February 1, 2009
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Today, we live in an era that is suspicious of those with authority. People are suspicious of political authorities because they have lied so often. People are suspicious of economic authorities because the financial markets have collapsed. People are suspicious of religious authorities because they have failed to act swiftly against abuse in the church. People are suspicious of scientific authorities because the products resulting from their discoveries have in many cases devastated the environment.
Preachers and pastors feel the loss of authority. Older pastors who began their ministries shortly after World War II were granted significant authority but after the mid 1960s, each time they moved to a new pastorate, congregations granted them less and less authority than earlier in their careers. Now, I have no authority at all!
There is a story about a state governor who arrived at a church dinner very hungry. He asked for a second piece of chicken, and the woman in the serving line told him she was expected to give only one piece of chicken to each person, so that the chicken didn’t run out before the line of people did. The governor tried to take charge of the situation by informing the woman that he was the state’s governor. The woman replied, “You may be the governor but I’m in charge of the chicken. Move along, Mister.”
I was a college student in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so that makes me a part of the generation that lived by the words, “Question Authority.” I participated in a sit-in when our college administration refused to allow the students to have a jukebox in the student coffee shop. I protested America’s role in the Vietnam War and those who perpetuated white privilege, male privilege, and the privilege of the wealthy. I even questioned incessantly my mother and her constant warning for me to behave and just focus on studying. Remember, we are the generation told not to trust anyone over the age of thirty in our lives.
People We Trusted
But in the midst of suspicion and distrust, there were certain teachers or professors, trusted relatives and family friends, maybe even pastors, who gained our confidence and respect. They were the ones who told us the truth and loved us while they did it.
I have a special memory of Rev. Charles W. Griffin, who was my pastor when I was in high school. He saw in me my interest for ministry and advocated for my first paid church job, earning $10 a week to ride the school bus around the city of Boston picking up students and returning them home after Sunday school. During the Civil Rights Movement, Rev. Griffin took a stand for desegregation of schools and voters registration in the south. When you’re in high school, every minister is an authority figure, but for me, as for other youth in our church, Rev. Griffin’s preaching and guidance were authoritative. Rev. Griffin didn’t just pastor like other pastors, he is one having authority. He stood above the “scribes” of the church’s leaders, capturing our hearts and imaginations, and making the world a little less confusing.
Rev. Griffin taught us to look past the surface of things in the world around us and into our own souls. At Christmas, he and his wife, Helen would invite us over to his home for refreshments and singing in front of the fireplace. I remember he had a dark brown acoustical guitar that he would play leading us with his tenor voice in the singing of Christmas carols and holiday songs. Rev. Griffin believed in what was best in us, and knew how to bring it out. I remember him today as someone who opened doors for me that I would not have had the courage to walk through without his prompting.
My guess is that most of you have had someone, perhaps several people, like Rev. Griffin in your life—people whose teaching or counsel was authoritative for you because of who they were and how they cared for you. These people who can give us a whole new understanding of ourselves; who can tell us the truth in such a way that new possibilities of thought and action open up before us. We trust them not only because of what they know but also because we sense they have our best interests at heart.
Jesus’ Authority
In our lesson today, Mark presents Jesus to the crowds as powerful and having authority. Although we don’t know what Jesus taught, the people are astounded because Jesus gives a new teaching. Jesus does not simply mouth the teachings of Moses and the prophets. He doesn’t just explain the Torah or the writings of the scribes, or the oral tradition. The people recognize power when they see it.
We can assume that the scene began with a quiet discussion group surrounding Jesus, the rabbi who has been invited to teach in the synagogue. Things changed immediately when the demon charges into the meeting. The demon takes charge right away, asking Jesus what he is doing messing around with the kingdom of evil. The demon is a dramatic figure, challenging Jesus to let him take center stage. The demon, however frightening, is not the star of this show. Without any extra special effects, Jesus casts the demon out of the man with a word-spoken—“Be silent, and come out of him!” Jesus shows the demon and the world that he has power and authority over evil.
Jesus restored the possessed man in the synagogue to sanity, liberating him from the uncontrollable forces that had taken over his life and were destroying his personality. Jesus just didn’t talk about the kingdom of God, he demonstrated its liberating power.
Last Sunday, we spoke about Jesus announcing the kingdom of God has come near but in heralding his kingdom, he is mastering over all the forces that make human lives less human. He would go through his ministry unmasking the lies that people tell each other to protect their own power and the lies they tell themselves to resist any disturbances of the status quo. Even the demon called Jesus, the “Holy One of God” because throughout Mark’s gospel, we will see that Jesus is the strong Son of God who comes into the world to do battle against the forces of darkness and subdue them. Now that’s authority!
Acting on Authority
As I look back over my life, I am becoming more aware of those persons who significantly influenced my life because they had my best interests in heart. Rev. Griffin’s preaching and teaching were some of the reasons that eventually led me to making a decision to enter the Christian ministry.
Jesus’ authority is not just a display of power or a dispensing of wisdom from a high pulpit. Word and action are bound together. He is what he teaches, and he has concern for those he teaches. Jesus has the kind of authority that compels decision in other people. Right before our passage today was the lesson we heard last Sunday—from Jesus’ sermon, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John were compelled to leave their fishing nets and their fishing boats and into a life of following Jesus.
Jesus’ authority has that same effect on us—he compels us to make decisions. It is the authority of one who confronts us with the truth in a way that commands our attention, and then calls us to obey.
We may not have the kind of demons that affected the man in the synagogue, but we have other things that would kill us, the demons of fear and apathy, demons of status quo and resignation, demons of living with the illusion of materialism and selfishness. To these demons, Jesus says with authority, “Be silent!”
The world today is no less confusing than it was back when many of us were told to question authority. We still have lots of difficult decisions to make in life, but once we have made the decision to submit our lives to the authority of Jesus Christ, all the other decisions become a bit easier. I know that this is true.
We’ll never know exactly what to do in every situation, but we know that if we are submitting to the authority of Jesus, certain choices are clear.
We can make a decision by acting on the authority of Jesus Christ for compassion toward others like those whom the Men’s Fellowship met yesterday in the San Jose shelter.
We can make a decision by acting on the authority of Jesus Christ for generosity: toward God, toward each other, toward those in the world who always get the short end of the stick.
We can make a decision by acting on the authority of Jesus Christ for honesty; insisting and expecting that those who are in authority lead with integrity and honesty earning them the public’s trust.
We can make a decision by acting on the authority of Jesus Christ for courage by making the commitment to get to know our neighbors across the street by making footprints in the name of Christ. When we know our neighbors, we also know ourselves.
We can make a decision for God. When we make the kind of decision to know Jesus Christ, he compels us to live a peaceful and justly life under a new teaching, a different kind of authority than the world has ever seen. Jesus has an authority we never have to question.
When students choose classes to take, they often would say, “Take the professor, rather than the course.” They had learned from experience that the person who teaches the course is often more important than the course that is being taught.
Jesus is the teacher with authority. We want to take the course of life from Jesus. The people were astonished at his teaching because Jesus had authority. We couldn’t hear what Jesus was teaching, but the people saw Jesus and they exclaimed, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority!” Like those in the synagogue, we too can see and believe that Jesus’ authority is nothing less than the very Son of God among us.
Let us pray.
Dear God, lead us to recognize the authority Jesus Christ has in our lives. When we make a decision for him, he and his teachings will enable us to make life decisions that will be faithful to your will and plan for us and the world. In our faithfulness and obedience, we pray that we would be empowered with the authority to act on Christ’s behalf in this world that so desperately is in need of honesty and truth. In Christ, we pray. Amen.
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