Sunday Liturgy April 10, 2016

REFLECTION "Flourishing requires us to embrace both authority and vulnerability, both capacity and frailty--even, at least in this broken world, both life and death." -- Andy Crouch  CALL TO WORSHIP Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn. I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples, I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.   SCRIPTURE READING 2 Corinthians 10:7-18 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed.  I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters.  For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.  SERMON An Insecure Apostle The Apostle Paul cared deeply about the Christians in Corinth. He wanted them to walk in Christ, to let go of the false hopes of prestige and hedonism that so gripped their first century culture. Yet, he had a growing sense that he was losing their collective ear. How to get people to trust you again when you have hard words to speak to them? This is among the most awkward places a leader can be. And Paul's uncertainty and insecurity is apparent. Should he cite his accomplishments and credentials to assert his legitimacy and win back authority? He's not sure. Leaders never are. And that's just how God seems to like it. Listen here.   PRAYER OF FAITH On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the LORD GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.