Whose Authority?

Whose Authority?
We do a lot of things with authority…One can speak with authority…One can behave with authority…Some respect authority…Some reject authority…We all have different ways of stating our own authority in different situations…Ways of letting others know that we have the situation under control and we are in charge here. And of course there’s nothing quite like someone questioning your authority…Children question authority quite a bit! Maybe you can remember the last time a child said to you, “You’re not the boss of me!” and to be honest there are times when we just never grow out of that! Think about it…When was the last time you let someone know that they weren’t the boss of you? Was it when you missed curfew? Was it when you were speeding on 71? Did you talk about someone behind their back? Oh even as teens and adults, we have a lot of ways that we still say to people, “You’re not the boss of me!” When was the last time you said it?
In our passage from Exodus, we are continuing to follow the Israelites through the wilderness as they seek the Promised Land—the land that God promised them flowing with milk and honey…They had come from being slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt….After a series of plagues and a daring escape crossing the Red Sea, the Israelites were free from the oppression that they had been under for so long…Knowing that they were free and headed toward the promised land, you would think that they would be rejoicing and happy and full of life and energy…But as we heard last week from part of their story—they complained about food and even said that they wish that they had never left Egypt….Because certainly being oppressed but full was better than being free and hungry! Well, God met their needs for food with manna & quails and they were satisfied…So you would think that after that amazing miracle and knowing that God would meet any need, they would be rejoicing and on their way to the Promised Land! But in our passage for today…As the Israelite camp out, they camp in a place that has no water…Which, let’s face it—if you were camping and spending the night in a place that had no water and you’d been walking all day in the hot sun, wouldn’t you be a little cranky too? But you’d think that they’d remember what God had promised and had given them…Instead of waiting on God or trusting that God would take care of them—they start to complain again…They say to Moses—“Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us, our children and our livestock with thirst?” Because certainly it is better to be slaves, but have water to drink, instead of what they were…In asking Moses this question—or rather making this statement…they were questioning Moses’ authority…and even more than Moses’ authority—they were questioning God’s authority…In their statement that Moses brought them out of Egypt just to die, they may as well have said, “You’re an idiot for not thinking about everything that we might need! How can you possibly be the boss of me?”
Moses had to be getting tired of these Israelites…I mean he didn’t want to lead them in the first place—God had to do a lot of convincing to get him to lead God’s people out of Egypt…He’d already asked God for food and now the Israelites were once again questioning his authority—which they had seen with their own eyes what Moses could do with the power of God…And also more importantly that Moses’ authority—they were questioning God’s authority…The same God that Moses knew that he could do nothing else through was being questioned by the Israelites…So Moses cries out to God…”What do I do with these people?” A cry that I would bet many of us has cried out a few times in our lives! “What do I do with these people? They are ready to stone me!” Moses recognizes God’s authority and power over his life and Moses has seen over and over again what God can do—the plagues, crossing the Red Sea, providing manna & quail…He knows that God will provide what they need.
So God tells Moses to strike a stone with his staff and water would come out…A pretty amazing and miraculous feat—something that only God can do! So Moses does what God said and does it in full view of the elders of Israel…And he strikes the stone and water comes out…He did this in full view of the elders of Israel so that they knew where this water came from…it came because of the authority that God had given him…
Authority was something that Jesus had to wrestle with often…Jesus was doing such radical things that many people who were in the positions of authority in the temple were afraid of what he was doing and how he was challenging the status quo…So they questioned his authority often…Much like the direct question that Jesus got from the chief priests and elders of the Temple…”By what authority are you doing these things and who gave you that authority?” Which is a really challenging question—If Jesus says the authority comes from God, well he’s being blasphemous because certainly God only grants authority to the priests! And if he says from the people around him…well, that is fleeting because some people will believe and others will not….Now Jesus is one smart fellow…He doesn’t give them the answer, but instead asks them a question…He tells them that he’ll tell them where his authority comes from if they tell him if John’s baptism was from heavenly origin or human origin…Well, they’re just as stuck as Jesus! If they say heavenly then they have to admit why they don’t believe what John says and preaches…If they say human—the people in the crowd will revolt because they believe differently! So how do they answer the question? “I don’t know” and Jesus tells them that he won’t reveal where his authority comes either.
The Gospel of Matthew does a lot of comparison with Jesus…He is compared with Moses all throughout the Gospel of Matthew…This is mostly because Matthew’s Gospel was written to a largely Jewish audience and for them to begin to understand the scope of Jesus and his authority, they had to do it through a lens that they already know…Moses was a hero to the Israelites—the Jewish people. Although they questioned his authority often, he proved that he did many things through God and eventually, after a lot of wandering, they arrived at the Promised Land...All of God’s promises had been fulfilled. Moses was a hero to them and someone that they knew had authority, had been gifted by God, and did great things…The closest person that Jesus could be compared to was Moses…Now, Jesus had a whole different authority that Moses because Moses was just a human being…Jesus is God made flesh—both human and Divine…So, Jesus has the authority…For the Jewish people to begin to comprehend who Jesus was, they started from a place that they understood and from a person that they granted authority to!
Jesus’ question to the priests is an interesting one…He asks them about baptism…What happens in the waters of our baptism? Is it of heavenly origin or a human origin? As we pray the Thanksgiving over the water, the pastor prays for the Holy Spirit to come upon the water…So, it’s a heavenly origin…And through the waters of our baptism we are made new creations…Whether you were baptized as an infant or as an adult…You were changed through the waters of your baptism…It was in those waters that you were claimed as God’s own and cleansed and called into ministry. Yes, you heard me right…Through the waters of your baptism you were called into ministry…The ministry of all Christians…Now there are some who are called into ordained ministry or to be pastors…And through that calling a different skill set is needed and learned…I began my process of ordination 10 years ago and have since received my undergraduate and graduate degrees and have undergone several interviews with the Board of Ordained Ministry and am currently a commissioned and provisional member for 2 years before I will go up for more interviews for ordination. As Bishop Will Willemon has said, “By the time we have one pastor; we could have made 2 brain surgeons.” Being called into ordained ministry is not what everyone is called into…But every Christian is called into ministry. The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. It doesn’t say that only pastors can do that…Nowhere does it say that only pastors are supposed to talk about their faith or faith in Jesus…Nowhere does it say that only pastors should pray…Nowhere does it say that pastors are the only ones responsible for ministry…Now as United Methodists our Book of Discipline is very clear on what a pastor or clergyperson can and should do…But it is also just as clear about what all Christians should do…All Christians are called into ministry to make and create disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
That’s the authority that you have been granted by God—you have been given authority to share what God has done in your life…You have been given authority to share the Gospel with the whole world! You have been given authority to claim Jesus as your Messiah, your Savior! That’s the authority that you have been given through Jesus Christ.
Too often in churches we get caught up with who’s in charge…We play more games of “You’re not the boss of me” than we do accepting the real authority that God gives us…And every time we play those games of “You’re not the boss of me” we call into question God’s authority…Because certainly God would not have called that particular person into that form of ministry…God calls who God calls…We shouldn’t be like the Israelites and need them to strike a stone and water to come out…God has the ultimate authority…we should trust that God knows what God is doing…Because God is the boss of us…When we claim Jesus as Lord, we claim that Jesus is Lord over all aspects of our life, not just the ones we want him to be! Jesus is Lord and not because we claim but because God has claimed it…That’s who has the authority…