Give heed to my teaching, O my people, turn your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will reveal the hidden meaning of things in the past. What we have heard and known, what our parents have told us, we will not hide from their grandchildren, but declare to the next generation the testimony that you gave to Jacob and the law you appointed in Israel, which you commanded them to teach their children, that the next generation might know them, children yet unborn, and these in turn should arise, and tell their children, that they should put their trust in you, and not forget your great deeds, but keep all your commandments.
(Psalm 78:1-7, Voices United)
When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
(Matthew 21:23-27, NRSV)
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It occurred to me that if this question were to be asked about me, the answer would in fact be quite simple and not all that dramatic. "By what authority are you doing these things?" Well, depending on your perspective I guess you can either thank or blame the former Search Committee and Lakeridge Presbytery, and I suppose that ultimately you could place the responsibility on Toronto Conference for ordaining me back in 1994 or Emmanuel College for giving me the necessary degree. The point is that there's a clearly delineated path that leads to me being here today, with the right to actually share my thoughts with you. I didn't just walk in off the street and commandeer the pulpit, and if I had you might not have welcomed me with open arms! What I'm saying is that I have very little authority of my own. What authority I have is a derived authority that comes from those who for whatever reason decided that I was worthy of being blessed with that authority. But when it's applied to Jesus the question becomes either more complicated or more straightforward - and it's a question that's often been applied to Jesus, and never moreso than during his own ministry. Jesus' constant challenging of tradition often led him into conflict with the religious leaders who didn't like him upsetting their apple cart. What authority did Jesus have to challenge the passed down traditions of those who had spent a lifetime studying and teaching God's Word to others? What authority did he have to suggest that there might be a different way of relating to God? That question - and the broader question of what authority any of us have to share faith with others and to teach others about God - is at the heart of the Gospel passage today.
A lot of people possess credentials, but they don't necessarily feel comfortable claiming the authority that goes along with the credentials. Writing in the American Journal of Critical Care, registered nurse Kathleen Dracup wrote the following, describing the experience of a young nurse only six months into her nursing career:
Every day, she woke up with a sense of dread. Driving to the hospital, she would feel queasy as she began to think about the hours ahead. Would she be able to complete everything that needed to be done during her long shift? Would she have the knowledge and judgment she needed? Her mind would race through several potential disaster scenarios; she wondered if today would be the day that she might harm a patient, perhaps fatally. Terror was never far away. The drive home was not any better. It usually involved a review of the mistakes caught just in time - the near misses. She reviewed diagnoses that she had felt uncertain about, medications she had looked up but already forgotten, and technology that had baffled her. She reviewed conversations, some with colleagues and some with family members, and wished she had said something different, or just had more time to listen and to consider what she was saying. It was an excruciating time in her new career as a nurse.
Here was a woman who possessed all the credentials necessary to give her authority, but she didn't feel worthy to claim the authority. The very idea of authority frightened her. In the light of this Gospel passage, I wondered what we could learn about authority from Jesus - and whether we have the authority to act on his behalf and in his name in the world around us. Many Christians don't want to claim that authority. Many prefer to leave it to others, because surely there must be someone who knows more or who's more eloquent or who's better trained. My goodness - even Moses raised those excuses when God called him to exercise authority, so it's not surprising that many of us still shy away from responding to God's call. Authority frightens most of us. We're pretty good at criticizing those with authority, but we really don't want to have their authority. We love to criticize our politicians, but how many of us actually want to run for office? Teachers are often criticized - mostly by people who'd run as fast as they could from having to stand in front of 30 kids and actually have to teach them! It seems to me that what we learn from Jesus in this passage is that we have to be prepared to claim the authority that God has granted to each of us in order to fulfil the calling that God has given to each of us: the calling to share the gospel of Christ; to share the love of God; to do the work of Jesus' continuing ministry.
Jesus claimed his authority and he exercised his authority. He wasn't frightened by it or shy about it. He went about the work God had given him to do. When the chief priests and elders questioned him, he didn't even respond to their question. Instead, he infuriated them (and confused them) even more by answering their question with a question: "I will also ask you one question," he said. In the midst of this exchange I think the point that was being made was that there shouldn't be any question about Jesus' authority. They had seen his ministry. They knew what Jesus had done. They knew he had healed people from sickness and delivered people from demons and even raised people from the dead. "Who gave you this authority?" the chief priests and elders asked Jesus. Well, as we reflect upon the displays of Jesus' authority the answer becomes clear: his authority had come from God. And he had not shied away from it. He had claimed it, embraced it and set to work with it - serving others, and bringing the news of God's love and grace to those who needed it the most.
Needless to say, we do not possess the same authority as Jesus. But that doesn't exempt us from responsibility; neither does it mean that we don't have the authority necessary to accept God's call in our own lives - a call to take possession of God's teachings to us, to recognize the blessings contained in them and to pass them on faithfully. We do that among ourselves when we celebrate Holy Communion - Paul says in 1 Corinthians that the whole purpose of Holy Communion is to "remember" - to "remember the Lord's death until he comes." But we're also called to share the word and blessings of God beyond our community, because we are the inheritors of God's Word from generations dating back millennia who have come before us and we have both the authority and the responsibility to pass this inheritance on - and, of course, we are called to use our authority wisely and always in the light of the example of Jesus. Ann Bradstreet, in the book "Meditations Divine And Moral," wrote that "authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge - fitter to bruise than to polish." The authority we possess from God is to be used to heal and not to bruise and to pass on a faith in Jesus that offers wholeness to all the world.
This is what Psalm 78 was teaching us. We will "declare to the next generation the testimony ..." the Psalm said. That is our testimony about God; our testimony about Jesus. The Psalm tells us and all God's people that both authority and responsibility to teach the faith belongs to each one of us. Left to ourselves, we're often a bundle of weakness and uncertainty, but if we live each day remembering the word of God then we can change lives. So - be filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered by the Living God! God has given us both the ability and the authority to live and speak in such a way that passes the good news of Jesus on to our children, our grandchildren, our neighbours and our friends. Indeed, to all the world!
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