Challenging Authority

Mark 1:21-28

Exorcism at the Synagogue in Capernaum, Unknown Artist 11th Century

A federal agent walked onto a ranch one day to execute a search warrant after receiving information that there were illegal drugs being grown on the rancher’s property. 

The rancher read the search warrant carefully as he flicked a corn stalk back and forth to the opposite corners of his mouth. 

After signing the search warrant and handing it back to the agent, he pushed up his broad brimmed hat and said, “I guess you can go wherever ya want, but don’t go rummaging in that field over yonder.”

The agent, offended by the rancher’s instructions thrust his finger into the the man’s chest and held up his badge in the other hand exclaiming,

“You see this badge here! This badge and this warrant say that I have the authority to go wherever and search whatever I want on this property! Do you understand me?!”

“Well… yes sir… but…”, replied the rancher.

“No, I don’t think you understand me…”, replied the agent, 

“…. this badge and this warrant say that I am the authority here right now, am I clear?”

The rancher plopped down into a rocking chair on his porch and folded his hands behind his head as he acknowledged the agent stating, “Crystal clear sir, you are the authority”.

As the rancher relaxed under the shade of his porch, rocking back and forth, he heard a blood curdling scream about five minutes later. 

He stood up on the porch and watched as that agent sprinted across the open field that he had asked the agent not to search.

He was being chased by a nearly 2,000 pound bull. 

The rancher ran to the agent’s aid, jumping up onto the fence and shouting, 

“Yer warrant and yer badge, show him, quick!”

Photo by zelle duda on Unsplash

Authority is a peculiar thing. 

Those who either avoid or are incapable of sitting in positions of authority, can usually avoid confrontation. 

In fact, many who do not find themselves in authoritative positions can lead relatively quiet or even unnoticed lives. 

Believe it or not, I am a much more introverted person than most of you may realize. 

I envy those who can live their lives unnoticed, avoiding confrontation. 

But in every walk of life, I have reluctantly found myself called to varying positions of authority.

Most often, many of those positions seemed a lot more ideal before they were awarded. 

And when I landed squarely in such a position, I was always immediately thrust into the spotlight, EXACTLY where I did not want to be. 

And when you live in a fishbowl, everyone sees your flaws and the challengers always come out of the woodwork. 

It is why I find the Gospel story from Mark so intriguing. 

Jesus has never struck me as a man seeking authority, power, or fame.

Yet, he finds himself in a position where he may not be seeking trouble, but trouble has found him. 

Because authority has been and always will be something that people are drawn to resent. 

The advantage held by those who do not seek to gain authority is that authority does not end up defining them. 

Those who find themselves called to positions of authority without seeking after it, are usually defined by who they are and the gifts that God has given them rather than the position that they find themselves in. 

This is just such a case with Jesus in our Gospel today. 

Jesus’ authority is not derived from the opinions and powers of man. He does not hold an authority that is rooted in the views of the majority or any other worldly precedent. 

Jesus’ authority is derived from the exact title the man names when confronting Jesus. 

He just IS the Holy One of God, pure and simple. 

He knows that this is who he is and what he is called to be, for better or for worse. 

That is what defines him, not the roles and titles of this world. 

Now, in Jesus’ day that was a peculiar thing to be defined by who you are, what God has called you to, first and foremost above and beyond all other things. 

For that matter, it is a peculiar thing for any day and age. 

After all, how many of us list child of God on our resumes?

Synagogue in Capernaum today
Photo by Phil Goodwin on Unsplash

Another theme we find in the Gospels, especially in Mark, is that Jesus is given many opportunities to get off the path he is on. 

He can avoid his own trial and crucifixion. He can avoid the fate that lies before him. 

This is a temptation that is presented time and again, but here we find it presented for the first time in Mark’s account. 

This man who challenges Jesus uses a Greek idiom that is found both here and in John 2:4.

In John’s gospel, it is Jesus’ response to his mother’s observation that the wedding banquet at Cana is running very low on wine. 

Jesus responds using this same phrase by asking her, “What’s this got to do with you and me?”

Now, there can be arguments for different translations and interpretations of all kinds of scripture but given the common use of this phrase, I find it hard to believe the threatening tone we all want to envision coming from some demon man. 

It is most certainly a challenge that is being made, but not necessarily a threatening challenge. 

It is a challenge to live a life away from the fishbowl, the criticisms, the confrontations. 

The proclamation being made is not just “What have you to do with us?”, but it is the challenge to abandon the authority Jesus has been called to, abandoning this role to teach, share, and call all people to God. 

It is a challenge to live the quiet life that is craved by those who avoid authoritative roles, a chance to “let sleeping dogs lie”.

Perhaps that American idiom could be used in place of the Greek idiom we heard today. 

There must certainly be a temptation to avoid the position of authority Jesus is called to, or to use it to his benefit. 

As humanity we have a tendency to gravitate to one of those two options.

But as we have already heard, Jesus is not just any man and he is not just any authority. He is God’s authority. 

Photo by Ruthson Zimmerman on Unsplash

Growing up, my father taught me a lot of things. 

One of the things my father taught me was how to tie a tie, how to wear a suit, iron a shirt, and shine a pair of shoes. 

He wanted to instill in me an understanding of what it meant to look like a professional and carry oneself as a gentleman. 

I recall the first time I ever wore a tuxedo. I couldn’t stop looking in the mirror, admiring myself. 

After about my fourth glance into the mirror, my father pulled me aside and informed me,  “You wear the suit, the suit doesn’t wear you.”

That little piece of advice stuck with me. 

It’s why I try to avoid telling my wife she looks good in anything, because no dress should ever make my wife look good. 

My wife can only make a nice dress look better!

The clothes we wear, the roles we play, the titles and authority we hold are not meant to be what define us. 

It is the gifts given by God and the roles God calls us to that define us, whether those gifts and roles are what we want for ourselves or not. 

If we live into the gifts God has given and seek the roles God has called us to, they become extensions of God’s will through our own lives, unlike the kind of authority we oftentimes seek for our own advantage or advancement. 

Authority that is often abused. 

Authority that is not a reflection of God’s will for this world. 

Authority that is so often hidden behind by demanding respect for the title, when the individual behind it does not have confidence in the gifts they’ve been given. 

That is the kind of authority we find most often awarded in this world, but that is why Jesus’ authority in our Gospel today is a model to us all. 

The clothes Jesus is wearing do not define him. 

The clothing of his flesh and blood in that human frame nor any earthly title, 

Rabbi, Messiah, King, Lord…

That isn’t what makes Jesus THE Holy One of God. 

It is just who he is, and it is an authority he follows because God called him to it. 

When God calls us to a role, we should answer that call. 

We should face the challenges and challengers it attracts.

Because true authority does not shy away from a challenge. 

True authority should always be confident and open to the scrutiny and questions of this world. 

Photo by Stefan Kunze on Unsplash

Each year, as our confirmands begin to study, we talk about the modern challenges to the Church. 

Challenges that are directed towards our beliefs on the grounds of science, reason, archeology.

Understandings of the world that do not contradict God's Church, but compliment the Church because they too, even when presented by those who challenge, are gifts from God that deepen our understanding and faith. 

The conversations are pretty uncomfortable for most, at least initially. 

But it is an exercise in exploring how confident we are in the authority God has handed us through God’s Word. 

It is also a challenge to seek out the synagogues and towns around our own Galilees, sharing our faith in places where they will be questioned and challenged. 

It is a challenge to keep our doors open to those unsure of the message we have been given, hearing it for the first time, or maybe just not quite sure how much of it they can fully “buy into.”

Because we are not called to hide behind the title of Church, we are called to be the Church. 

A Church that doesn’t shy away from the challengers who question the faith we find, but a Church that calls all people to know the God whose authority was not hidden from the world.

It was an authority displayed fully on that cross so all challengers could know the kind of love that authority has brought to us all. 

Amen.

What a DUMP!

Jonah 3:1-5,10 and Mark 1: 14-20

Ghirlandaio, Domenico; Calling of the Apostles 1481 (PD)

My post Christmas “vacation” has come and gone and I have to admit, I am quite glad that it has gone. 

When my family and I first arrived in Florida, my father and I went out to pick up some groceries. 

On the elevator ride back up to the room where we were staying I ran into a man about my age, appearing to be in similar health. 

He had two children at his side wearing Disney themed clothing, which we complimented them on before asking if they had been to Disney World yet. 

The father looked up at me with an ominous stare as he exclaimed in a foreboding tone,

“We just made it through our third day. I only have one left to go.”

I should have taken this as a warning. 

I should have taken the snow storm we drove through as a warning.

In fact there were many signs that foreshadowed the difficult week that lay ahead that I ignored. Yet we pushed onward far too financially committed to our trip to Disney World to turn back now. 

My parents, my wife’s parents, and our children had the time of their lives. 

Yet, after an 11 hour drive to Florida, greeted by a sore throat and a head cold upon our arrival, I didn’t start out the trip very optimistically. 

By the fourth day, after putting a nice dent in my father-in-laws car, having another family’s child literally get sick on one of my children, trying to figure out what mystery ailment another one of my children had contracted, and putting a nice crack in my own windshield, 

I decided that Disney World was in fact NOT the happiest place on earth, at least not for me. 

In fact I have told many that if Disney World is the happiest place on earth, then certainly hell must be a mere religious construct. 

By the end of the week, I found myself resenting Disney World, not only as a place but even the collection of people that gather there, cutting through lines, pushing, cursing, and head butting you as they stare at their phones. 

I felt incredibly judgmental of the entire place and I would by lying if I said that I do not still harbor some resentment towards this most “magical” of kingdoms.

The "Magical" Kingdom

Last week, John’s Gospel told the story of Jesus’ calling of Phillip and Nathanael to a life of discipleship. 

A major insight into the character of one of the disciples was emphasized by both the writer of John’s Gospel and by Pastor Stephen in his sermon last week. 

It is Nathanael’s snide remark about Jesus, proclaiming that “nothing good can come out of Nazareth.”

This week, as I was working through the texts I started laughing out loud as I reflected on Nathanael’s words with this week’s text. 

As Stephen and I were getting the van ready for Winter Celebration, we both started laughing on my reflection. 

Because, frankly, Nathanael’s comment is the most ironic remark imaginable. 

He’s right!

Nazareth is a dump!

But to any self respecting Jew, so is Decapolis, Tiberius, the Geresenes, Cana, and Bethsaida, the very place in which Phillip and Nathanael met Jesus in the story last week. 

These are all lands and cities surrounding the sea of Galilee. 

They are not just considered dumps in those days, 

They were dumpster fires!

These are lands occupied by both Jews and Romans. 

Lands that are occupied by unclean people. 

In fact, the only thing more unclean than a Roman gentile, are Hellenized Jews that mix with the Romans!

But that is exactly what the entire region of Galilee was known for. 

It was a melting pot of many different peoples who adapted to one another’s culture in order to take part in trade and in business. 

A lifestyle that placed success ahead of spiritual purity. 

This was a practice frowned upon within the Jewish community, so for ANY itinerant preacher, rabbi, or the most remotely devout Jew, there are very few areas around the sea of Galilee that could be seen as a jewel in anyone’s crown. 

The region around Galilee is, in many situations literally, a pig stye. 

Yet, THIS is where Jesus spends the bulk of his ministry!

While the region that John performed his ministry may seem less than ideal, it was actually a more ideal location for a spiritual calling, because in John’s wilderness people were removed from the evils of the material world. 

They were also freed from the sight of unclean pagan practices, not to mention Roman occupation. 

But the bulk of Jesus’ ministry, if not the most notable moments in his ministry, occur in the dumps and dives of Galilee. 

Healing in Capernuam, the dump of a fishing town. (Mark 2:1-12)

Casting out a demon in the dumpy Gentile pigsties of the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1-21)

And when Galilee isn’t dumpy enough, Jesus even heads out on the road, going to Tyre where he ends up healing the child of a Syrophoenician, the most despicable people imaginable to Jesus and the Jewish people in those days! (Mark 7:24-30)

What is even more fascinating about where Jesus chooses to share his ministry is how people come to him, abandoning the larger and wealthier towns, just to see and hear Jesus for themselves. 

Some even leaving the heart of the Jewish faith, Jerusalem, to seek God, not in the temple but in the dumps of Galilee. (Mark 3:8)

If it was all about location, location, location, 

Jesus’ needed a better realtor. 

Because all of Galilee is a bad location, filled with less than desirable people. 

Certainly the most unlikely place to share any ministry, much less begin a religious movement that could ever reach beyond these towns, towns best left to their own uncleanliness and sin. 

Jesus doesn’t necessarily share his ministry with unclean people and sinners because he is seeking them out, it may just have been that unclean people and sinners were all he really had to choose from in Galilee!

Entrance into the fishing village at Bethsaida.
Evidence of pagan worship in the very town
in which Nathanael and Phillip were called. 

And so, how can we talk about location, location, location without considering our first lesson as well?

Nineveh. 

If you looked that place up in a Bible dictionary, they really should have a picture of a dumpster on fire!

Nineveh is described as the capital, or at least a major city, in Assyria, the very empire that has destroyed the entire northern Kingdom of Israel, and very nearly did the same to the southern Kingdom as well. 

A people that laid waste to Israel and committed the most vile atrocities imaginable. 

They are Assyrians, which are not only a blight on the people of Israel, but the entire known world!

Attracting the hatred of many nations, to include Egypt, which had no choice but to submit to the rule of King Sargon the leader of this Assyrian superpower. 

Sound like a nation Jonah, or we, would want to share the Word of God with?

Jonah isn’t lazy as some children’s bibles depict him. 

He isn’t unwilling to serve the call that God has given him. 

He’s just unwilling to offer any kind of ministry to the people of Nineveh, because he sees nothing of value in them or in the city in which they live. 

Today’s first lesson is round two for Jonah, round one landed him in the belly of a fish only to be yacked out and sent back to Nineveh. 

So, one can only imagine how motivated he must be feeling to share the news of God with Nineveh. 

The only hope he is holding to, is that he aspires to be the Lord’s harbinger of Nineveh’s death and destruction. 

To be the voice that announces their destruction must have been a bit of a consolation for Jonah, but his motivation still seems lacking. 

It’s hard to tell whether or not his message is directly from God. 

The message is short and to the point, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

No possibility of redemption in that sermon. 

Short, sweet, and to the point. 

Only five words in Hebrew, believe it or not. 

Yet those five words reverse the very course that Nineveh is on, both for themselves but most importantly for God. 

What we don’t get to hear today is Jonah’s frustration with God’s decision to forgive Nineveh. 

After all, this is not Nineveh’s God, it is Israel’s God. 

To Jonah, Nineveh has no redemptive qualities.

It has no inhabitants worthy of forgiveness or redemption, spiritual or otherwise, so how and why would God ever redeem them?

~

I always look for the red thread that goes through the texts for any given Sunday. 

Today’s is undeniable.

God may be the One who decides where the Word is heard and where redemption is received, but rarely are those the places we find worthy. 

We like to think that we know which places are the best, which places are dumps and which places are ideal. 

We look to our own homes, congregations, states, and countries, rarely giving a second thought to our neighbor. 

Perhaps that is why God seeks out places like Nineveh and Galilee, because if not God, then who will?

If we are truly honest with ourselves, perhaps we should think on the places we least love, the people we most despise and ask ourselves, 

"What if we, too, were called to go there?"

Rembrandt; The Prophet Jonah before the Walls of Nineveh 1655 (PD) 

The last day we spent in Disney, I reluctantly left my child at the resort after giving all the kids a bath. 

She had a fever, didn’t want to go back to the park, and she asked my mom to stay with her. 

I didn’t want to go back either. I was done. 

I asked my mom one more time if she wanted to go back, happily volunteering to stay myself, seeing nothing of value in one more trip to a place I had grown to resent so much. 

She insisted on staying, so I wrapped my arms around the little one and asked her what souvenir I should pickup for her, after having promised each of them they could get one souvenir before we left. 

“A souvenir from Disney World?” she asked.

“Yes” I replied in defeat and exhaustion.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, kissed me on the cheek, and she told me “I just want you, Daddy”.

I’m still not a fan of Disney World, but it was in that moment that I realized that even in the places we most despise there are precious gifts there. 

It doesn’t matter where it may be or how we perceive those who call such places home, they are all precious gifts to someone, even if that someone is God alone. 

And let us not forget, that whether we realize it or not, we, too, are all someone’s Ninevites, just as we are all precious in someone’s eyes. 

Amen

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash