding uniformity; he's not saying they all need to think the same way, but he is calling for unity in the Gospel.-the Good News must override all other disagreements. The Gospel is the means of unity and they have made it into a tool of division.

I guess that was one of the important issues I heard underlying the conference this past week. We are here to realize the Kingdom of God in our lives, in the life of the church and in our broken world. Historically, we've not always done a very good job, and that is precisely why all three scripture are important to hear this morning. We must be guided by the Light so that we might make the Light shine more brightly in our daily lives.

At the conference this past week there were four speakers: two were Christian, one African-American and one White, one person of Jewish origin, and one Muslim. We spent two 1/2 days discussing the violence that we use against each other. That may seem like a much larger undertaking on a much larger scale than how we here interact with each other here on a daily and weekly basis.

On whatever scale we wish to speak, however, one clear message I heard this past week was this: As Christians we simply cannot afford to preach a cheap version of Christianity (cheap grace as Bonhoeffer called it). The very soul of a community is affected when people are not willing to change attitude and atmosphere. Mutual respect (not just tolerance) must define any and all relationships.

A final word about the conference this past week. I'm sitting in Trinity Church-Wall street-Lower Manhattan, and will all we had discussed for 2-1/2 days, and I began thinking of St. James. I thought of the light that shines among us, between us, and out into the community and the world because of us. That's not to downplay or ignore our different ideas and ways of thinking, nor our areas of conflict and concern. But I thought about how grateful I am for you, for this faith community, and for the gifts we continue to explore.

The best religion is that which addresses differences, not simply in the pursuit of happiness, but in the pursuit of people being themselves, and being in relationship with others. That's where I wish to walk. I want to walk it together, proclaiming God's Good News! Amen.