Authorities are in crisis! Unlike
Biblical times, even God is not commonly recognized or given credibility. Today, the individual rather than some granted authority is likely
perceived as the preferred authority. Witness the popularity
on a deep emotional level of Paul Anka’s song, sung by Frank Sinatra,
“I Did It My Way.”
Granted, recognized, public authorities are in crisis because of public
exposure of mishandlings. Authority may be granted and given
public power, but authority’s real power must be earned in the eyes
of people. Therein is the crisis! Witness Author Anderson’s
mishandlings of accounting authority with ENRON and the Arizona Baptist
Foundation. Witness multiple corporate CEO’s mishandlings of
authority stealing from employees and investors. Witness Catholic
priests, Protestant preachers and Muslim Imams mishandling of the
authority of their sacred texts. Witness police and politicians
and news media mishandlings. Just this weekend in downtown D.C.
witness mishandling of the constitutional right of peaceful assembly
to protect rather than oppose protesters. From first hand witnesses,
what we saw and heard from media was not necessarily what was happening. My fellow Believers, authority is in crisis!
Authority and how it becomes credible is the spring bubbling
up through the ancient soil of today’s story of Moses and Jesus. It bubbles up with a thirst quenching word from God about authority. It is a word on authority with credibility through justice and mercy.
Authority is the subject of the third requirement in the prophet Micah’s
famous trilogy of what pleases God. First, “do justly.” Second, “love mercy.” And third, “walk humbly with God.” “Walking humbly with God” is recognizing the unique authority that
we call God!
When we stop to think about why this trilogy of requirements to please
God are what God requires of us, we must admit the trilogy is what
God personally requires of God. Human authority’s credibility
depends on it being perceived as exercising justice and mercy, always
doing so humbly recognizing human authority is not ultimate, only
God is!
The Biblical Story reveals God treating persons with both
justice and then with mercy when persons miss justice’s marks. The Bible reveals God initially, and continually, assuming a humble
attitude to walk with mortal persons to rescue, forgive and then to
again partner to begin relating to pursue justice. Humility,
not arrogance on God’s part, is the Good News!
The greatest occasion
demonstrating the humble authority of God walking with persons was
Jesus, “who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became
obedient to death—[incredibly-JWY] death on a [humiliating] cross.”
(Philippians 2:5-8)
Successful attempts to do justly and at the same time to love mercy
demands the choice of humble authority on which to depend as a guide. Biblical Faith asserts, when all authorities are considered, only
God as defined personally and faithfully by Jesus, fits all the elements
of the position description, like hand in glove. Why? Because this Divine authority is not arrogant, despotic, neither power
grabbing nor has an ego constantly needing massaging by its subjects
and thus being dependent on its subjects! In short, a God made
in human images! The Biblical God is not made in human images. The Biblical God makes humans in God’s image!
Our God’s attention
is not centered on God’s Self and God’s needs, but is centered on
persons and their needs. Our needs are first to deal with the
evil in our hearts and in our world. Our needs are second to
live peacefully, securely and in an atmosphere of freedom with one
another.
Our God deals with the first need, evil in our hearts and
world and the subsequent alienation this creates with God and with
persons by reconciliation through forgiveness rather than through
adequate placation of God by obedience. The forgiveness method
of handling evil always requires the price of great suffering on the
part of the perpetrator and injured! Before reconciling, the
injured must suffer humility to reject retaliation and the perpetrator
must suffer humility to admit wrong and repent.
The second need of
peace, security and freedom, our God deals with by calling us to accountability to
the Creator’s moral/ethical truth and away from our moral/ethical
truth. God’s truth is summarized or pictured personally by Jesus’
attitudes, behaviors and values, and then conceptually by the unique
Biblical word for love, “agape.” Agape love makes us do the
just and merciful thing just because it is just and merciful, whether
we feel like it or not. So, we make our primary desire to deal
with people’s two basic needs. We do not make our primary desire
our personal pleasures, comfort zones and self-justification. That is most often, painful!
Because God as personally defined by
Jesus fits the god position description dealing with our two basic
needs of justice and mercy, our God earns the right in our eyes to be our authority. God not only has authority by nature, but also earns it in the eyes
of people. And when the nature of our God is correctly demonstrated,
people intuitively and spiritually sense from within that this God’s
authority is worthy—worthy of reverent worship through ritual and
also worship through moral/ethical obedience.
All other gods first
demand submission in order for them to serve mankind well. Our
God first serves mankind well in order to invite our partnership with
God so that we will serve others as God in Jesus has shown God serves
us. I submit, only an authority with this humble attitude is
followed by people willingly—from the heart—and not followed from
fear of retribution!
God is the authority by nature. But as
we all know even authority by nature must earn our credibility. The
Authority is granted,
but must be earned in the eyes of people. Every pastor knows
this or suffers the consequence of not knowing it. On calling
to the pastoral office he/she is granted authority. But until
that authority is earned by humble faithfulness to God and to parishioners
spiritual needs, he/she really doesn’t have credibility to lead and
be followed. A pastor being there with people with the
comforting towel of mercy, as well as with Biblical justice and moral/ethical
behavior, ultimately earns the right to have that authority in people’s
eyes. This is true if some never give it! Likewise, receiving
the authority granted by being called a “friend” is ultimately earned
the same way. Friendship begins as an act of grace, but gets
its authority from being earned. Authority has to do not only with
talking the talk, but also with walking the walk.
Moses and Jesus
earning authority in the eyes of people as representatives of God’s
ultimate authority is indeed the subject-knot that ties each of our
Scriptures together.
Our Exodus Scripture reminds us that Moses was
granted authority. God had granted his authority, but he had
earned it in the eyes of the people by the plagues cast against the
Egyptians. But now the freed Hebrews were in the desert and
thirsty. To whom did they look? To Moses, of course! “Moses, give us water!” Moses, earn your authority, again! Be
credible!
And to Moses’ credit he realized he was not the ultimate
authority. Moses had always been a reluctant authority! Remember? He didn’t want the job in the first place!
Moses turned
to God and said, “these are your people, your responsibility, so you
do something! To Moses’ credit he said, “You’re God, not me!” God told him to use The Water Stick. The Water Stick represented
God’s ultimate authority, not Moses’ authority. With it God
had stopped the waters of the Nile River and here God would start the
water, this time flowing from a rock. The Water Stick earned
God’s ultimate authority in the eyes of the people. This God
did what God verbally promised! God not only talked the talk, God
walked the walk.
This is exactly the point of the Matthew Scripture. Jesus not only talked the talk but also walked the walk of God’s Kingdom. Jesus asserted that in him Israel’s exile punishment was over. That meant God had forgiven them! They should do as God had
done, humble themselves and mercifully start relationships with perceived
oppressors by the attitude of forgiveness rather than seek the destruction
of their oppressors (Romans). Jesus taught, convert them to
God’s just order of relationships. That is, fulfill your original
mission God gave you through Moses.
But the Religious Establishment
would not recognize Jesus’ humble authority and credibility because
they did not perceive authority the way Jesus did. God had granted
them authority. They did not need to earn it! They expected
the world to follow them because God had granted authority to them.
Some
Christians do the same thing with the Bible to convert non-Christians
by saying, “The Bible Says.” Non-Christians, especially Jews,
Muslims and non-monotheist do not recognize the Christian Bible and
need to have Christians earn the authority of the Bible in their eyes.
Jesus accused the religious establishment of talking the talk of Divine
authority without walking the walk of Divine authority.
The
parabolic story about the father who asked his sons to go work in
the vineyard is about the importance of behavior rather than mere
words to earn credibility with God and mankind. One son agreed,
but never went. The other son disagreed, but went. Therefore,
the second son had no credibility. The first son had credibility. The difference was what they did, not what they said. This was
Jesus’ message to the first sons of God represented by the Hebrew
religious establishment.
Jesus’ audience, the religious establishment,
heard him accusing them of being like the second son in the parable
and he, Jesus, like the first son. They were not “happy campers”
being told they were not following God and doing God’s mission. Unlike Moses who turned to God, they made their words God’s authoritative
words.
No wonder when both John and Jesus (both outside the religious
establishment) preached, crowds of people, already considered by the
Establishment to be God’s people, were finally hearing the good news
of God’s justice, but also mercy, and submitted to be baptized to
“walk humbly with God” to demonstrate their submission and partnership
with God. This was happening because John and Jesus not only
talked Godly authority, but they walked the walk of Godly authority. People sensed it! Surely, people felt they earned the authority
people gave them. John and Jesus were like The Water Stick that
shut off threatening water and turned on thirst quenching water. John and Jesus represented God as the authority and themselves as
God’s authority, only as they were true in word and deed to God.
Surely
you hear, as I hear, the message of The Water Stick. The Stick
represented the humble, earned authority of God. Earned in the
eyes of the people who perceived God and God’s spokesmen seeking to
do justly and loving mercy and walking humbly as God did, among them.
Therefore,
my fellow Believers, just being a member of a church is talk and will
not earn us credible authority to be heard by persons inside or outside
the church. Do you ever, as I do, confuse the authority of The
Water Stick with yourself, rather than with the One who gives The
Water Stick its power? Do we ever treat the Bible or the church
or the church building as the authority, rather than God as the authority? I do! It creeps up on me and over takes me. I must repent! Let us all repent and embrace obedience to God more than verbal promises.
Let us remember to be The Water Stick in our situations by just and
merciful behaviors so people will see that God is the credible authority
God is.
My friend, if you are perplexed or doubtful about the authority
of God because of the misuse of God’s authority by the religious establishment,
then why not practice humble reconciliation by forgiveness of those
who have mishandled around you The Water Sticks of God? By that
forgiveness you will begin to make “room” in your own life to receive
God’s forgiveness. You must ask and receive God’s forgiveness for
elevating people, even God’s presumed people, over the perfect authority
of God in Jesus. God alone is worthy because in Jesus God walked
the walk. If you will forgive, then why not suffer the humiliation
of public confession that you have been wrong and now come to Jesus! Will you who are perplexed about God’s authority make that step as
we sing in a few moments to now follow, not The Water Stick, but the
authority to which it points, even Jesus?
Will those of us who often
are the reason non-believers are perplexed about God’s authority because
we talk the talk but do not walk the walk and thus rob God of rightful
authority, make the step of repentance and rededication? Will
we humble ourselves in contrition privately, perhaps publicly, as
we sing?
Well?