Rev Stephanie Wells

Theme ” The Light Shines”

Epiphany 4

TEXTS:          Deuteronomy 18: 15-20,                    Mark 1: 21-28

Our news is often full of the cry that the young have no respect for authority. The strange thing is that we have heard this comment every generation as the young rebel against the rules and expectations of their elders.

‘Authority’ is a word that carries a lot of baggage. At this time of year we think of the authority teachers need in the classroom to make sure pupils actually get to learn. Teachers hope they won’t get students with authority issues – the ones that challenge their authority every moment. In turn pupils hope that they won’t get a teacher this year with authority issues either; the ones that are bossy and mean, and even worse the ones that have no control and let the classroom become a war zone where no one learns anything and each day is a case of the survival of the fittest.

We hear of parents too who have authority issues with their children; either being too soft or too tough on them. The government and its various agencies have also been worried about how parents exercise authority over their children. Unfortunately, according to many media reports, parents are either too harsh and should have their children taken off them or are accused of not taking enough responsibility for their child’s action and are told to be tougher. With all these conflicting ideas on authority it’s a wonder more parents don’t simply give up.

In the church we also get conflicting suggestions on this thing called authority. So much so I wonder whether some of us haven’t given up too. We are called to respect the authority of scripture. Which is something most people shouldn’t have too much problem about – right? Wrong! Because everyone who calls on the authority of the bible seems to have a different idea on what this means.

Some believe they can find a bible verse that supports everything they believe; (please note the order I said that). Some believe God dictated every word, in the language of the King James version, and this means other versions are evil. Some believe that every word has a divine meaning, or a cosmic meaning, or a hidden meaning based on a special code, usually their own. Bible passages have been used to justify wars, slavery, greed, all kinds of things we might regard as evil. Is it any wonder then that some people, even Christians, have become a little cynical about the claim of scriptural authority.

We Christians are also told to respect the authority of the pastor, the priest, the elder, and the minister because they have been called by God into a leadership role. Does it escape some of these leaders that we are all called by God? And what sort of authority? We believe that our Christian leaders should be trusted because God has given them authority but too often we are disappointed by people who abuse others in the name of Jesus. How far these people of God have fallen we say as we see another priest charged with molesting little boys, another minister caught in adultery, another church leader accused of financial impropriety, another church split due to a power struggle between the elders.

Counsellors have coined the term ‘spiritual abuse’ to describe the suffering of clients who have found themselves victims of Christian leaders who have completely misinterpreted the word ‘authority’. These people have been told to believe someone’s words without question, to regard their leader as without fault, the only person able to get them to heaven and so on and so on. I don’t know about you but that sounds more like a cult than a Christian church but it happens again and again. Bluntly it is an abuse of power and the saddest thing is it is done in the name of Jesus, so when the victim realises the abuse and leaves they often abandon God as well.

Unfortunately as we have reacted against these abuses of power in the Church we as Christians have lost something too. We have got embarrassed about what we believe. When we try talking to people about Jesus they bring up example after example of people who have claimed to be Christian and done bad things. We can’t honestly defend many of these actions and so it becomes harder and harder to openly share our faith.

(At least I’m hoping someone else besides me has these problems…?) In a word we have abdicated the authority of what we believe.

The two readings we just heard give us some alternative views about ‘authority’ which may help. First, in Deuteronomy it says that “a prophet will come from among you”. This was a prophecy fulfilled by Jesus. He was born and lived among the people and remained with them as he taught. He came from them. He certainly didn’t appear one day on a cloud and tell everyone he had come from God and knew what to do. It shows that Christian authority should be given to those we know, people who we know are authentic.

In Mark we are told Jesus teaches with authority. But there is no suggestion here or anywhere in the bible that he taught in a bossy way, or that he forced people to do what he wanted. His authority came from knowledge – he knew God, and he knew what his message was. He didn’t have to persuade or manipulate because he had the confidence that he was right.

Well, that might be alright for Jesus, you might say. After all he was the Son of God, of course he knew God, he had a direct connection. Well, probably, but can I point out that just before this example of Jesus’ authority we have Mark recording Jesus’ time of temptation in the wilderness.

Now Mark doesn’t tell us much about this wilderness experience but in Matthew and Luke’s versions we can see that all of the issues were to do with authority. Was it right for Jesus to order stones to become bread? There is no question about whether he could but whether he should.

Another temptation was whether Jesus would bow to Satan’s authority on earth. Jesus rejected it then and shows by his dismissal of the unclean spirit in this Mark reading that he has power enough himself. The third temptation was more subtle in that Jesus was being lured to abuse his own position as the Son of God to force God to protect him.

We know that Jesus resisted the temptation to give up his God-given position but neither did he succumb to the lure of relying on it either. In the same way he also resisted the pull to misuse his abilities. In the same way we as Christians need to reclaim our position as Christians. We need to be proud of our status as the chosen ones of God, but we also need to learn, as Jesus did, that this is not to be treated as a right to do anything we like, but as a responsibility.

Like Jesus we are called from among our people, we live among them, and are no different and yet we are. We know God and that knowledge gives us our authority. Not the authority to abuse or boss people around but the confidence that being a Christian is important. That we know something vital, a someone who is worth standing up for, a someone who makes us strong enough to amaze all those around us with the power of our convictions.

So, as we face a new year of work and school, caring and recreational activities let us live our lives with authority, because God is with us.