Sermon for 31 January 2021

Sermon on Authority

Authority is an interesting concept. It can be seen as good or bad.
I was going to start this by telling everyone to stand up and see who obeyed without question but I can’t see you anyway so you can tell me whatever you want.
As I said, it has two sides, positive and negative. When the woman who has been speeding through your neighbourhood gets a ticket; that is good authority. However when YOU get the speeding ticket that is definitely bad.
In today’s scripture it states that “Jesus spoke with authority not like the scribes” I think that is a pivotal statement and one that has a lot more power than we realize. Authority is often entrenched into our society so that we don’t even question it.
We read this week that the Governor General has resigned due to a bad or “toxic” work environment. She worked approximately 40 months and is now going to receive $150,000 per year pension. You may or may not agree with that but regardless you feel relatively powerless to challenge it. That is just the way it is. We know that authority is embedded in the structure.
Also this week there has been a big upset on Wall Street. Traditionally it has been a fairly closed system. Some people. Who were watching GameStop, noticed some discrepancies in the trading and through social media were able to band together and cause billions of dollars of upset for the stock market. It is a huge shock for a system that thought it was pretty tight.
In Jesus’ world they had similar systems. I don’t know how much the Governor General was paid back then but the Roman Government and the Jewish structure felt they were pretty invincible. People were to cater to the authority of the status quo.
Then Jesus came along and they said he had a different kind of authority; one that challenged the scribes and eventually challenged Rome.
In the book of Romans in the bible Paul tells us we should obey the authority of the government but by the time we get to Revelation that attitude has changed. John of Patmos says the seven world leaders are in sync with evil. In other words the credibility of the embedded authority has changed.
Authority is based on many different platforms or sources. There is money, tradition, fear, knowledge and several others plus the one Jesus spoke of which I will come back to.
Money has always been a powerful force. We see that in our world all the time. Wealthy corporations and institutions seem to be above the law. Through history, the followers of the humble Jesus became the richest organization in the world. The Roman Catholic Church. That allowed them to have authority over billions of people. Some of it was good and some was bad but it was partly the money that gave them that power.
It is not just in international scenarios that money has power. You see it in everyday situations; interpersonal relationships; friendships, marriages, relatives, mortgages, debt Money often carries power.
Tradition is another source of authority. Some of you have run into the expression: “It’s always been done this way” and that is not just in the church. Again, sometimes it is good to keep things the same and sometimes not. Someone once said that getting people to change their traditions is like getting an ocean liner to make a U-turn. It might happen but it will take a long time. Tradition carries a lot of momentum. Do you remember the song “Tradition” from Fiddler on the Roof?
A third source of authority is fear. It is very powerful and very easily used. We see it in everything. It is not always bad. If you stand at the edge of a 300 foot cliff you may experience fear and not jump over. That is a good thing but typically it is used to force people to perform a certain way.
The church has used the fear of hell to control people for years. Governments have used fear of warfare to control the populations and the fear of jail to make people obey regulations. Again depending on the laws it is not always a bad thing.
There are people on both sides of that discussion in regard to this Covid pandemic. Some think the rules should be enforced. Some think there should be less rules.
Fear is also used to by groups to enforce their ideals. Racism, sexism, classism, homophobia. Any group that doesn’t want a different group around them invents horrible images of what will happen if “That” group moves in.
It can be anything from outright violence such as lynchings to what is called NIMBYism. That stands for Not In My Back Yard. People may say they don’t have any trouble with shelters or group homes or low-cost housing just don’t put it near me. The justification can be based on projected violence all the way to loss of property value.
But fear is a source of power.
Finally the fourth authority is wisdom or knowledge. Typically wisdom is used to uplift or strengthen people. The more we learn the more confident we are. But knowledge can be detrimental if used inappropriately.
Robert Oppenheimer often called the father of the atomic bomb told President Truman that he felt he had “blood on his hands” for what his invention had been used for in Hiroshima.
On the other hand, wisdom has guided our human race. It is an authority which we often cite when we need guidance or direction.
Jesus had tremendous wisdom, on the best way to live for both our personal lives and our world.
The final authority is the one of which Jesus spoke. It is the one that the people around him recognized as new and different.
It is the authority of Love.
It can be stated in a short word but it cannot be summed up.
It is the most powerful authority but it can never be enforced.
So often we profess that we live by love but we quickly change to another form of authority so we can be in control.
If love was our guiding force there wouldn’t be any sexism, classism, racism, homophobia and all the other isms that we are afraid of. There wouldn’t be any poverty, or war.
It is difficult for us to imagine a world without all these things. Even Jesus says we will always have the poor but at least if we are motivated by love we won’t be satisfied to let them stay poor.
Jesus concept of love was pretty new to the world. It still is argued against as being weak and ineffectual but love is the ultimate authority to which we should constantly challenge ourselves.
As Christians we follow Jesus. We preach the God of love, yet employing love as the ultimate authority is not easy. It may mean losing control. It may mean sacrifice. Jesus not only spoke of love, he acted in love.
We are challenged to steer ourselves and the world in the pathway of love.
PRAYER
God,. We worship you as being the source of love. We worship you as being the ultimate foundation of wisdom. We pray on this day for clarity of vision. We pray that we might focus on your wisdom and guidance. Help us to understand the power of your love. Enable us to love ourselves enough that we may love others. Empower us to see love as being not just our first choice but our only choice. We give you thanks, even on a cold day for our very existence. We give you thanks for your son, Jesus.
We pray in silence, for those who need special care at this time…..
Now we pray in the way Jesus taught us.
Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. lead us not into temptation. but deliver us from evil. for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. forever and ever Amen
SERVICE January 31, 2021
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Thanks to helpers: Cheryl, Cathy, Aubrey
Opening Prayer God, in this time of worship, help us focus on you. Help
us rid ourselves of anger and hatred, that we may be filled with forgiveness and love. Help us to empty ourselves of busyness that we may be filled with your knowledge and wisdom. We ask for your presence in our lives. Amen
Hymn – 223 Eternal Unchanging
Scripture Mark 1: 21-28
Reflection Authority
Prayer
Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 333 Love Divine
Benediction
Go now in Peace
Go now in peace, Never be afraid
God will go with you, each hour of every day
Go now in faith, steadfast strong and true
Know God will guide you in all you do,
Go now in love and show you believe
Reach out to others so all the world can see
God will be there, watching from above
Go now in peace, in faith and in love
Amen, Amen, Amen
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