September 28, 2008
The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 78:1-4,12-16; Philippians 2:1-13;
Matthew 21:23-32
There are at least two sermon topics in the gospel reading this morning. One on authority and one on doing as God calls us to do. Though I love the parable about the two sons: one who said, “Oh, sure dad, I will do it!” and the other who said, “No way, Dad, not me, I’m not gonna do it.” And then each doing the opposite of what they said. It is an intriguing look at human nature and how we each are both of these sons at some point or another in our lives, sometimes even simultaneously. I will merely say on this topic, “Think about it!”
For it is on the topic of authority that I wish to speak this week. It is one we all wrestle with. And it is one that we as a nation are wrestling with in this election season. The outrageous thing that Jesus did in this lesson this morning was to speak in an authoritative way about scripture.
In those days, as in these, there were those who were trained in scripture and they were the ones who were to interpret and teach from it. So the religious ones were angry that an untrained carpenter was teaching as any chief priest or elder might.
We do not have this problem today. Anyone can read commentaries, meet with a bible study group and discuss scripture and what it means to them. Academic and personal opinions about scripture are readily available to all on the Internet. So the question of authority to preach or teach is a slightly muted for us. It’s not something we worry about too much.
Yet do we worry when what I or anyone else preaches from the pulpit is something we disagree with, something perhaps perceived as too political or too controversial? It is when that happens that we in these modern times hear the complaints that the chief priests and elders were making to Jesus.
How often do we hear, “Keep politics out of the pulpit?” Yet truth be known that was exactly why the chief priests and elders were angry with Jesus. His way of telling the gospel story was so relevant to the people who were hearing it, so political if you will, and so out of sync with the way things had always been told and taught that he raised the ire of the religious establishment of his day and time. Politics and authority are often partners in this world. Hopefully that will not be so in the next!
But I have to give Jesus credit. He “parried the thrust,” so to speak, and instead of answering their accusation made in the form of a question – by whose authority did he dare to teach? – he asked them a question right back. He asked about the baptism of John, and by whose authority it came! Now, John was well beloved and the religious folks who would do in Jesus knew that. So they knew they were caught between a rock and a hard place.
That is the way of the teachings of Jesus, then and now. We are caught between a rock and a hard place: the truth of God’s unfailing love and grace – and our own humanity. When teachings from preachers or others, trained or untrained, ring true to us, we need to examine the melody ringing in our hearts. Does the message resonate because our humanity is being given an excuse to keep on doing what we are doing? Or is God’s truth so overwhelmingly being proclaimed that we cannot doubt its authority and we must change? Our humanity will often get the better of us when we ask that question. It got the better of the very religious faithful who were angry because Jesus told the story with a new authority, one that denied them the place they had worked so hard to claim or maybe had just been born into. Who knows? But we do know they were threatened when their authority was challenged by the new order of things Jesus was teaching.
The authority of Jesus was so obviously of the second kind that resonated with the people, the authority of God’s truth, challenging them to change, that it was threatening to the chief priests and elders. I would dare say that there has been no other voice since then that would have that kind of authority. And we delude ourselves if we think someone, anyone, is golden tongued enough to proclaim the truth of scripture unfailingly in this life. But the challenge to us religious types, trained and untrained, is to remember that no one of us has the authority that Jesus had that day, or on any day of his life.
So where do we get our authority? I would say only from God – only. Our authority is in our faith, but that faith is also blemished by our humanity. So we really do not have any authority of our own. Our faith is made holy by God’s love and grace, but never is the person, all alone, the one with authority – never! We human beings are ones who are to point the way to the authority of Jesus. There is no way we can be any kind of authority in the realm of teaching God’s love; we merely point toward God. Father, Son, and Spirit.
Now all of this is very esoteric, I realize. And I have been pondering the question: how does it get played out in the very real realm of human living in the twenty-first century in the
That is the hard part. As we watch the debates or listen to the men, and now one woman, running for the highest positions in our country – very powerful positions (by default) in the whole world, the question of authority strikes me as the primary question they put before us. Whose message resonates with the gospel and the word of God, with our faith and our basic value system in a way that serves the whole? Whose message resonates in a way that challenges us to turn more faithfully as a nation towards God? Who serves not just me and my needs but serves the whole, who serves the needs of the whole country, rich and poor, cripple and whole, no matter what race or education level or country of origin? And beyond our country, whose vision serves not just this country but the whole world?
What authority does each claim? How is that claim lived out in their lives? What authority does the political party they belong to claim on them and demand of them that seems to NOT resonate with either what they are saying or what we know as people of faith resonates with what we have been taught? These are laborious questions, I know; but when it comes to politics, we need to be people of faith first and republicans and democrats way last.
To live out our lives under the authority of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, we need to learn to hold lightly any authority heaped on us by human institutions, be it elected official, bishop, president of a company, even owner, teacher or principal, parent or coach. For each of us here today has a position that could claim authority either now or at some point in our lives. Yet, the truth is when we are most living as Jesus taught, and using both hands to point away from ourselves and toward the grace and love of God, we are the most authoritative we humans ever get to be. Any of us! All of us!
And you know, the parable of the two sons fits into this sense of authority I have been speaking about this morning. When we do that which God has asked us to do, even when we absolutely deny that we are going to do it, even when we would much rather live by our own authority, we are pointing the way to God’s authority in our lives. When we make all the right noises about submitting to God’s will and authority, having the right Christian language, saying the right prayers, but then fail to do what God asks of us, we are putting our hope in our own authority, our own humanity, rather than in God’s.
These are interesting times we live in, the economy is scary, the elections have us on edge. There are religious and political forces threatening our nation for the first time in a very long time. But I would say that if we are courageous enough to stand up to the worldly powers, be they political, religious, or social, our faith will give us all that we need.
I cannot imagine anyone disagreeing with the need to standup for the authority of God. But what I can see us doing is disagreeing about what is Godly and what is human. So if we keep talking to each other, the truth, as Jesus told it, will resonate in all of our hearts, not just a few. If we keep talking to each other and listening and recognizing that those most opposed to us also have a piece of the truth, we will all of us be able to point to God’s authority, together.
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd