Deuteronomy 18:15-20
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28
February 1, 2009
Rev. Patricia L. Liberty
Untitled
The Hale Bopp Comet…It appeared last in 1997 and is memorable because it was visible for such a long period of time, about 18 months, but also because a group called Heaven’s Gate. They were a UFO religion based in San Diego committed mass suicide, following their leader Marshall Appplewhite in his proclamation that the world was about to be recycled and the only way to reach the next level was to exit before the recycling, he and 38 of his followers committed suicide.
I remember seeing a bumper sticker not long after that, so many crazies, so few comets.
Every generation has them, preachers and would be prophets who manage to get a following for whatever message they are proclaiming. And it is always for the discerning soul to distinguish between snake oil peddlers and true preachers, between charlatans and the holy ones.
That is the quest at the heart of the reading from Deuteronomy and Mark. When the book of Deuteronomy was taking shape around the seventh century BCE, one major goal of the religious reforms of Josiah was routing out the riff raff from ranks of teachers and prophets. In a time when people were seeking divine guidance they would listen to anyone. Soothsayers, sorcerers and the like had become quite popular, as were temple prophets, employees of the religious establishment whose prophesies always tended to favor whatever the temple priest had in mind.
At the time Mark's gospel comes together, about 60 a.d. much of the religion of Jesus had changed. The oral stories circulating about Jesus and the interpretation of his work and power were changing in ways not unlike what happens in a game of telephone. The story you start with is not the story with which you finish.
And so, at this important juncture in the development of the early church it was important to the writer of this gospel to establish some things about Jesus that were absolutely and indisputably true. So Mark, in his characteristic concise fashion sets forth the beginning of Jesus' ministry in the temple in Capernaum. Located at the north end of the Lake on the highway between Damascus and Ptolemais, it was an important gateway in and out of the region.
Mark wastes no words establishing Jesus as a teacher...he taught them as one having authority. Now that's become a rather confusing word in our vocabulary. It’s often used interchangeably with power though the two words are quite different. Power is the ability to achieve certain ends, authority is a claim of legitimacy.
Think for a moment about someone from you learned a great deal. It may be a teacher who opened you to a love of learning or it may be a wise person of any age who taught you important life lessons. Think about the qualities of that person. What is it that made him or her different from others?
Trying to name the qualities is a little like trying to nail Jell-o to a tree.
But we recognize it when we see it.
Authenticity is part of it.
There was something about Jesus that was genuine. No where in the gospels do we get the sense that Jesus was a different person behind closed doors. There was a quality of authenticity and transparency about him that allowed others to see something of God through him.
Authority is related to power. Power is a relational construct. Your boss has power over you. Teachers have tremendous power. How many times did your children come home from school and say, "Today my teacher told me...." as if it were the gospel truth.
I remember as a young child seeing my teacher in the grocery store and being totally amazed. Look Mom, there's my teacher, she shops!" I'm not sure but I thought Mrs. Russell lived under her desk and came out only to teach every day. She had tremendous power. Teachers can change lives, create new worlds. Most of us are deeply and forever indebted to some caring teacher in our past.
But it’s the story within the story that answers the question, yeah well so what. It’s the man with the unclean spirit who makes it all clear, this power and authority business. He asks the question, what have you to do with us?
What are you going to do with your authority, how are you going to use the power that grows out of the authority.
What’s really important in this power and authority business is what’s done with it. Jesus model of power was always power in community. It wasn't power over people, but power with people. His vocation of teacher empowered others to live in a different way and come to relationship with God in a different way.
The text tells us that Jesus' teaching was different form that of the scribes. Scribes temple officials schooled by masters, who taught what they were taught. While many scribes were truly holy men, the reputation of the scribes in Jesus' time was one of trying to control rather than empower.
Jesus' style of using parables and stories, speaking in common language and sharing with people made him different. He used his power for others not over others. That's one of the qualities that separates the whackos from the wise ones. This may sound blasphemous, but think of Jesus and Jim Jones, both had tremendous power, but look at the difference in how it was used. True teaching holds the sacred trust of power to empower others rather than glorify self.
While we may not all be teachers, we are in relationships where we have more power than others and Jesus' model of standing with people to teach, care and empower can help shape our relationships with others and our vocational or professional identity.
It's about being real people. Whether or not we are teachers by profession, there is a sense in which we are all teachers by vocation. Identified as Christians, we model for others the shape and form of Christian life. Consequently, I live in fear that someone will hide a microphone in my car and make a tape of what I say to other drivers on Route 95. It's all very humbling, isn't it?
Jesus' authority as a teacher was one part power and one part authenticity. And the result was astonishing to his hearers then, and at times, his hearers now. We may not fancy ourselves teachers in the manner of Jesus, and no one may ever call us Rabbi, but every day there are moments when we have the opportunity to reveal something of the truth of God to another.
It may be in a classroom, but most likely in the school that is daily living, it may involve the Bible, but most likely the curriculum will be the moments that define our days. What is learned may never be found on a quiz, or written in an essay, but rather will be known in the deeper places of one's being where confusion gives way to peace, judgment yields to mercy, and evil is overcome by good.