The Rev. Patricia Templeton
Epiphany 4B
February 1, 2009
St. Dunstan's

Readings

Question Authority

When I was in college someone gave me a button that I probably still have in a drawer somewhere. “Question Authority” it boldly proclaims.

“Question Authority” was a philosophy that suited a journalism student well. In fact, I spent my college years, and many years after, doing exactly that.

But it wasn’t just journalists who had that philosophy. In the turbulent years after Vietnam and Watergate, a whole generation of Americans were disillusioned and skeptical and suspicious of anyone in authority.

That suspicion and skepticism remain alive and well today. We see it every time we pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV. Someone in a position of authority – an elected official, a police officer, a clergy person – is being questioned.

And all too often, someone in a position of authority has betrayed our trust.

This morning we hear about a different kind of authority. In the past few weeks we have heard Mark tell the story of how Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit at his baptism. We’ve heard how he called his first disciples, urging them to lay down their fishing nets and follow him.

Now Jesus is making his first recorded public appearance as a teacher. He does it at a sacred time, the Sabbath, and in a sacred place, the synagogue.

The people who gather for worship that day, who presumably do not know Jesus, are astounded at his teaching. The reason for that amazement, Mark says, is because “Jesus taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

That in itself is a rather astounding statement. The scribes were the religious authority of their day. Their role was to read and interpret scripture.

They were the ones people looked to for guidance on how to follow God’s laws. And here comes Jesus, on their turf, threatening their authority with his teaching.

It doesn’t take long for Jesus’ authority to be challenged. The unclean spirit that possesses a man interrupts him, crying out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

“I know who you are, the Holy One of God,” he continues.

The unclean spirit is theologically astute, he recognizes who Jesus truly is. But that recognition does not give him power or authority over Jesus.

Instead Jesus, the one filled with the Holy Spirit, looks at the unclean spirit, and commands him to be silent and leave the man. And with an agonizing cry, the unclean spirit obeys.

Again, the people in the synagogue are amazed and exclaim to one another, “What is this? A new teaching – with authority!”

What impresses Jesus’ audience seems not to be the exorcism itself – exorcisms were not uncommon in those days. And’s it’s not necessarily the content of his teaching – there is not even a record of what Jesus said that day.

What impresses them is the quality of his teaching, the authority with which he speaks and acts.

What gives Jesus this presence? What is the nature of his authority?

The first definition of authority in the dictionary is “the power to enforce laws or exact obedience.” That is the kind of authority we give to elected officials, judges and police officers. It is not the kind of authority that Jesus has.

Nor is his authority based on his social standing, professional rank, wealth or credentials. That is more the authority of the scribes.

Jesus’ authority is different. We get a clue to it in our Old Testament reading from today when God promises Moses that God will raise up a prophet from among the people of Israel.

“I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet,” God says. That prophet will “speak everything that I command.”

Jesus’ authority comes directly from God.

But we have all known or heard people who claim to be speaking the word and will of God, who instead are what scripture calls “false prophets,” – those who “speak in the name of other gods,” such as money, power, and self interest.

Jesus’ authority also comes from his authenticity. His words match his deeds. He lives what he preaches. He does not use his authority to promote himself. The people in the synagogue recognize that and respond.

Think about our own experiences. The people we respond to and allow ourselves to be influenced by are not necessarily the authorities designated by office or position.

We might obey or give a grudging respect to people who have official power over us, but we most likely respond most positively to those who also seem authentic to us, those who are trustworthy, knowledgeable, believiable, and reliable.

Those with authentic authority are not manipulative; they do not use their power to benefit themselves at the expense of others.

That is the nature of Jesus’ authority. His teaching and preaching are not to glorify himself, but to further God’s reign of justice and peace. His miracles are not to show off his power, but to restore others to wholeness and health.

In the musical Jesus Christ, Superstar, Pontius Pilate confronts Jesus about his power and authority. “Prove to me that you’re divine,” he taunts Jesus. “Turn my water into wine.”

Jesus refuses, not because he cannot perform such an act, but because to do so simply to glorify himself – or even to save himself – would be an inauthentic use of his power and authority.

Jesus’ authority also does not only come from obeying laws and rules – even religious ones. In fact, he often gets in trouble with those in positions of religious authority for ignoring the rules – for healing on the Sabbath, for disregarding the purity laws by eating with outcasts, for talking to women and treating them as equals.

Jesus’ authority does not always insist on absolutes. It values people over rules and traditions.

Poet and theologian Gerhard Frost describes Jesus’ authority in his poem “Loose Leaf.”

When your options are either to revise your
beliefs or to reject a person, look again.
Any formula for living that is too cramped for
the human situation cries for rethinking.
Hardcover catechisms are a contradiction to
our loose-leaf lives.

There is the seeming contradiction in Jesus’ authority. He, more than anyone, knew and lived the intent of God’s laws.

But his authority comes not from a “hardcovered catechism.”

Jesus, instead, understands the “loose-leaf” nature of the human existence. He understands that living the gospel means entering into relationships, and inviting people to live into the image of God that is embedded in each of God’s people.

Amen.

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Readings

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: ‘If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.’ Then the Lord replied to me: ‘They are right in what they have said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.’”

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him. Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. “Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

Mark 1:21-28

Jesus and his disciples went into Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

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