I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me!’ – 2 Corinthians 11:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 17, 2018): 2 Corinthians 11

Donald Trump has increased my vocabulary, well, he has added at least one word to it – braggadocious. Donald Trump loves the word. He repeatedly tells his audience that he is not braggadocious. And actually, the people at the Merriam-Webster dictionary would tend to agree. They claim that Donald Trump is not braggadocious because braggadocious is not a word. Merriam-Webster argues that the word that Donald Trump is actually trying to reach for is braggadocio. By the way, my laptop agrees. It places angry red lines under the word braggadocious while giving braggadocio a free pass. But who knows, maybe Merriam-Webster will see the light and include braggadocious in their next dictionary, and maybe Donald Trump will have given us the next word of the year. Or maybe not.

However, the reality is that Donald Trump, while he might not be braggadocious, does display evidence of braggadocio, which means boastful or arrogant behavior. Even in a recent stop on his never-ending campaign trail, the self-delivered claim that Trump was not braggadocious was too much for one supporter standing in the background who broke out in spontaneous laughter at the comment before quickly ducking out of the picture.  

It is this braggadocio that Paul claims is foolishness. He asks that the Corinthians put up with what is coming next. Paul is about to list his credentials. It is a curious place in which the Apostle to the Gentiles to finds himself. After all, one of Paul’s biggest arguments has been that God’s strength comes through in the places where he is weak. Paul seems to know that he doesn’t speak well and that the visual that he presents is not that of an overwhelming person. He has never claimed to be a speaker like Apollo, or as charismatic as Peter might have been. And, for Paul, this is good. Because then the Gospel that he teaches needs to be considered on its own merit and with the presence of God in the discussion rather than with the force of Paul’s personality.

But because Paul’s underwhelming presence has come under criticism in Corinth, Paul is about to do what he has always claimed to be foolishness. He is about to display some braggadocio. Paul is about to talk about his credentials as an Apostle, even though none of this, in the mind of Paul, is of any significance. It is foolishness because the Gospel that he preaches stand on its own merits, and not on the credentials of the one doing the speaking.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 12 & 13