Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Yesterday, we dove into Paul's ridiculous notion that weakness is a strength, and today he doubles down. He does take a moment to tout the accomplishments of another, then returns to his "foolishness," coming back to say that God even purposely gave him weakness so that Christ's power could rest on him.

What does Paul brag about? He flips the "boasting in the way the world does" by boasting about the things that make him appear weak, in order that the power of Christ might show even more. This flew in the face of the bragging of his day, and very few of us today would probably lower ourselves in the same way.

Humility is a quality Jesus held which we should try to copy. Paul was an alll-star in his time, but he was slow to toot his own horn. Commending us is God's job, and waiting for that approval is part of our discipline.

Monetary support was not an unfamiliar topic in the early church. Acts opens with several stories about it, and Paul brings it vividly into the picture with this passage. Money is both a practical need and a spiritual discipline, as it provides something physical to pass among the members of the body of Christ.

As we remember today the apostle James, we are left with mostly the legends of his life. (This isn't the man who wrote the book of James.) His Father was a fisherman (wealthy enough to hire help) and his mother came to Jesus in Matthew 20 to ask Jesus to put her sons in positions of authority. He may have been a little spoiled, maybe? James was also the first apostle to die (documented in Acts 12). Whatever his family background, he died for the faith he found in Jesus.

Sorrow isn't something we love to live in, but Paul sees value in it, because it produces repentance and a drawing of the people closer to God. Of course, sorrow isn't our end goal. There is also joy in the Lord, but also in one another. Paul mentions the experiences of Titus particularly, who was working with a difficult church plant.

Paul takes a very different approach to his struggles: he claims that the negative things that happen to him are the very thing that legitimizes his ministry. A weak person does not create barriers for others, because they are empty of their own capacity to make things happen, so they are open channels. In Paul's case, that is a channel of love, the movement of the Spirit.

That Jesus had women in his group of core disciples is a pretty revolutionary idea. Women were not commonly brought into discipleship under a rabbi or religious leader, but Jesus made no such discrimination. Mary Magdalene particularly had a reason for loving him, since he had freed her from so great a demon possession.

Yesterday we talked about glory and veils, today we're talking about frailty and strength. The glory does indeed belong to God, but the strength that we have is also in him. With life eternal and resurrection bodies in our future, we are indeed uncrushable.

Lots of talk about glory and veils today. Glory is God's presence shining out; the veil is used when that presence leaves. Moses used the veil because his face was changed when the presence departed. Now, we can live always in the Spirit, so the presence never leaves. God is where the Spirit is, and the Spirit is always among us.