The Word of Authority
Dane F. Smith
February 1, 2009
At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus showed up at the synagogue in Capernaum, his home base in Galilee, and began teaching. The people were impressed because "he taught with a note of authority." A mentally deranged man wandered by and began shouting at Jesus. Jesus heard the demon inside the man say, "What do you want with us? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are - the Holy One of God." Jesus coolly rebuked the demon, and ordered him to leave the man. The man had a seizure and was quiet. The congregation said to one another, "He speaks with authority."
We seek out words of authority for matters of great importance.
Health. We choose doctors carefully and try to listen to their advice. We subscribe to health publications or seek answers to our health questions online to help us lead longer and more vigorous lives. But we are often disappointed in conclusions which for years we accepted as gospel. We stopped buying butter only to find that margarine contained transfats, which are worse. We filled our cereal bowls with oat bran only to learn that it doesn't really prevent colon cancer. Finance. We are watching with quiet desperation as our 401(k) plans, home equity and net worth evaporate. We counted on our financial advisors to help safeguard our nest egg. We put trust in respected national financial authorities to end the meltdown. But we have been disillusioned. A few short months ago Henry Paulson was praised for bold action in pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the banking sector. Some were hailing him as the most powerful man in Washington. He left town 10 days ago without so much as a good-bye wave from the press. Remember Robert Rubin. Very successful on Wall Street, he won much praise as Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury. He got some of the credit for the prosperity of those years. Last month he stepped down as Chairman of Citibank, admitting that he had not foreseen the financial collapse and had made serious mistakes in guiding of that troubled bank. Well, don't despair; we still can rely on Warren Buffet, the sage of Omaha. Or can we?
Politics. In times of great trouble, we Americans are accustomed to looking to politics to resolve some of our problems. And the words of political leaders are one of the standards by which we judge them. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive .. to bind up the nation's wounds." Or, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Or, "It's morning in America." Or, "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America, they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." Words of authority are important in politics. Clement Attlee, Labor Prime Minister of Britain, once said admiringly of the rhetoric of his rival Winston Churchill, "Great words are deeds." But, we don't know whether the words of our new political leader, so widely quoted today, will become deeds.
Prophecy
And religious words of authority. For the people of Israel authority resided in the word of the prophets. The prophet has an intimate relationship with words - God's words.
In Deuteronomy 18, our lesson this morning from the Hebrew Bible, we find a story of the origin of the prophetic tradition. In the aftermath of the flight from Egypt and the handing down of the law, the Israelites concluded they needed an intermediary between themselves and God. Dealing with God straight on was terrifying. Yahweh at Mount Sinai, appearing in lighting, thunder and smoke, was too overpowering. "Let us not hear again the voice of the Lord our God, nor see this great fire again or we shall die."
Moses, the leader God chose to bring Israel out of Egypt, was also Israel's first and greatest prophet. God set aside Moses to convey his word to the people. God says, "I will put my words into his mouth." Beginning with Moses, the prophet took on the role of speaking God's word to the people. Through words, the prophet becomes the revealer of God to the people. The prophet's responsibility is to call the people to account - to tell them what they are doing wrong, as God sees it.
When Israel became a kingdom, prophecy was separated from political leadership. Then the work of the prophet was to speak truth to power and face the dire consequences. When Jeremiah told an unpleasant truth to the head of the Temple [Pashur], he was placed in the stocks in the public square and ridiculed (Jer. 20:2). When Elijah rebuked Ahab for adopting the idolatry of his wife Jezebel, the prophet had to flee for his life.
The prophet had a solemn responsibility to be truthful. If you faked it - presenting yourself as a prophet while speaking your own and not God's words - you were to be put to death, according to Dt 18. The Bible doesn't tell us how many false prophets were executed in ancient Israel. It was always hard a priori to decide who was a false prophet and who was real.
But prophets were killed. Most of the time it was not because they were false prophets, but because "power" - the king or high-level religious officials - was upset about the truth the prophet conveyed from God. Jesus laments, "Jerusalem, city that murders the prophets ?!" (Lk 13:34)
Paying attention to the words of revelation from the prophet is a solemn responsibility. Ignoring God's word leads to calamity and death. The Fear of God - paying attention to God's revealed word - is the beginning of wisdom, according to today's Psalm (Ps 111).
In crisis the Israelites learn to look to their prophets for guidance about God's will. Amos, Hosea, Jeremiah made clear that the political disasters overtaking them stemmed from their failure to maintain a just society: the failure of the courts to protect the poor against the greed of the rich, the failure of rulers to manage the ambitions of sons and wives. These failures divided and weakened the state, making it helpless against powerful external enemies. Isaiah and Jeremiah pointed to the continued presence of God with the Israelites in their national calamity and to the possibility of reestablishing a righteous nation, when external forces permit the return from exile.
Jesus Brings the Prophetic Word
Jesus aligns himself with the prophetic tradition. He reveals God's will through his words, projecting authority in his preaching and teaching. "The kingdom of God is upon you. Repent, and believe the gospel." (Mk 1:14) "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to see right prevail. They shall be satisfied. Blessed are the poor, ?the sorrowful, ?the gentle, ?the merciful. " "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, your mind, and your strength. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." And his parables are stories which reveal the nature of God and God's kingdom. The good neighbor is the despised Samaritan - or should I say Palestinian - who cares for the Jew who falls among thieves. God is always ready to forgive. God rejoices in the repentance of a sinner, just as the father pardons and throws a party for the repentant son who wasted his inheritance on debauchery, alcohol, and cocaine. On the day of judgment, Christ will separate the sheep from the goats. Those who do not welcome the stranger, do not clothe the naked, do not feed the hungry and homeless, and do not visit the prisoner will go away to eternal punishment.
Living the Word
It is not just his striking and memorable speech that gives Jesus authority. His words gain authority from his ministry. Jesus Christ is the Word, but the Word made flesh. He lives authority.
He heals the blind and the lame; he heals the mentally ill, like the man at Capernaum and Mary Magdalene.
He forgives sin: the promiscuous Samaritan woman at the well; Zacchaeus, the contemptible tax collector.
And being Word made Flesh, he is faithful to the end to God's call to obedience. He recognizes that he is likely to suffer the death of a prophet. Jesus doesn't want this outcome. He prays that he may be spared the cup of martyrdom. But he understands that his obedience to God, speaking the truth to the power of Rome and Rome's puppets, the Jewish religious authorities, will result in his death. And in his obedience to accept even the death of a common criminal on a cross, his authority is fully tested.
But that is, of course, not the end of the story. God confirmed Jesus' authority in his resurrection, his triumph over death. And thus Paul exults, God "has highly exalted him and given Him the name which is above every name ? that [our tongues] should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11).
Our Task: Faithfulness to True Authority
It is part of being human to seek authority for the decisions we make about our lives. That authority usually comes from words. Whom shall we trust for decisions about our health? How can we know about what we should eat and not eat and what medications should we take or avoid? If we are wise, we will continue to try to find out what we can, stay current about new discoveries, and test the advice in our own lives. But we must recognize that no medical authority is infallible and that we can not eliminate all risks to our health. We should not make health our obsession, our god.
Whom shall we trust about how to preserve our financial assets, if we have any left? Nobody really knows when the current economic downturn will end. Second half of this year? Next year? Or are we in a trough like the world depression of the 1930s which lasted more than 10 years. There is no final authority on the economy and finance. We should just do the best we can, be prudent, and reflect that it is not the size of our estate, not the size of our home, and not our credit rating which defines us, but something quite different. Otherwise we are making financial security our god.
Whom shall we trust about the security and prosperity of our country? We have just come through an inspiring election and inauguration, at least for a solid majority of the American people. And history indicates to us that in times of severe crisis, an American political leader - a Lincoln, a Roosevelt - has been able to come up with answers which work. Those leaders showed the persistence and character to bring us through the crisis together. We hope that will be the case with our new leader, who has already demonstrated a capacity to turn words into authority. But his authority remains to be tested in the maelstrom of threatening world events and the complexities of legislating and fine tuning economic policy. We should support if we agree with the direction, or offer principled criticism if we don't, but ultimately we must heed the injunction of the Psalmist, "Put not your trust in princes." (Ps. 146:3) Thine - God's - is the kingdom, the power and the glory.
In the end we need to follow the authority of Jesus, God's Word made flesh. Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh in words, life, death and resurrection. He is our authority. He calls us
To give our ultimate allegiance to God, not to money, not to our health and not to politics; we must set aside these other gods. As Paul says in our lesson from I Cor. 8, "on earth there are many ? gods ?. Yet for us there is one God."
He calls us to love our neighbors - particularly the poor, the outcast, the disadvantaged, the addicted;
To forgive those who sin against us; forgive them again and again and again; Feed the hungry, house the homeless, comfort the sorrowful, and care for the sick and those who lack health insurance;
To be peacemakers in our community and in the world;
To love our enemies - Republicans if you are a Democrat, Dallas Cowboy fans; those who spitefully use us - how can we love them, and Islamic radicals. To face our own illnesses and death with the faith that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.
Some 1600 years ago, Augustine told his congregation at Hippo, "Make sure your life sings the same tune as your mouth."
It is up to us to take these authoritative words of Jesus Christ and make them sing in our lives. Amen.