Teaching with Authority

This past week we were told that the snowstorm we had was historic.  The governors of New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts all spoke with authority advising everyone to stay off the roads and to “hunker down” as Governor Raimondo put it for their own safety and to allow snow plows to clear the streets.  People complied.  There were very few accidents, streets were cleared, some better than others, in record time, and most of us enjoyed a day off.  Another storm is predicted for tomorrow and I hope it will not rise to the level of being "historic".

While elected officials speak with authority, our scripture readings from the Book of Deuteronomy and the Gospel of Mark are about God’s authority.   It is God’s authority as spoken by the prophets, authority taught by Jesus in the synagogue, and authority to guide us and all humanity into a future of promise and hope.

Following Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt as they were moving to the promised land of Canaan, Moses said to his people: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet…. I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.”  The people, in their new experience of freedom are to live in a covenant relationship with God, a life freed from oppression and focused on justice and mercy.

Prophets often speak in ways that challenge the status-quo.  When they speak with authority those they are addressing would rather not listen.  In speaking God’s word they are challenged to see life differently.  Prophets call the people into a new relationship with God, a relationship of covenant fidelity, one that enables them to understand and know God as transcendent and loving.  What this means for us is that God is Authority (capital “A”), and our response is to hear and listen and to be nurtured by it.  God’s authority is a call to be freed from the burdens of our own making so we can be in loving and compassionate relationships with others.  When that happens we can stand before God in awe and reverence.

Jesus, like Moses and the prophets, taught with authority.  When “Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came he entered the synagogue and taught.”  The people who were there, his fellow Jewish worshippers, were spellbound by his authority.  As Mark’s Gospel tells the story, “there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.”

The people standing around and observing this event were amazed.  “They kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching – with authority!  He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." Jesus was invested completely with God’s authority.  God’s cause was his cause; he acted out of God’s mercy and compassion.

What does all this mean for us?  How do we understand the prophets about whom Moses spoke and the authority with which Jesus taught and healed?  The answer is that God’s authority and God’s spirit continues to be alive and well among the people of God.  God’s authority is at work whenever two or three people are gathered in his name.  This means that God’s authority of justice and compassion is alive and at work here and now.  It is experienced wherever life and goodness are fostered and wherever suffering and death are resisted.

For God’s authority to be heard and followed in today’s world, it must find voice in the lives of God’s people.  Jews, Christians, and Muslims are known as “people of the Book,” in other words, as God’s people.  It is about the way we live in relationship to one another, our shared values and commitments, and our decisions as they affect and determine our human future.  It is a daunting task, and the way forward is never clear-cut.  But as we are able to focus on God’s authority, God’s kingdom of love and compassion, it is more likely that the hope and promise we share for a new life of peace and justice will be fulfilled.   Amen.