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Authority Given Mark 6:1 – 13; II Samuel 5:1 – 5, 9 – 10 Barbara Brown Taylor, one of America’s finest preachers and an Episcopal priest, tells the story of calling on a 97-year-old woman. Taylor had gone to visit the woman and take her communion. She set out the bread and wine close to the woman who was huddled in her wheelchair. Since the older woman was almost blind Dr. Taylor suggested that they not bother with the prayer book. “I’ll read all the lines — yours and mine — and you just join in on the parts that you know.” The Episcopal liturgy at communion has a responsive prelude and then the priest does the actual blessing of the elements. The older woman nodded and they began — each delivering their lines because both knew their parts by heart. It then came to the priest’s portion and Taylor raised her arms in the priestly manner for the Great Thanksgiving prayer and the woman also raised her arms, reciting word for word the prayer of the priest. “When I realized she meant to say the whole prayer with me, I waited for her to catch up and we prayed it together, our voices looping through one another in an unstudied duet. I had thought those were my lines (shares Barbara Brown Taylor), but they turned out to be hers, as well. No one had fooled her; all these years as she sat watching someone else bless the bread and the wine. She knew she also was a priest!” (B.B. Taylor, The Preaching Life. She knew she was a priest! But from whence came her authority?! And how do we know about our authority? And when do we realize (not just clergy) but all of you as well that we are ministers/priests? Our Gospel passage from Mark today actually has two vignettes. The first is about Jesus’ authority and how folks questioned that. The second is about the authority Jesus gave to others. The Gospel writer of Mark presents Jesus so well as a regular guy — a man with whom we can relate. This Jesus is time-bound, and someone that people know. He had a real mother who provided him some issues at times. He also had real brothers — again, who were bothersome, just like our brothers and sisters can be. This Jesus (although extraordinary) had the regular complications of life that we encounter. In this particular passage, Jesus had merely been teaching and doing a few minor deeds of power like healing — nothing spectacular. But he obviously was teaching with the wisdom of God. The locals were astounded, offended, and did not believe. Something was wrong here! This hometown hero was no hero! Something about his ‘authority’ did not sit right. He obviously was making people very uncomfortable. Jesus passes this off as a normal social dilemma. The issue is not that hometown folks aren’t proud of the people who grew up in their midst. Sure, they are! And sure, we would be. It is only when our hometown children grow up and begin to tell us what to do, or how to change, or what would be best for us that it becomes meddling. When this happens, our reaction is less about the recommendations and more about the “where do he/she think they came from? Where did they get the idea they have some authority beyond what we gave them?” And this, clearly, was what was happening to Jesus. His teaching and his healing powers were not something he inherited from Mary and Joseph. His wisdom was not that gleaned from the village life in Nazareth. The objection to Jesus was that the people who had watched him grow up knew that his power, his presence, his authority were based on something beyond what they knew intimately and parochially. The second part of the passage in Mark is when Jesus endowed others with that same kind of power, presence and authority. He sent them two by two, giving them fairly strict instructions about what they could carry (or not) and how they should deal with the unbelievers. These were the twelve disciples that Jesus was sending out. They had no special training — other than the experience of living with and watching and hearing Jesus for a while. The only authority they were given was through him and based on what God would provide each of them. He sent them out in twos. They each had a companion. They also each had another to balance and check the intensity of the authority given them. Two sets of eyes and ears to see and hear; two hearts to feel; two sets of arms and hands to respond. Christianity is always — no exception on this — always lived out in community of at least two people and usually more. Jesus called others to help from the beginning of his ministry. He empowered them — gave them authority — when he wanted that ministry to grow. And as we glean from this passage, he linked them together to do the work, to support each other, to balance each other, to assure and challenge each other. This continues to be a key concept for Christianity today. Never do we live, proclaim, celebrate our faith alone. To be Christian is to be a part of community. Much later than this initial authority giving of Jesus — in fact, about 1500 years later — the church of Jesus Christ would begin a major upheaval and it would be about issues of authority: authority to teach, authority to heal, and authority to share in the ministry that was begun by Jesus Christ. The questions for the church at that time, were:
And so began the Great Reformation — the reforming of life in the Church. Community life demands appropriate guidelines for behavior. Democracy brings a particular type of order that includes rules and laws. Life in the Church is never blind to those realities. Additionally, there is — and I believe must be — a respect for the body of teaching and tradition that passes through the generations of the church. But most importantly, for us as church today, is for us to recognize and receive and live out the authority that Jesus Christ gives us. We are to share the wisdom of God, to perform acts of healing and compassion to those we see and meet in life’s paths, to strengthen and bring hope to people we know and love. The authority to do this ministry does not come from each other — although we have to be in constant communication about it. The authority to act out our ministries does not come because of our inheritance from parents or from the length of time we have been sitting in one particular church or seat in the congregation — although commitment in presence is a gift. The authority to proclaim a ministry does not come merely because we have an opinion, or have some money, or even are gifted in some important and cherished way — although all of those are added to the treasures of any community life. The authority for ministry through the church of Jesus Christ comes when a person knows assuredly that the life given to him or to her was designed with special and important gifts to be used in a community that will proclaim hope and compassion and peace and love and justice to God’s world and the community affirms that gift. That’s the ministry to which we have been called. Each of us has a part in that. Each of us is being called. And when we listen and hear, we will respond with the true authority of Jesus Christ. The work will always be to build up the community. Just as with Jesus, there will be those who are astounded, offended and will not believe. They didn’t stop Jesus. They didn’t stop the disciples. They have not stopped the church. They will not stop those who are empowered with the presence of God today. We are all called to be priests — just like the woman in the wheelchair who lifted her hands to bless the bread and wine. We are all able to claim the power given to us as it is supported by a community of faith. We are all called into a ministry that can change this world. SW |
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