I kept my badge behind the sun-visor. It was always there when I needed to visit someone in Bassett Hospital. It was a nice badge: had my picture, my name spelled right, maybe some other important information. When I wore it, Security would know that I was OK to be there; it was my authorization. Credentials are necessary to be at schools, government offices and some church meetings. Without a passport, international travelers are grounded and maybe locked up! Do I have a right to be who I am, to do what I do?? Who sez?
During services of this coming weekend, we’ll think about Authority: many will challenge a commission–or ordination!–of holiness, however that’s read…. Ezekiel speaks on behalf of Yahweh, “Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine…” (18:4) This comes within a wisdom-speech about sin not being passed from one generation to the next, and refutes the idea that children are accountable for the misbehavior of the whole family. God’s Authority AND GRACE deal with each individual on their own merits.
Paul’s Letter to the Christians of Philippi includes a hymn to Christ which may already be popular in that city. In 2:9-11 we read of Christ Jesus, “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Wherever Jesus has been, says the poet, he has carried Supreme Authority: he is The LORD!
Matthew remembers the time when Jesus was teaching in the Temple and was carded by the priests and elders. (21:23-27) “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus turned it back on them, of course, by asking about John the Baptizer’s empowerment to baptize: “from heaven, or was it of human origin?” An anti-Church acquaintance made a similar statement to me, just the other evening: “These rules, you know, are all man-made.” Where lies the Gospel?
Deep within the Last Century, Bishop J. Gordon Howard draped a stole around my neck and said, “Take authority for the work of an Elder, preaching the Word of God and administering the Holy Sacraments.” I’ve been proud of and humbled by this Ordination: it is a credential which I take very seriously–and I believe that it comes from God. Do I jealously protect “my” turf from unauthorized yet obviously accomplished newcomers? What IS this authority??
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
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