JUNE 9, 2024 3rd Sunday of Pentecost
Readings: 1st Samuel 8:4-11; Corinthians 4:13-21; Mark 3:20-35
Who is in Authority?
In all my years in Emergency Services the number one question, the number one concern on everyone’s mind is “who is in authority?” That’s the person who shows passion to excel in their field of expertise. They’re experts. An expert is someone from out of town who has some experience different from yours. Today, responders use what’s called Incident Command System. The incident commander is the first person to arrive and controls the scene until an officer arrives and takes authority over the incident. Everything must go through the IC. The IC makes all the decisions. Yet each responder has had training through reading manuals and practicing skills. They have in place Standard Operating Procedures that must be followed, being enacted by the Chief or Operations Manager. They are the one that has Authority. Failure to do so leads to being called onto the carpet. Authority is important to humans.
I have been trying to get over to you these past weeks our Mission of Christ, is the authority of God and His standards. There must be passion in our hearts to go out into a world in need. Passion gives us strength to do things that otherwise would be impossible. Strength comes from God through the Holy Spirit. If we let that passion go too far we become judgmental of others when our sight gets clouded by self-righteousness and belief in our own minds we are doing it right. That leads to unclean lips that others hear and see. However, God can clean up our lips when we’re reminded what Christ did for us. We must yield to the one who has true authority. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess. On the scene of an incident if everyone is in charge, or if every decision is questioned, nothing gets done and people can die. There must be one person in charge who has the authority to make those decisions. All on the scene must yield to that person.
Jesus is a figure of controversy and concern by the religious leaders of his time. In chapter 3, he is already in trouble with his family, his followers, political and religious leaders. In the Gospel, they feel Jesus challenges tradition, he flaunts authority, and they believe he dishonors the family. Mark sets up the dynamic tension of the story. Mark is widely acknowledged as the earliest of the written Gospels that we have, so the author of Mark follows no script to anyone else or no one else’s accounts. It is believed that the other two Synoptic Gospels, utilized some of Marks writings to develop their Gospel. That is why they are called Synoptic. But let’s get back to Mark. Mark raises the question, “Who is in authority?” Does authority come from tradition and religion, or does true authority come from God? Mark says that the authority from God in Jesus the Christ trumps the authority of the established faith. Just like in the game of Euchre, we know that an Ace has authority in everything because it is the highest card but not when it comes to the Right or left Bower. The rules change, authority changes.
Allow me to give you some background; the established Jewish church along with other churches of the time had intermingled with the Greek and Roman gods. That means that if one religion practiced like what the Jews practiced, it was adopted within the Temple. Basically, we call it universalism today. The practices had been done for so long, it became tradition and a reality. The established authority of Scribes confronted this newly proclaimed authority, Jesus, to discredit him by accusing him of being possessed by demons. Jesus deflects their accusations by saying that Satan wouldn’t destroy his own handiwork. The message is clear, evil doesn’t cast out evil, good does. Mark then employs a cryptic and somewhat confusing statement from Jesus, “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first binding the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered” (v. 27). If you are going to steal from someone you must make them incapable of fighting back to defend their property.
Some scholars believe this statement means that Jesus has already taken care of Satan for the time being. The prince of darkness won’t be much of a problem while Jesus is around. Others believe that Jesus is putting the religious leadership on notice for their corrupt teachings. He has come to “tie up” the establishment and usher in a new church with God in authority. Throughout the Gospels do we see Satan challenge Jesus one on one after the trials in the desert until just before he is crucified? We do hear Jesus say to Peter “Satan get the behind me”, but not one on one with Jesus himself. There is a third perspective for our day of a “house divided” within mainline Protestant Christianity. Perhaps Jesus is offering a word of caution—if the strong man, defined as our faith, is “tied up” in senseless debate, red tape, endless discussion/ committee meetings, non-productive planning, power plays, institutional preservation, and political maneuvering, then virtually any “thief” can sneak in and plunder the house. In other words, all kinds of silly and simplistic alternatives to serious faith can attract thieves while organized religion isn’t paying attention. We are so busy looking at the forest, we cannot see the trees, and Paul Harvey called it on the head sixty-one years ago.
1st Samuel 8 reminds us that our entire Jewish and Christian history is a cycle of making and breaking covenants with God. We are God’s people; then we go and take matters into our own hands, only to reject the holy and unconditional blessings and guidance of God. When will we ever learn? Time after time, God promises to be our God if we will simply agree to be God’s people. Yet, each time we fail. This is why we need redemption through Jesus Christ. What is impossible for us, is possible only through the miraculous grace of God. The people confronted Samuel for a King. Everybody else around us has a King, why can’t we? This was elders in the Temple, “Everybody else is doing it?” They forgot that God was their Almighty King. Now granted Samuel was getting up in age and his sons were less than responsible and would not make good leaders. They forgot who was in authority. They were preparing to be assimilated with those around them because resistance is futile.
Spend a few moments in a bookstore, online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble even Goodwill and scan the titles in the sections on “religion,” “spirituality,” or “new age.” What do you see? On any given day, you will see a wide variety of titles on prosperity gospels, praying your way to health, contacting the spirits, “secrets” to success, encounters with angels, encounters with demons, “Christian” reincarnation, earth spirituality—you get the picture. A thousand and one options, from the ridiculous to the sublime, all aimed at a culture that says it is “spiritual, but not necessarily religious.” We are barraged by shows on TV with these subjects. The strong man of organized religion may very well be tied to its own ecclesial throne, while pretenders are free to pillage and plunder those spiritually hungry, seeking their truth, not the truth of God and His authority.
2 Corinthian today gives us confidence, assurance, and trust. These are important gifts we receive from our relationship with Jesus Christ. Sometimes, it is difficult to live with such trust and assurance. We forget that God is with us, that God will provide, and that the same Spirit that gave strength and guidance to Jesus Christ resides within us as well, our “blessed assurance”— Jesus Christ with us in all we say and do.
We who have been given the truth may be bound, but by no means are we gagged. Part of our problem is that we are willfully engaged in never-ending disagreements about who is right or wrong, who is good or evil, who is righteous and who is sinful. We are not seeking unity, harmony, reconciliation, or justice. We are merely adopting the secular culture’s passion for competition and winning no matter the cost. We must prove we are right. Forget grace and forgiveness; ignore love and mercy; disregard patience and tolerance. Let’s label justice and generosity as socialism and communism to put “those people” in their proper places. Turn religion from life-affirming, joy-producing, divine blessing into legalistic, authoritarian, proof-texting moralizing and no one must break in and bind us, because we’re doing a good enough job ourselves. Granted those aspects have their place but they are not first and foremost on the list. Christ like love is at the top.
Jesus goes on in Mark to say that any sin can be forgiven except one, blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy is one of those widely misunderstood concepts that get thrown around a lot by the people who understand it least. Contempt for God and the Word of God in thought, speech, or action is the essence of blasphemy, and judging other Christians is a primary form of blasphemy. Much of what we call “religious debate” is nothing short of blasphemy, and any time one “God fearing group” points a finger at another and disrespects or devalues the work of the Holy Spirit in the other’s faith, it is an unforgiveable sin. Yet we keep right on doing it. We stick labels on people we disagree with—like fundamentalist, conservative, liberal, progressive—heaping contempt on their heads to “prove” our own superiority. The time has come to unbind the strong man. The Wednesday Bible Study is a wonderful example of what we all should be. There is not one of us who has the exact same opinion of the Gospel. We sometimes agree to disagree, but we do not judge one another. We do debate and that sometimes changes our own opinion, but we all leave the study with a broader understanding of the Word of God.
Religion has fallen on hard times. Once religion was worn as a badge of honor, but today virtually no one wants to be thought of as religious. How many times has someone said to you that they believe but they are not RELIGIOUS? Too many people equate religion with the worst possible behaviors associated with the church—self-righteousness, judgmentalism, condemnation, prejudice, Hypocrites and intolerance. Sects, factions, denominations, splinter groups, and divisions send a message to the world that Christians can’t get our own story straight so why listen to those religious people. Our petty bickering and conflict reinforce that impression. Christians offer nothing of value than any other club or association.
What can be done? While the answer is simple, it isn’t easy. You cannot just push that red easy button and it’s done. We must set aside differences and focus instead on the Mission of Christ. Jesus says in today’s Gospel lesson is never more important today. Let’s begin here. Let’s acknowledge that we believe different things, value different things, seek different things, but at our heart and core we are all one family, children of God, and brothers and sisters of the Christ. We are not just United Methodist, Free Methodist, Episcopal Methodist, Global Methodists, Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Nazarenes and so on. It won’t change anything overnight. If we’re all on the same side, there won’t be any of “those people” left for us to dislike. God is the one in charge, not us!
(Adapted from the Abingdon Preaching Annual 2012 and Dan R. Dick)
