if you get too tired.”
Quinton jumped out of his seat and rubbed his hands together over the box of bagels. “Let me take orders. I’ll prep the bagels and hand them out so we have enough time to go over all our homework questions. I admit that I’d like to hear what happened last night at Club Satin before we go to our morning service. Even though I was with Gloria,” his boyish face tinged pink at the sound of her name, “I was thinking about you guys.”
“Let’s begin our discussion with the definition of agape,” Savannah suggested after giving Quinton her bagel order. “Any volunteers?”
“Agape means ‘God’s kind of love,’ ” Jake answered.
Savannah continued. “How does Paul use the word in the second book of Corinthians, chapter seven?”
Cooper checked her answer, which she’d written down several days ago and had already forgotten. “Paul calls his audience ‘loved-people.’ He’s addressing those who believe what he believes. Those first church people.”
The Sunrise members went on to discuss false apostles and Paul’s sufferings, and then Bryant shared his homework answer concerning Paul’s reference to the “angel of light.”
“Paul’s description reminds us that evil people can present themselves as holy, church-going people. Even Satan was an angel once.” Bryant concluded, “Personally, I prefer terms like the Father of Lies or Prince of the World over Angel of Light. It sounds like someone too pure and beautiful on the outside to be corrupt on the inside.”
“I know,” Nathan concurred. “I hear that title and I immediately picture someone in a white choir robe.”
Cooper’s mind conjured the image of Albion in his translucent white shirt and cream-colored pants. She thought of his pale face illuminated beneath the harsh white lights of the fixture hanging above their table. A shiver ran up her torso. If Albion was responsible for Miguel’s death, for drug trafficking, and for the other charges he’d managed to acquire acquittal over, then he was truly one of the Prince of the World’s ministers.
She looked up from her workbook and noticed that Trish hadn’t taken a single bite from her sesame seed bagel. Cooper had wolfed down her own cinnamon sugar bagel in mere minutes and had also drained her coffee cup completely dry. Surrounded by her friends, it was almost easy to forget about the trials of others.
For example, she hadn’t spent much time thinking about Maria Gutierrez, the woman who worked for Love Motors and whose son had been murdered a few days earlier. She hadn’t even called the video store to find out if the Hector working there was the same young man who’d been killed. She hadn’t prayed for Trish lately, uttered many prayers of thanksgiving, or taken the time to complete the last few homework questions as she’d been too busy focusing on her new job and Saturday’s events.
“List some ways Paul suffered for his beliefs,” Savannah prompted.
“I got this one,” Jake volunteered. “The poor guy was beaten with thirty-nine lashes, hit with a rod, stoned, shipwrecked, spent a night and day in the open sea, feared bandits, rivers, and his own countrymen. He was hungry, thirsty, and sleep-derived. Plus, those Corinthians called him weak and made fun of him because he didn’t look physically tough or charge them a pile of money as a speakin’ fee.” He snorted. “Paul was more patient and gentle than I woulda been, that’s for damned sure.” Jake’s hand touched his lips as he glanced at Savannah. “I mean, darned sure.”
“Yet in his letter, Paul still calls the Corinthians his dear friends,” Quinton said as he fixed himself a second bagel. “Even though he fears they’re going to sink back into a pit of temptation, he doesn’t give up on them.”
“Remember the Corinth we discussed during our first session?” Savannah’s question was rhetorical. “It was a place of anger, envy, gossip, boasting, lust, and debauchery. Paul writes this letter before visiting Corinth for the third time in hopes that the Corinthians have been practicing faithfulness and self-examination. I think we could all benefit from receiving such a letter. Every once in a while, we need to take a pulse—to stop and consider how our faith walk is progressing. Are we all talk or are we all action?”
The group fell silent, reflecting on Savannah’s words. She allowed the silence to settle on them for a while and then smiled. “For what it’s worth, I’ve been a witness to the growth in faith of everyone in this room. It has been a great joy