That’s the Way It Is
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A big theme running through all of this week’s lectionary texts is that of “authority” -- God tells us that he will raise up prophets with authority to speak God’s words, and Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue is described as “astounding” because he “taught them as one having authority.” In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Dean Feldmeyer examines what characteristics give us authority when we speak -- and notes that one of the traditional sources of authority in our culture, the news media, has lost much of the authority it once commanded. What is it that confers authority? Dean identifies three traits, and adds a fourth that for Christians is the greatest authority of all: the words and actions of Jesus Christ.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and where it is that we learn our notions about authority and who speaks with it -- something that has become a problem for the church in recent years as the secular world misunderstands who it is in the church that really speaks with authority. Of course, Jesus speaks with the most authority of all -- and as Chris notes, Jesus also overturns all of our preconceived notions about what constitutes true authority.
That’s the Way It Is
by Dean Feldmeyer
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28; Psalm 111
On July 17, 2009, this opening paragraph appeared in a New York Times article/obituary: “Walter Cronkite, who pioneered and then mastered the role of television news anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most trusted man in America, died Friday at his home in New York. He was 92.”
The Times went on to relate that “from 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives.”
For those 19 years, he was “a national institution [both managing editor and anchorman] with an unflappable delivery, a distinctively avuncular voice, and a daily benediction: ‘And that’s the way it is.’ ”
Fourteen years after he retired, a TV Guide poll still ranked him number one in seven of eight categories for measuring television journalists. The eighth category was “attractiveness” and Maria Shriver beat him in that one, a point about which he feigned vexation and disbelief.
Oh Walter, how we need you now. No one, certainly no one in the news business, speaks with the authority that seemed to come so easily, so naturally, to you. When you ended your broadcast each night with “And that’s the way it is,” we believed you.
News reportage is different now. Cronkite once said: “I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster, an anchorman, a managing editor -- not a commentator or analyst.... I feel no compulsion to be a pundit.” Now, the lines between opinion and fact have been blurred. Reportage seems sloppier. We don’t talk about a news story so much as we do about slant and spin and perspective.
Then there’s this new phenomenon called “fake news,” stories and reports that are patently false but which are intentionally reported as truth. And let us consider as well how the accusation of “fake news” is often itself fake news, leveled for the sole purpose of damaging the credibility and authority of a news source.
The issue here is, of course, “authority.”
Moses spoke with authority. Jesus spoke with authority. Paul spoke with authority. Walter Cronkite spoke with authority. How and upon whom shall we confer the mantle of authority today? And why?
In the News
In 1787 during a debate in parliament, Edmund Burke referred to the press as the “Fourth Estate” -- which, along with the three estates of 1) aristocrats, 2) commons, and 3) the church had the most influence over the government of his country. Today, we continue to use that phrase to accentuate the necessity of a free press.
In the United States, where we require the separation of church and state, we nevertheless continue to refer to the press as the fourth estate because of their role in observing the political process. They are the “watchdogs” that observe governmental leaders to make sure those leaders do not exploit or corrupt the democratic system.
That the press, or news media as we call it today, plays a crucial role in the perception of political issues and candidates is axiomatic. But what if a news agency or a reporter gets it wrong? What if they make a mistake?
If a member of the news media makes a mistake, then admits the mistake and corrects it, is that “fake news”? According to President Trump, it is. Last week, he used the website of the Republican Party to make an announcement of 11 “Fake News” awards he was symbolically giving to the press for reporting what he called fake news. But at least seven of the “Fake News” winners were mistakes or errors that resulted in nearly immediate corrections, with two of them prompting suspensions or resignations. Two of the “winners” were simply tweets that were quickly corrected and never resulted in news articles. One was an op-ed opinion article which was never intended to be taken as hard news.
For the president, however, there is no redemption to be found in admitting mistakes or errors. Perhaps that is why he so rarely does so himself. Multiple fact-checking sources have documented that 2,000 times in 2017, the president used exaggeration, hyperbole, or blatant untruth, not one of which he has acknowledged, corrected, or apologized about.
The Washington Post Fact Checker notes and publishes errors in the press, but they say everyone makes mistakes -- and the point, they insist, is not to play gotcha. News organizations operate in a competitive arena and mistakes are bound to be made. The key test is whether an error is acknowledged and corrected.
Historically, admitting error and working to correct it in a timely and sincere way is one way that persons or institutions become trustworthy and authoritative.
Another way a news source gains status and authority is by what they choose NOT to report.
In a January 17 Washington Post article, Paul Farhi writes that there is nothing new about the allegations that Donald Trump had an extramarital affair with an adult film star named Stormy Daniels shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron.
As early as September 2017, reporters from ABC, Fox News, the Daily Beast, and Slate were pursuing this highly explosive story -- but none of them published it. Why not?
Journalists say they held back because they couldn’t independently corroborate key elements of Daniels’ account, including in one instance from Daniels herself. The story, in other words, failed to rise to journalistic standards, a thing which the president himself often accuses the mainstream media of not having at all.
It was not until the Wall Street Journal, a notoriously conservative newspaper owned by the notoriously conservative Rupert Murdoch, broke the story of a payoff to keep Ms. Daniels quiet that the rest of the story began to gain traction.
Discretion is another way that persons and institutions have historically gained trust and authority.
And of course, a third way of gaining trust and authority, especially for the news media, is through a long history of excellence, honesty, and careful reportage. This is why some newspapers continue to thrive -- even in this current American culture of sound bites, short news, and memes, when most people prefer to get their news from Facebook and The Daily Show. The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today continue to flourish because they have changed their format to meet the times AND because they have continued to uphold traditions of excellent reportage. Perfect? Rarely. But the perfect need not be the enemy of the good.
In the Scriptures
All four of the lectionary selections for this Sunday deal with the issue of authority and trust. Psalm 111 is the most basic and simple in that it deals in why we should trust God. The answer is that God has demonstrated trustworthiness that we can see and measure, that we have, in fact, experienced.
God has provided food for those who respect God’s authority. God has done demonstrably wonderful deeds. God has kept the covenant between God and God’s people. The works of God’s hands are “faithful and just.” Therefore God’s authority deserves to be respected, trusted, and honored. If we want our authority to be respected, trusted, and honored, we would do well to use God as our model.
Simple and straightforward, as we might expect the psalmist to be. A whole sermon might abide in this one passage alone.
But there are three others chosen for today that are maybe a little subtler, a little more nuanced, and perhaps a little more fun.
In the Deuteronomy text Moses tells the people that God will raise up leaders like himself for the people. These prophets will have the authority of God’s own voice, and people who don’t pay attention to them will be in a world of hurt. On the other hand, if anyone claims to be such a prophet and have such a voice but doesn’t actually have it, well, woe to them for they will surely die.
According to Moses, we can measure the authority of our religious leaders by the degree to which they speak God’s truth. A preacher would do well to suggest that we Christians find God’s truth in its plainest, most earnest form in the red letters of our New Testament. Jesus is, after all, the Word of God, and it is through him that we come into relationship with God. And it is through him that we speak with the authority of one who speaks for God. And it is through the New Testament that we come to know Jesus.
In the Mark text we see Jesus teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. The result of this teaching, the specifics of which Mark does not share, is that the people are amazed because he teaches as one with authority and not as the scribes.
How did the scribes teach? Most scholars believe that the scribes taught by the method known as midrash, or commentary. Simply put, they would sit around a table, read passages from the Torah, and then discuss them, often referring to other passages of scripture as well as rabbinical tradition and literature. Often, as today, these kinds of discussions ended with lots of words but no definitive answers to the questions raised by the text.
Jesus entered the teaching context with a new kind of teaching, one where the teacher explains and untangles the texts in ways that are immediately applicable to contemporary life.
In the second half of the passage, Jesus again amazes those around him by commanding an unclean spirit to come out of a man -- and the spirit obeys. If we leave it at that, the passage has little to teach us. We already know that Jesus speaks with authority, and the rest we usually just don’t talk about. If we are willing to understand the “unclean spirit” which plagues this man in a metaphorical or parabolic sense, there is much fertile ground here for sermonizing. Jesus can, after all, still speak to our “demons,” the ones that plague us and make us less than authentic human beings, demons like addiction and compulsion and prejudice and ignorance and bitterness. What, we would do well to ask, is the authoritative word that Jesus brings to demons like these?
In the 1 Corinthians text, Paul gives us a wonderful example of authority that comes via discretion. He confers upon the Corinthian Christians the authority to eat or not eat foods that have been sacrificed to idols, whatever their individual consciences dictate. “Do what you think best” seems to be his word on this, as it is not a matter pertinent to salvation.
Today we would say, “Whatever.”
But on second thought, he adds this: Be considerate of others and where they are in their journey with God. If your eating of this food, which is perfectly okay, causes a problem for them, a problem which may cause them to stumble in their journey, then maybe you should consider not doing it.
In other words: “Eat, don’t eat, you decide. But as you decide, be mindful of how your behavior may affect others, especially people who are new to the Christian faith.”
Authority, then, is not just the authority to do something. It is also the authority to not do something. It is often to be found in the exercise of discretion.
In the Sermon
A Persian proverb speaks to the issue of authority:
Those who know not and know that they know not, are children. Teach them.
Those who know and know not that they know, are asleep. Wake them.
Those who know not and know not that they know not, are fools. Avoid them.
Those who know and know that they know are wise. Follow them.
In his book The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama said: “We have no authoritative figure, no Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow whom we all listen to and trust to sort out contradictory claims. Instead, the media is splintered into a thousand fragments, each with its own version of reality, each claiming the loyalty of a splintered nation.”
Like him, we all long for someone who will speak with authority -- but Walter Cronkite is gone and we are left not to simply accept the authority of another, but to confer it upon whom we will. History and experience give us three measuring sticks for determining whom we will believe:
1) A tradition or a long record of truth-telling,
2) The willingness to admit when a mistake or error has been made and to correct it in a timely and responsible manner, with due apologies to those who may have been harmed, and
3) The exercise of appropriate discretion and self-control; the willingness to keep silent when all the facts are not in evidence or when speaking would do needless harm.
Our Christian faith offers us a fourth: the word of God as it comes to us in the life and teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Is what we hear and read consistent with the good news of God as it is presented to us in the words and life of Jesus? How? In what way?
It isn’t about how we want it to be, it’s about whether it really is.
Does it speak for love and compassion? Does it speak for justice and a care for those who cannot speak for and protect themselves -- the poor, the sick and injured, the weak, the imprisoned, the oppressed and the dispossessed, the foreign and the forgotten?
Or does it speak for the “empire”? Does it seek to make the rich and powerful richer and more powerful? Or does it speak to the needs of the poor, the hungry, the unloved, unaccepted, and abandoned?
If this we use as our measure, then we can have confidence in those upon whom we confer the mantle of authority. And to take it a step further, we can also use it as a measure of how much authority we ourselves can claim.
“And that’s the way it is.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
What Sort of Authority?
by Chris Keating
Mark 1:21-28
Reading Mark’s gospel can be exhausting. It moves at a rapid-fire pace: Jesus appears from thin air, then gets pushed off into the wilderness. Meanwhile, John the Baptist gets arrested; Jesus heads to Galilee, shuts down a family fishing business, and recruits his leadership team before heading to Capernaum to teach on the sabbath.
But there’s no resting on this sabbath. In the blink of an eye, Jesus preaches and then heals a man with an unclean spirit. Next, he heads over to the house of his new BFFs Simon and Andrew, where he discovers Simon’s mother-in-law is laid up with a fever. Jesus heals her, which is good, because it’s just about dinnertime and the guys are getting hungry. While she is heating up leftovers the entire city starts gathering outside her door, along with all of their sick relatives.
That’s just the first 32 verses.
This week’s lectionary focuses on the question which everyone seems to be asking about Jesus: namely, “What is this? A new teaching -- with authority!” The crowds are amazed, and we might be too. Let’s be blunt: Jesus’ authority catches everyone off-guard. Those gathered in the synagogue are astounded by Jesus’ teaching. This itinerant rabbi did not teach as the scribes, that punctilious class of professionals dedicated to interpreting the law. Instead, he makes a bold break with tradition.
He comes proclaiming the good news, but his words shake them to their core. I’m guessing that few people shook his hand as they filed out of the synagogue that day. Not many said, “Good sermon, preacher.” Instead they were overwhelmed by what they had heard. Who was this guest preacher? “What is this? A new teaching -- with authority!”
Jesus’ message stands in contrast to the prevailing understandings of authority. In this week’s budget battle, neither the Republicans in power nor feisty Democrats could negotiate their way to a deal. The result was the 18th government shutdown in recent years. Even the author of The Art of the Deal had little success, with leaders from both parties expressing frustration with the president’s staff. Senator Chuck Schumer quipped that discussions with the president were a bit like handling jello.
What is this? A lack of authority?
Little was resolved when the two-day shutdown ended on Monday. A few Democrats crossed the line to keep the federal government in business for a few weeks, but no one seems to have found enough authority to hammer out an ironclad deal regarding the soon-to-expire Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“Dreamers”) act. While funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) seems to have been worked out, the fate of Dreamers remains in limbo.
It’s not just a political problem, of course. The question asked by the synagogue crowd cuts to the heart of our deepest religious questions. Where do we find the sort of life-giving, grace-filled word that sets us free from the torrent of authority-driven demons afflicting us?
Lillian Daniels, author of Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don’t Belong To, describes the difficulty the contemporary church often faces with the ever-shifting understandings of authority. Many of those who have given up on Christianity, she argues, have been led to believe that faith is more about the sort of knowledge that Paul says “puffs up” than the love which “builds up.”
Scanning a sheaf of papers written by students in her eighth-grade confirmation class, Daniels says she was surprised that so many of the youth had elected to skip joining the church. She was caught off-guard that many had decided they couldn’t join a church that rejected science, or promoted a literalistic reading of scripture, or that condemned homosexuality. “I’m just not sure I should get confirmed,” one wrote, “and join the church as an adult member.... I’m just not sure I should take that step, because I don’t believe the world was created in six days.”
Daniels was furious. Her congregation is a broad-minded, staunchly progressive church that is part of a liberal denomination. Who had taught them these things? “I wanted those renegade volunteers’ names so that they could receive the appropriate theological beatdown, or at least a few polite questions,” she writes.
It turns out they hadn’t heard this in Sunday school. Instead, the youth had absorbed the prevailing cultural view that the only real Christians are fundamentalist Christians. “They didn’t hear it from us. They heard it on the news where the weirdest voices of Christianity get way too much airtime. If there’s a tsunami, an earthquake, a heatwave, or a drought, chances are some professional Christian will say that it’s God’s way of getting our attention and therefore it must be someone’s fault” (Lillian Daniels, Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don’t Belong To, [Hachette Book Group, 2016], pp. 97-98).
What has happened, Daniel argues, is that one segment of Christians have succeeded in convincing a growing number of persons -- both in and outside of the church -- that faith must be conflated with certainty. The loudest group in the room claimed authority over all the groups. Only Jesus seems to have the ability to say, “Be silent.”
That’s what happened in the synagogue that day in Capernaum. Jesus dared to speak with the sort of authority which not only silenced the demons, but also challenged those who thought their tedious rules and regulations spoke for God. The good news for us is that Jesus still challenges our preconceived notions of authority. As noted last week, Jesus even dared to disrupt the local economy by nabbing James and John straight from their father’s fishing enterprise.
Zebedee must have been scratching his head as he watched his sons take off with Jesus. As he spent the rest of the day scraping the “and Sons” off the name of his fishing boat, Zebedee might have been heard muttering, “What is this? A new teaching?” Pretty soon, you could hear the whole town saying the same thing.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Mark 1:21-28
Not Being Taken Seriously as an Authority
If asked to name the world’s greatest tennis players, many of us would automatically name Serena Williams. Mastery of her body has made Williams, who has claimed 23 Grand Slam victories during her lengthy career, a champion on the court for many years -- but when she recently gave birth, the hospital’s doubt of her authority endangered her life. Williams “had to undergo an emergency C-section after her heart rate skyrocketed during delivery, [and] faced multiple, terrifying complications after giving birth to her daughter. Williams, who has a history of blood clots, even had to advocate for herself and alert doctors that she was having a pulmonary embolism (blockage that occurs in the lungs, usually due to blood clots). Sure enough, tests showed clots in her lungs and she began treatment.” The hospital didn’t believe Williams when she told the nurse she had a blood clot, and needed a CT scan with contrast dye and IV Heparin. They ran other tests first before realizing she did indeed have a blood clot and treating her for it.
We look for authority in familiar places, and miss it when it comes in unusual forms.
*****
Mark 1:21-28
Authority
As he goes to the synagogue early in his ministry, Jesus reminds us -- and the people of the town -- that authority comes from surprising places. In these days of debate about immigration and questions about who brings value to our country, the small town of West Liberty, Iowa is using its own authority to answer this question. With a population of 3737, the town is home to West Liberty Foods, “a turkey processing plant and the city’s largest employer. Ever since it opened in 1943, the plant has drawn Latino and Hispanic immigrants.” The small town is now the “first Hispanic-majority town of any significant size in Iowa,” with just over half of the residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino. A significant number of people in town are also immigrants from Southeast Asia. The town looks different from our usual mental pictures of Iowa. To its residents, the town feels different from the rest of the state. “Luz, a senior at West Liberty High School and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, said she feels more comfortable in West Liberty than other towns. Wearing a pink-speckled black sweatshirt emblazoned with the word ‘Iowa,’ she spoke about her experiences growing up in West Liberty. The high school -- about 300 students -- like the town, is small, which provides a feeling of safety -- sanctuary -- for Luz.... ‘I feel safe here, because I know almost everybody in town.’ She said she’s felt different in other parts of Iowa....
“The town’s library has also played a role in welcoming immigrants. Janette McMahon, the West Liberty Public Library director, said that in the 22 years she’s worked there, the library has changed to accommodate the community’s needs.
“When McMahon started at the library in 1995, the small section devoted to books written in Spanish consisted mainly of ‘How to Speak English’ manuals. Today, 25 percent of the books available for checkout are written in Spanish.... The library’s collection isn’t just for newcomers. ‘There have been fourth- and fifth-generation families here,’ McMahon says. ‘They didn’t stop speaking Spanish. You have grandparents who speak Spanish, and they want their grandchildren to speak Spanish.’ McMahon said the library is about providing safety and equality for all, including immigrants who may be undocumented.” No one asks for your social security number when you get a library card.
The town is using its informal authority to convey a sense of welcome to its residents who have come from different places.
*****
Mark 1:21-28
Neighborly Authority
Jesus uses his authority to dramatically improve the life of the man with the unclean spirit, and people around the country are using their own authority to do the same for the people near them. People are acting in small ways to touch the lives of their neighbors. “On Orcas Island in the Washington San Juans, a group of local residents is working with immigrants to create contingency plans for what will happen to children if their parents are unexpectedly picked up, detained, or deported. And in a small-town West Virginia classroom, Cynthia Evarts is using articles and books about refugees -- a young girl from Vietnam, boy soldiers in Sierra Leone -- hoping, she said, to give her students a perspective different from the ones they may get at home.”
Where people know their neighbors, they’re taking steps to help. “In conservative Eastern Washington, where large numbers of migrant farm workers are without documents, some local citizens are in early discussions about ways to protect them.... Citizens in one Eastern Washington community are planning to have teams of people, operating in shifts, accompany immigrants to the courthouse, when necessary, or to the farm fields where they work, providing a sort of human shield between immigrants and immigration officers.” They’re also planning ahead for potentially heartbreaking situations. “On Orcas Island, Eleanor Hoague is among a group of local residents helping the small population of immigrants there to create a safety plan for their children in the event the parents are picked up and deported.”
No matter what our politics are, we all have the authority to improve the lives of our neighbors.
*****
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Food for All
In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul instructs the church not to use food as a way to divide people. Food is more than sustenance, he says -- it’s also a way to include people. Emily Brown discovered the way food can do harm when her young daughter was diagnosed “with allergies to peanuts, eggs, dairy, wheat, and soy. Because allergy-friendly food can cost two to four times the price of regular food, Brown’s family quickly became overwhelmed by its ever-increasing grocery budget.” Food pantries, structured for typical eating, were no help. “After meeting Amy Goode at a food-allergy support group, the two mothers launched the Food Equality Initiative, aiming to make food that’s safe to those with allergies more affordable and accessible to those in need. In 2015, the inspirational duo opened Renewed Health, the country’s very first allergy-friendly food pantry. In just a year, it’s provided assistance to more than 70 clients and has distributed more than 12,350 pounds of allergy-friendly food.”
Paul would be pleased that food is no longer a stumbling block for people who need it.
*****
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Don’t Throw That Away
Those of us who have enough food have become a stumbling block for our neighbors who are food-insecure, and “food entrepreneur” Dana Frasz wants to help with that. Frasz says that 40% of all food produced in the United States is wasted. Frasz says: “Our materialistic lifestyles in the U.S. have negative social and environmental impacts around the world. Rather than living in harmony with the earth, we are perpetuating a culture that is dependent on exploitation, extraction, and acquisition. Food waste is not only a waste of nutrition, it squanders water, depletes soil, wastes fossil fuels, and adds greatly to the world’s carbon footprint.... We have trash and recycling removal in this country, why not have a food recovery service sector that recovers and redistributes surplus food as an extension of our current waste management system?”
Frasz’ organization, Food Shift, “is working with Oakland schools to ensure surplus food from the cafeteria is redistributed to students and families rather than thrown in the garbage. We are working with a local grocer who has expressed interest in paying Food Shift to recover food from their stores. This would allow us to employ someone in the process while reducing waste disposal costs for the business. We are interested in developing food recovery and redistribution models that increase access to more nutrition food, reduce waste, and generate revenue in some way so they can sustain and scale -- like low-cost markets and value-added products.”
Throwing away old lettuce is easy to do, but our simple actions become a stumbling block to others having enough to eat.
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From team member Ron Love:
(These illustrations are based on major themes in this week’s lectionary readings.)
Judgment
When I was a Virginia state trooper, during a routine traffic road block we were less concerned about cars that stopped; our focus was on vehicles that turned around before reaching our traffic stop, as this most certainly indicated some form of violation. For this reason, unknown to motorists, we always kept a chase car hidden. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: We read in our lessons that God will judge those who are disobedient.
*****
Prophets
The Post is a very popular movie currently in theaters today. It tells the story of how Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and owner Katharine Graham made the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers. In the movie Bradlee is played by Tom Hanks and Graham is played by Meryl Streep. Streep noted about her portrayal of Graham: “Early in her life she was not the confident Katharine Graham that people came to know as the first female head of a Fortune 500 company. She was someone unsure of herself. She was a product of her time, when women weren’t expected to do much outside the realm of good works, good child-rearing, and household-keeping. And it’s hard to really imagine how different that time was was unless you lived through it. And I did.” Streep took the role because she wanted people to know how at one time women were suppressed, yet they always had the ability to achieve if given the opportunity, as Katharine Graham had when the opportunity was presented to her.
Application: We must make sure that we do not let our biases keep us from hearing the words of a prophet.
*****
Prophets
When I was a chaplain in the United States Army, only chaplains wore their insignia (a cross for Christian chaplains) instead of their rank on their caps. This practice is still applied today. The reason for this is that the purpose of a chaplain is to bring comfort, not authority. A chaplain is to bring the presence of God to a soldier who is hurt or troubled. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: A prophet brings the presence of God to people.
*****
Prophets
When I was a chaplain in the Army, I served with a forward field hospital (previously called MASH units, as seen on the familiar television show). A forward field hospital is a company-size unit. A company is a part of a battalion, and a battalion usually is composed of four companies. Only a battalion is assigned a chaplain, except for a forward field hospital. A forward field hospital is the only company-size unit that has an assigned chaplain. This is because a forward field hospital receives wounded soldiers directly from the battlefield. Emergency care is provided until the wounded soldiers can be sent to a field hospital further in the rear. The greatest trauma a solider may endure is at the forward field hospital. It is also here that triage is conducted. Because of the number of casualties and limited resources a selection must be made. Those soldiers who can survive untreated are left alone. Those soldiers who even with medical care may still die are left alone. Only those soldiers who may possibly live with treatment are brought into surgery. And once in surgery, if an amputation takes less time it is performed instead of time-consuming reconstructive surgery. This all may seem harsh, but the purpose is to care for the maximum number of patients possible. Because of the intensity of this situation, the presence of God, as represented by a chaplain, is necessary. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: A prophet brings the presence of God to people.
*****
Prophets
When the Wright brothers repeatedly flew their airplane, though it made national news, few people took it seriously as a breakthrough that could revolutionize transportation. While the United States did follow up on the experiment with the Army, our country failed to grasp the full significance of flight. Only one country in the world took airplane flight seriously, and that country was England. England is an island nation that had always been protected by its navy. With the introduction of airplanes, England realized that it was no longer an island nation and that its national defense was in jeopardy.
Application: We must take the words of a prophet seriously.
*****
Prophets
When I grew up in the Midwest in the 1950s, Mom, apple pie, and Chevrolet were the norm. I only knew one Jewish boy in elementary school. I did not know any Catholics, since they all went to a parochial school. And any discussion I heard of Jews or Catholics was demeaning. From this environment, my young mind concluded that the pope could not be good since he was not an American. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: We cannot let our biases blind us to the words of a prophet.
*****
Prophets
On October 13, 1988, there was a presidential debate between George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. As Dukakis was much shorter than Bush, he insisted that behind his lectern there needed to be a platform for him to stand on to make their heights appear equal. It is a sociological and psychological fact that a taller person does gain more respect than a shorter person. So, as Bush stood 6'2" and Dukakis 5'8", the six-inch difference was significant. This ploy went well during the debate. But at the end of the debate Bush got Dukakis to step off his platform to shake hands in the center of the stage. It was then that the height difference became very apparent to the television audience.
Application: We must make sure that we do not let our biases keep us from hearing the words of a prophet.
*****
Prophets
Charles Darwin remains a controversial individual in some quarters because of his theory of evolution. Little known to the public is his cousin Francis Galton, who made an equally revolutionary discovery about the evolution of a species, but absent of Darwin’s controversy. Galton became intrigued with the nature of heredity. He developed mathematical formulas to examine the relative contributions of both parents, as well as grandparents, to the inherited makeup of an individual. He recorded how certain traits were passed on from one generation to another. For his studies, Galton became known as the father of eugenics.
Application: We must make sure that we do not let our biases keep us from hearing the words of a prophet.
*****
Worship
When I was a chaplain in the United States Army, our altars spun on a wheel, with only one-third being exposed to the congregation. There was a section for Christian worship, a section for Jewish worship, and a section for Muslim worship. This allowed a single chapel to accommodate the worship of all religious faiths. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: Our readings call us to be aware of which God we are worshiping.
*****
Worship
During prayer, as all the other Anglicans in church knelt at their pews, George Washington would stand tall at his. An explanation was never offered for this action. It was wondered if Washington was imitating the early Christians, who stood during prayer as a part of their Jewish heritage. Or did he stand because that is how he did it as an officer when he served in the English army. In either case, it was certainly a declaration that Washington understood himself to be a “child of God.”
Application: Our readings instruct us to worship our Lord.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Praise God! Let us give thanks to God with our whole heart.
People: Great are the works of God, studied by all who delight in them.
Leader: Full of honor and majesty is God’s work.
People: God’s righteousness endures forever.
Leader: The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
People: God’s praise endures forever.
OR
Leader: Praise our God, who speaks to us in wisdom.
People: Glory be to God, who comes to give us life.
Leader: God is gracious and loving, seeking our redemption.
People: We rejoice in God’s love and grace for all creation.
Leader: God desires us to walk in the path that leads to life.
People: With God’s help, we will seek the path of God’s wisdom.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”
found in:
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELA: 414
W&P: 138
“O Worship the King”
found in:
UMH: 73
H82: 388
PH: 476
NNBH: 6
NCH: 26
CH: 17
LBW: 548
ELA: 842
W&P: 2
AMEC: 12
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
found in:
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELA: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
“Standing on the Promises”
found in:
UMH: 374
AAHH: 373
NNBH: 257
CH: 552
AMEC: 424
“Amazing Grace”
found in:
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271, 272
NNBH: 161, 163
NCH: 547, 548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELA: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205, 206
Renew: 189
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”
found in:
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELA: 789
W&P: 440
AMEC: 379
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
“My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
found in:
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELA: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
“Sing Unto the Lord a New Song”
found in:
CCB: 16
Renew: 99
“We Worship and Adore Thee”
found in:
CCB: 6
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who by nature is the great authority on all that is: Grant us the wisdom to seek your word for our lives today that we may walk the path of wisdom and righteousness; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you know creation from its very inception. You know us and the path we need to follow. Help us to seek you as the authority on living so that we may walk in wisdom and righteousness all the days of our lives. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to seek true authority based in the wisdom of God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us and this wonderful world in which we live. You know us better than we know ourselves, and you understand life as your precious gift. Yet we do not turn to you for guidance; we seek our authorities in those who see things the way we see them. We are, indeed, the blind leading the blind. Open our eyes and minds and hearts, that we may truly seek you as the authority in our lives. Help us to follow you into a life that is full, abundant, and joyful. Amen.
Leader: God is wise and God is gracious. God gives us all we need to live in the fullness of God’s presence and love. Receive God’s gifts and share them with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for the wisdom with which you created us and our world. You are wise, and all your works reflect your wisdom.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us and this wonderful world in which we live. You know us better than we know ourselves, and you understand life as your precious gift. Yet we do not turn to you for guidance; we seek our authorities in those who see things the way we see them. We are, indeed, the blind leading the blind. Open our eyes and minds and hearts, that we may truly seek you as the authority in our lives. Help us to follow you into a life that is full, abundant, and joyful.
We give you thanks for all the ways you speak to us, sharing your wisdom so that we might have full and abundant lives. You have shared your wisdom in so many ways; even nature itself displays your wisdom and grace.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We know many suffer because they or those around them do not act in your wisdom. We pray that as you seek out your children who are lost, we may be filled with your Spirit and wisdom to assist those around us to choose the path that leads to life eternal.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Pull out a map of a distant state and tell the children that you are looking for where you are on the map. (If you can, display it on an easel.) When you can’t locate your town, ask the children why if they haven’t already told you where you are. Go to another map of an adjacent state. Then pull out your state. If you want to know where something is in your state, you need your own state’s map. You have to go to the right authority. We also need to seek the right authority about how to live. We read our Bible, we pray, we attend Sunday school and church. We listen to God and Jesus, who are our authorities.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
What Did You Learn Today?
by Chris Keating
Mark 1:21-28
Gather ahead:
* Kid-friendly bulletins (Using your typical worship service as a guide, print out an outline of your church’s Sunday morning worship. For example, list call to worship, prayer of confession, hymn of praise, scripture, anthem, offering, doxology, Lord’s Prayer, sermon, etc. in the order used by your congregation.)
Parts of this week’s scripture lesson may be hard for children to understand. Some will be confused by the imagery of an “unclean” man. Care needs to be taken not to associate people with disabilities or medical conditions as bad or unclean, nor as persons of whom we need to necessarily be afraid. However, should you feel comfortable exploring Jesus’ message of inclusion of persons who are different, this text would offer an opportunity to explore the topic. Share with children that people in Jesus’ time had different views of illness and disabling conditions than we do today. Some people were fearful that these were signs of God’s displeasure in a person. You can think out loud with the children by saying “I wonder if that man felt welcomed to the synagogue that day,” or “How did Jesus show God’s love to this person?” What would it be like for us to show God’s love to new people who join us for worship?
As an alternative, this text provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on how Jesus was a teacher. Children are experts on teaching! Explore with the children how they might teach someone something. What is the best way, for example, to teach someone how to tie their shoes or tell time or learn how to read? Who has helped them learn new things?
Related to that is the idea that Jesus used worship as an opportunity for teaching the people in Capernaum new things about God. The people were curious about Jesus. He was doing things and teaching things about God that they had never considered. Help them explore what it means to see coming to church as a time for learning.
The idea that worship is a time to learn may seem strange to the children at first, but we can remind them that our worship time is a chance for our entire community to learn together. It’s sort of like school, but it is very different too. Using the kid-friendly bulletins you have created, spend a few minutes talking about each part of the worship service. There is probably not sufficient time to go over every detail, but in these few moments the children can begin to learn how to make sense of worship. Each time we gather for worship, we come prepared to learn something new -- just as we do in school.
Helping the children learn why we say a prayer of confession or sing the doxology, for example, might be a “new teaching” for them. Remind them that when you see them after church, you might ask them “So, what new thing did God show you in church today?”
Close with a prayer giving thanks for the gift of curiosity, and asking God to help us to remain open to the new things God wishes to teach us in Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 28, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Chris Keating shares some additional thoughts on the gospel text and where it is that we learn our notions about authority and who speaks with it -- something that has become a problem for the church in recent years as the secular world misunderstands who it is in the church that really speaks with authority. Of course, Jesus speaks with the most authority of all -- and as Chris notes, Jesus also overturns all of our preconceived notions about what constitutes true authority.
That’s the Way It Is
by Dean Feldmeyer
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28; Psalm 111
On July 17, 2009, this opening paragraph appeared in a New York Times article/obituary: “Walter Cronkite, who pioneered and then mastered the role of television news anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most trusted man in America, died Friday at his home in New York. He was 92.”
The Times went on to relate that “from 1962 to 1981, Mr. Cronkite was a nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one, guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many people’s lives.”
For those 19 years, he was “a national institution [both managing editor and anchorman] with an unflappable delivery, a distinctively avuncular voice, and a daily benediction: ‘And that’s the way it is.’ ”
Fourteen years after he retired, a TV Guide poll still ranked him number one in seven of eight categories for measuring television journalists. The eighth category was “attractiveness” and Maria Shriver beat him in that one, a point about which he feigned vexation and disbelief.
Oh Walter, how we need you now. No one, certainly no one in the news business, speaks with the authority that seemed to come so easily, so naturally, to you. When you ended your broadcast each night with “And that’s the way it is,” we believed you.
News reportage is different now. Cronkite once said: “I am a news presenter, a news broadcaster, an anchorman, a managing editor -- not a commentator or analyst.... I feel no compulsion to be a pundit.” Now, the lines between opinion and fact have been blurred. Reportage seems sloppier. We don’t talk about a news story so much as we do about slant and spin and perspective.
Then there’s this new phenomenon called “fake news,” stories and reports that are patently false but which are intentionally reported as truth. And let us consider as well how the accusation of “fake news” is often itself fake news, leveled for the sole purpose of damaging the credibility and authority of a news source.
The issue here is, of course, “authority.”
Moses spoke with authority. Jesus spoke with authority. Paul spoke with authority. Walter Cronkite spoke with authority. How and upon whom shall we confer the mantle of authority today? And why?
In the News
In 1787 during a debate in parliament, Edmund Burke referred to the press as the “Fourth Estate” -- which, along with the three estates of 1) aristocrats, 2) commons, and 3) the church had the most influence over the government of his country. Today, we continue to use that phrase to accentuate the necessity of a free press.
In the United States, where we require the separation of church and state, we nevertheless continue to refer to the press as the fourth estate because of their role in observing the political process. They are the “watchdogs” that observe governmental leaders to make sure those leaders do not exploit or corrupt the democratic system.
That the press, or news media as we call it today, plays a crucial role in the perception of political issues and candidates is axiomatic. But what if a news agency or a reporter gets it wrong? What if they make a mistake?
If a member of the news media makes a mistake, then admits the mistake and corrects it, is that “fake news”? According to President Trump, it is. Last week, he used the website of the Republican Party to make an announcement of 11 “Fake News” awards he was symbolically giving to the press for reporting what he called fake news. But at least seven of the “Fake News” winners were mistakes or errors that resulted in nearly immediate corrections, with two of them prompting suspensions or resignations. Two of the “winners” were simply tweets that were quickly corrected and never resulted in news articles. One was an op-ed opinion article which was never intended to be taken as hard news.
For the president, however, there is no redemption to be found in admitting mistakes or errors. Perhaps that is why he so rarely does so himself. Multiple fact-checking sources have documented that 2,000 times in 2017, the president used exaggeration, hyperbole, or blatant untruth, not one of which he has acknowledged, corrected, or apologized about.
The Washington Post Fact Checker notes and publishes errors in the press, but they say everyone makes mistakes -- and the point, they insist, is not to play gotcha. News organizations operate in a competitive arena and mistakes are bound to be made. The key test is whether an error is acknowledged and corrected.
Historically, admitting error and working to correct it in a timely and sincere way is one way that persons or institutions become trustworthy and authoritative.
Another way a news source gains status and authority is by what they choose NOT to report.
In a January 17 Washington Post article, Paul Farhi writes that there is nothing new about the allegations that Donald Trump had an extramarital affair with an adult film star named Stormy Daniels shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron.
As early as September 2017, reporters from ABC, Fox News, the Daily Beast, and Slate were pursuing this highly explosive story -- but none of them published it. Why not?
Journalists say they held back because they couldn’t independently corroborate key elements of Daniels’ account, including in one instance from Daniels herself. The story, in other words, failed to rise to journalistic standards, a thing which the president himself often accuses the mainstream media of not having at all.
It was not until the Wall Street Journal, a notoriously conservative newspaper owned by the notoriously conservative Rupert Murdoch, broke the story of a payoff to keep Ms. Daniels quiet that the rest of the story began to gain traction.
Discretion is another way that persons and institutions have historically gained trust and authority.
And of course, a third way of gaining trust and authority, especially for the news media, is through a long history of excellence, honesty, and careful reportage. This is why some newspapers continue to thrive -- even in this current American culture of sound bites, short news, and memes, when most people prefer to get their news from Facebook and The Daily Show. The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today continue to flourish because they have changed their format to meet the times AND because they have continued to uphold traditions of excellent reportage. Perfect? Rarely. But the perfect need not be the enemy of the good.
In the Scriptures
All four of the lectionary selections for this Sunday deal with the issue of authority and trust. Psalm 111 is the most basic and simple in that it deals in why we should trust God. The answer is that God has demonstrated trustworthiness that we can see and measure, that we have, in fact, experienced.
God has provided food for those who respect God’s authority. God has done demonstrably wonderful deeds. God has kept the covenant between God and God’s people. The works of God’s hands are “faithful and just.” Therefore God’s authority deserves to be respected, trusted, and honored. If we want our authority to be respected, trusted, and honored, we would do well to use God as our model.
Simple and straightforward, as we might expect the psalmist to be. A whole sermon might abide in this one passage alone.
But there are three others chosen for today that are maybe a little subtler, a little more nuanced, and perhaps a little more fun.
In the Deuteronomy text Moses tells the people that God will raise up leaders like himself for the people. These prophets will have the authority of God’s own voice, and people who don’t pay attention to them will be in a world of hurt. On the other hand, if anyone claims to be such a prophet and have such a voice but doesn’t actually have it, well, woe to them for they will surely die.
According to Moses, we can measure the authority of our religious leaders by the degree to which they speak God’s truth. A preacher would do well to suggest that we Christians find God’s truth in its plainest, most earnest form in the red letters of our New Testament. Jesus is, after all, the Word of God, and it is through him that we come into relationship with God. And it is through him that we speak with the authority of one who speaks for God. And it is through the New Testament that we come to know Jesus.
In the Mark text we see Jesus teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. The result of this teaching, the specifics of which Mark does not share, is that the people are amazed because he teaches as one with authority and not as the scribes.
How did the scribes teach? Most scholars believe that the scribes taught by the method known as midrash, or commentary. Simply put, they would sit around a table, read passages from the Torah, and then discuss them, often referring to other passages of scripture as well as rabbinical tradition and literature. Often, as today, these kinds of discussions ended with lots of words but no definitive answers to the questions raised by the text.
Jesus entered the teaching context with a new kind of teaching, one where the teacher explains and untangles the texts in ways that are immediately applicable to contemporary life.
In the second half of the passage, Jesus again amazes those around him by commanding an unclean spirit to come out of a man -- and the spirit obeys. If we leave it at that, the passage has little to teach us. We already know that Jesus speaks with authority, and the rest we usually just don’t talk about. If we are willing to understand the “unclean spirit” which plagues this man in a metaphorical or parabolic sense, there is much fertile ground here for sermonizing. Jesus can, after all, still speak to our “demons,” the ones that plague us and make us less than authentic human beings, demons like addiction and compulsion and prejudice and ignorance and bitterness. What, we would do well to ask, is the authoritative word that Jesus brings to demons like these?
In the 1 Corinthians text, Paul gives us a wonderful example of authority that comes via discretion. He confers upon the Corinthian Christians the authority to eat or not eat foods that have been sacrificed to idols, whatever their individual consciences dictate. “Do what you think best” seems to be his word on this, as it is not a matter pertinent to salvation.
Today we would say, “Whatever.”
But on second thought, he adds this: Be considerate of others and where they are in their journey with God. If your eating of this food, which is perfectly okay, causes a problem for them, a problem which may cause them to stumble in their journey, then maybe you should consider not doing it.
In other words: “Eat, don’t eat, you decide. But as you decide, be mindful of how your behavior may affect others, especially people who are new to the Christian faith.”
Authority, then, is not just the authority to do something. It is also the authority to not do something. It is often to be found in the exercise of discretion.
In the Sermon
A Persian proverb speaks to the issue of authority:
Those who know not and know that they know not, are children. Teach them.
Those who know and know not that they know, are asleep. Wake them.
Those who know not and know not that they know not, are fools. Avoid them.
Those who know and know that they know are wise. Follow them.
In his book The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama said: “We have no authoritative figure, no Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow whom we all listen to and trust to sort out contradictory claims. Instead, the media is splintered into a thousand fragments, each with its own version of reality, each claiming the loyalty of a splintered nation.”
Like him, we all long for someone who will speak with authority -- but Walter Cronkite is gone and we are left not to simply accept the authority of another, but to confer it upon whom we will. History and experience give us three measuring sticks for determining whom we will believe:
1) A tradition or a long record of truth-telling,
2) The willingness to admit when a mistake or error has been made and to correct it in a timely and responsible manner, with due apologies to those who may have been harmed, and
3) The exercise of appropriate discretion and self-control; the willingness to keep silent when all the facts are not in evidence or when speaking would do needless harm.
Our Christian faith offers us a fourth: the word of God as it comes to us in the life and teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Is what we hear and read consistent with the good news of God as it is presented to us in the words and life of Jesus? How? In what way?
It isn’t about how we want it to be, it’s about whether it really is.
Does it speak for love and compassion? Does it speak for justice and a care for those who cannot speak for and protect themselves -- the poor, the sick and injured, the weak, the imprisoned, the oppressed and the dispossessed, the foreign and the forgotten?
Or does it speak for the “empire”? Does it seek to make the rich and powerful richer and more powerful? Or does it speak to the needs of the poor, the hungry, the unloved, unaccepted, and abandoned?
If this we use as our measure, then we can have confidence in those upon whom we confer the mantle of authority. And to take it a step further, we can also use it as a measure of how much authority we ourselves can claim.
“And that’s the way it is.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
What Sort of Authority?
by Chris Keating
Mark 1:21-28
Reading Mark’s gospel can be exhausting. It moves at a rapid-fire pace: Jesus appears from thin air, then gets pushed off into the wilderness. Meanwhile, John the Baptist gets arrested; Jesus heads to Galilee, shuts down a family fishing business, and recruits his leadership team before heading to Capernaum to teach on the sabbath.
But there’s no resting on this sabbath. In the blink of an eye, Jesus preaches and then heals a man with an unclean spirit. Next, he heads over to the house of his new BFFs Simon and Andrew, where he discovers Simon’s mother-in-law is laid up with a fever. Jesus heals her, which is good, because it’s just about dinnertime and the guys are getting hungry. While she is heating up leftovers the entire city starts gathering outside her door, along with all of their sick relatives.
That’s just the first 32 verses.
This week’s lectionary focuses on the question which everyone seems to be asking about Jesus: namely, “What is this? A new teaching -- with authority!” The crowds are amazed, and we might be too. Let’s be blunt: Jesus’ authority catches everyone off-guard. Those gathered in the synagogue are astounded by Jesus’ teaching. This itinerant rabbi did not teach as the scribes, that punctilious class of professionals dedicated to interpreting the law. Instead, he makes a bold break with tradition.
He comes proclaiming the good news, but his words shake them to their core. I’m guessing that few people shook his hand as they filed out of the synagogue that day. Not many said, “Good sermon, preacher.” Instead they were overwhelmed by what they had heard. Who was this guest preacher? “What is this? A new teaching -- with authority!”
Jesus’ message stands in contrast to the prevailing understandings of authority. In this week’s budget battle, neither the Republicans in power nor feisty Democrats could negotiate their way to a deal. The result was the 18th government shutdown in recent years. Even the author of The Art of the Deal had little success, with leaders from both parties expressing frustration with the president’s staff. Senator Chuck Schumer quipped that discussions with the president were a bit like handling jello.
What is this? A lack of authority?
Little was resolved when the two-day shutdown ended on Monday. A few Democrats crossed the line to keep the federal government in business for a few weeks, but no one seems to have found enough authority to hammer out an ironclad deal regarding the soon-to-expire Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“Dreamers”) act. While funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) seems to have been worked out, the fate of Dreamers remains in limbo.
It’s not just a political problem, of course. The question asked by the synagogue crowd cuts to the heart of our deepest religious questions. Where do we find the sort of life-giving, grace-filled word that sets us free from the torrent of authority-driven demons afflicting us?
Lillian Daniels, author of Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don’t Belong To, describes the difficulty the contemporary church often faces with the ever-shifting understandings of authority. Many of those who have given up on Christianity, she argues, have been led to believe that faith is more about the sort of knowledge that Paul says “puffs up” than the love which “builds up.”
Scanning a sheaf of papers written by students in her eighth-grade confirmation class, Daniels says she was surprised that so many of the youth had elected to skip joining the church. She was caught off-guard that many had decided they couldn’t join a church that rejected science, or promoted a literalistic reading of scripture, or that condemned homosexuality. “I’m just not sure I should get confirmed,” one wrote, “and join the church as an adult member.... I’m just not sure I should take that step, because I don’t believe the world was created in six days.”
Daniels was furious. Her congregation is a broad-minded, staunchly progressive church that is part of a liberal denomination. Who had taught them these things? “I wanted those renegade volunteers’ names so that they could receive the appropriate theological beatdown, or at least a few polite questions,” she writes.
It turns out they hadn’t heard this in Sunday school. Instead, the youth had absorbed the prevailing cultural view that the only real Christians are fundamentalist Christians. “They didn’t hear it from us. They heard it on the news where the weirdest voices of Christianity get way too much airtime. If there’s a tsunami, an earthquake, a heatwave, or a drought, chances are some professional Christian will say that it’s God’s way of getting our attention and therefore it must be someone’s fault” (Lillian Daniels, Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don’t Belong To, [Hachette Book Group, 2016], pp. 97-98).
What has happened, Daniel argues, is that one segment of Christians have succeeded in convincing a growing number of persons -- both in and outside of the church -- that faith must be conflated with certainty. The loudest group in the room claimed authority over all the groups. Only Jesus seems to have the ability to say, “Be silent.”
That’s what happened in the synagogue that day in Capernaum. Jesus dared to speak with the sort of authority which not only silenced the demons, but also challenged those who thought their tedious rules and regulations spoke for God. The good news for us is that Jesus still challenges our preconceived notions of authority. As noted last week, Jesus even dared to disrupt the local economy by nabbing James and John straight from their father’s fishing enterprise.
Zebedee must have been scratching his head as he watched his sons take off with Jesus. As he spent the rest of the day scraping the “and Sons” off the name of his fishing boat, Zebedee might have been heard muttering, “What is this? A new teaching?” Pretty soon, you could hear the whole town saying the same thing.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Mary Austin:
Mark 1:21-28
Not Being Taken Seriously as an Authority
If asked to name the world’s greatest tennis players, many of us would automatically name Serena Williams. Mastery of her body has made Williams, who has claimed 23 Grand Slam victories during her lengthy career, a champion on the court for many years -- but when she recently gave birth, the hospital’s doubt of her authority endangered her life. Williams “had to undergo an emergency C-section after her heart rate skyrocketed during delivery, [and] faced multiple, terrifying complications after giving birth to her daughter. Williams, who has a history of blood clots, even had to advocate for herself and alert doctors that she was having a pulmonary embolism (blockage that occurs in the lungs, usually due to blood clots). Sure enough, tests showed clots in her lungs and she began treatment.” The hospital didn’t believe Williams when she told the nurse she had a blood clot, and needed a CT scan with contrast dye and IV Heparin. They ran other tests first before realizing she did indeed have a blood clot and treating her for it.
We look for authority in familiar places, and miss it when it comes in unusual forms.
*****
Mark 1:21-28
Authority
As he goes to the synagogue early in his ministry, Jesus reminds us -- and the people of the town -- that authority comes from surprising places. In these days of debate about immigration and questions about who brings value to our country, the small town of West Liberty, Iowa is using its own authority to answer this question. With a population of 3737, the town is home to West Liberty Foods, “a turkey processing plant and the city’s largest employer. Ever since it opened in 1943, the plant has drawn Latino and Hispanic immigrants.” The small town is now the “first Hispanic-majority town of any significant size in Iowa,” with just over half of the residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino. A significant number of people in town are also immigrants from Southeast Asia. The town looks different from our usual mental pictures of Iowa. To its residents, the town feels different from the rest of the state. “Luz, a senior at West Liberty High School and the daughter of Mexican immigrants, said she feels more comfortable in West Liberty than other towns. Wearing a pink-speckled black sweatshirt emblazoned with the word ‘Iowa,’ she spoke about her experiences growing up in West Liberty. The high school -- about 300 students -- like the town, is small, which provides a feeling of safety -- sanctuary -- for Luz.... ‘I feel safe here, because I know almost everybody in town.’ She said she’s felt different in other parts of Iowa....
“The town’s library has also played a role in welcoming immigrants. Janette McMahon, the West Liberty Public Library director, said that in the 22 years she’s worked there, the library has changed to accommodate the community’s needs.
“When McMahon started at the library in 1995, the small section devoted to books written in Spanish consisted mainly of ‘How to Speak English’ manuals. Today, 25 percent of the books available for checkout are written in Spanish.... The library’s collection isn’t just for newcomers. ‘There have been fourth- and fifth-generation families here,’ McMahon says. ‘They didn’t stop speaking Spanish. You have grandparents who speak Spanish, and they want their grandchildren to speak Spanish.’ McMahon said the library is about providing safety and equality for all, including immigrants who may be undocumented.” No one asks for your social security number when you get a library card.
The town is using its informal authority to convey a sense of welcome to its residents who have come from different places.
*****
Mark 1:21-28
Neighborly Authority
Jesus uses his authority to dramatically improve the life of the man with the unclean spirit, and people around the country are using their own authority to do the same for the people near them. People are acting in small ways to touch the lives of their neighbors. “On Orcas Island in the Washington San Juans, a group of local residents is working with immigrants to create contingency plans for what will happen to children if their parents are unexpectedly picked up, detained, or deported. And in a small-town West Virginia classroom, Cynthia Evarts is using articles and books about refugees -- a young girl from Vietnam, boy soldiers in Sierra Leone -- hoping, she said, to give her students a perspective different from the ones they may get at home.”
Where people know their neighbors, they’re taking steps to help. “In conservative Eastern Washington, where large numbers of migrant farm workers are without documents, some local citizens are in early discussions about ways to protect them.... Citizens in one Eastern Washington community are planning to have teams of people, operating in shifts, accompany immigrants to the courthouse, when necessary, or to the farm fields where they work, providing a sort of human shield between immigrants and immigration officers.” They’re also planning ahead for potentially heartbreaking situations. “On Orcas Island, Eleanor Hoague is among a group of local residents helping the small population of immigrants there to create a safety plan for their children in the event the parents are picked up and deported.”
No matter what our politics are, we all have the authority to improve the lives of our neighbors.
*****
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Food for All
In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul instructs the church not to use food as a way to divide people. Food is more than sustenance, he says -- it’s also a way to include people. Emily Brown discovered the way food can do harm when her young daughter was diagnosed “with allergies to peanuts, eggs, dairy, wheat, and soy. Because allergy-friendly food can cost two to four times the price of regular food, Brown’s family quickly became overwhelmed by its ever-increasing grocery budget.” Food pantries, structured for typical eating, were no help. “After meeting Amy Goode at a food-allergy support group, the two mothers launched the Food Equality Initiative, aiming to make food that’s safe to those with allergies more affordable and accessible to those in need. In 2015, the inspirational duo opened Renewed Health, the country’s very first allergy-friendly food pantry. In just a year, it’s provided assistance to more than 70 clients and has distributed more than 12,350 pounds of allergy-friendly food.”
Paul would be pleased that food is no longer a stumbling block for people who need it.
*****
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Don’t Throw That Away
Those of us who have enough food have become a stumbling block for our neighbors who are food-insecure, and “food entrepreneur” Dana Frasz wants to help with that. Frasz says that 40% of all food produced in the United States is wasted. Frasz says: “Our materialistic lifestyles in the U.S. have negative social and environmental impacts around the world. Rather than living in harmony with the earth, we are perpetuating a culture that is dependent on exploitation, extraction, and acquisition. Food waste is not only a waste of nutrition, it squanders water, depletes soil, wastes fossil fuels, and adds greatly to the world’s carbon footprint.... We have trash and recycling removal in this country, why not have a food recovery service sector that recovers and redistributes surplus food as an extension of our current waste management system?”
Frasz’ organization, Food Shift, “is working with Oakland schools to ensure surplus food from the cafeteria is redistributed to students and families rather than thrown in the garbage. We are working with a local grocer who has expressed interest in paying Food Shift to recover food from their stores. This would allow us to employ someone in the process while reducing waste disposal costs for the business. We are interested in developing food recovery and redistribution models that increase access to more nutrition food, reduce waste, and generate revenue in some way so they can sustain and scale -- like low-cost markets and value-added products.”
Throwing away old lettuce is easy to do, but our simple actions become a stumbling block to others having enough to eat.
***************
From team member Ron Love:
(These illustrations are based on major themes in this week’s lectionary readings.)
Judgment
When I was a Virginia state trooper, during a routine traffic road block we were less concerned about cars that stopped; our focus was on vehicles that turned around before reaching our traffic stop, as this most certainly indicated some form of violation. For this reason, unknown to motorists, we always kept a chase car hidden. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: We read in our lessons that God will judge those who are disobedient.
*****
Prophets
The Post is a very popular movie currently in theaters today. It tells the story of how Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and owner Katharine Graham made the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers. In the movie Bradlee is played by Tom Hanks and Graham is played by Meryl Streep. Streep noted about her portrayal of Graham: “Early in her life she was not the confident Katharine Graham that people came to know as the first female head of a Fortune 500 company. She was someone unsure of herself. She was a product of her time, when women weren’t expected to do much outside the realm of good works, good child-rearing, and household-keeping. And it’s hard to really imagine how different that time was was unless you lived through it. And I did.” Streep took the role because she wanted people to know how at one time women were suppressed, yet they always had the ability to achieve if given the opportunity, as Katharine Graham had when the opportunity was presented to her.
Application: We must make sure that we do not let our biases keep us from hearing the words of a prophet.
*****
Prophets
When I was a chaplain in the United States Army, only chaplains wore their insignia (a cross for Christian chaplains) instead of their rank on their caps. This practice is still applied today. The reason for this is that the purpose of a chaplain is to bring comfort, not authority. A chaplain is to bring the presence of God to a soldier who is hurt or troubled. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: A prophet brings the presence of God to people.
*****
Prophets
When I was a chaplain in the Army, I served with a forward field hospital (previously called MASH units, as seen on the familiar television show). A forward field hospital is a company-size unit. A company is a part of a battalion, and a battalion usually is composed of four companies. Only a battalion is assigned a chaplain, except for a forward field hospital. A forward field hospital is the only company-size unit that has an assigned chaplain. This is because a forward field hospital receives wounded soldiers directly from the battlefield. Emergency care is provided until the wounded soldiers can be sent to a field hospital further in the rear. The greatest trauma a solider may endure is at the forward field hospital. It is also here that triage is conducted. Because of the number of casualties and limited resources a selection must be made. Those soldiers who can survive untreated are left alone. Those soldiers who even with medical care may still die are left alone. Only those soldiers who may possibly live with treatment are brought into surgery. And once in surgery, if an amputation takes less time it is performed instead of time-consuming reconstructive surgery. This all may seem harsh, but the purpose is to care for the maximum number of patients possible. Because of the intensity of this situation, the presence of God, as represented by a chaplain, is necessary. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: A prophet brings the presence of God to people.
*****
Prophets
When the Wright brothers repeatedly flew their airplane, though it made national news, few people took it seriously as a breakthrough that could revolutionize transportation. While the United States did follow up on the experiment with the Army, our country failed to grasp the full significance of flight. Only one country in the world took airplane flight seriously, and that country was England. England is an island nation that had always been protected by its navy. With the introduction of airplanes, England realized that it was no longer an island nation and that its national defense was in jeopardy.
Application: We must take the words of a prophet seriously.
*****
Prophets
When I grew up in the Midwest in the 1950s, Mom, apple pie, and Chevrolet were the norm. I only knew one Jewish boy in elementary school. I did not know any Catholics, since they all went to a parochial school. And any discussion I heard of Jews or Catholics was demeaning. From this environment, my young mind concluded that the pope could not be good since he was not an American. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: We cannot let our biases blind us to the words of a prophet.
*****
Prophets
On October 13, 1988, there was a presidential debate between George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis. As Dukakis was much shorter than Bush, he insisted that behind his lectern there needed to be a platform for him to stand on to make their heights appear equal. It is a sociological and psychological fact that a taller person does gain more respect than a shorter person. So, as Bush stood 6'2" and Dukakis 5'8", the six-inch difference was significant. This ploy went well during the debate. But at the end of the debate Bush got Dukakis to step off his platform to shake hands in the center of the stage. It was then that the height difference became very apparent to the television audience.
Application: We must make sure that we do not let our biases keep us from hearing the words of a prophet.
*****
Prophets
Charles Darwin remains a controversial individual in some quarters because of his theory of evolution. Little known to the public is his cousin Francis Galton, who made an equally revolutionary discovery about the evolution of a species, but absent of Darwin’s controversy. Galton became intrigued with the nature of heredity. He developed mathematical formulas to examine the relative contributions of both parents, as well as grandparents, to the inherited makeup of an individual. He recorded how certain traits were passed on from one generation to another. For his studies, Galton became known as the father of eugenics.
Application: We must make sure that we do not let our biases keep us from hearing the words of a prophet.
*****
Worship
When I was a chaplain in the United States Army, our altars spun on a wheel, with only one-third being exposed to the congregation. There was a section for Christian worship, a section for Jewish worship, and a section for Muslim worship. This allowed a single chapel to accommodate the worship of all religious faiths. (Note: You can personalize this story by introducing it with the words “A friend told me...” or “I read about...”)
Application: Our readings call us to be aware of which God we are worshiping.
*****
Worship
During prayer, as all the other Anglicans in church knelt at their pews, George Washington would stand tall at his. An explanation was never offered for this action. It was wondered if Washington was imitating the early Christians, who stood during prayer as a part of their Jewish heritage. Or did he stand because that is how he did it as an officer when he served in the English army. In either case, it was certainly a declaration that Washington understood himself to be a “child of God.”
Application: Our readings instruct us to worship our Lord.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Praise God! Let us give thanks to God with our whole heart.
People: Great are the works of God, studied by all who delight in them.
Leader: Full of honor and majesty is God’s work.
People: God’s righteousness endures forever.
Leader: The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
People: God’s praise endures forever.
OR
Leader: Praise our God, who speaks to us in wisdom.
People: Glory be to God, who comes to give us life.
Leader: God is gracious and loving, seeking our redemption.
People: We rejoice in God’s love and grace for all creation.
Leader: God desires us to walk in the path that leads to life.
People: With God’s help, we will seek the path of God’s wisdom.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”
found in:
UMH: 79
H82: 366
PH: 460
NNBH: 13
NCH: 276
LBW: 535
ELA: 414
W&P: 138
“O Worship the King”
found in:
UMH: 73
H82: 388
PH: 476
NNBH: 6
NCH: 26
CH: 17
LBW: 548
ELA: 842
W&P: 2
AMEC: 12
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
found in:
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELA: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
“Standing on the Promises”
found in:
UMH: 374
AAHH: 373
NNBH: 257
CH: 552
AMEC: 424
“Amazing Grace”
found in:
UMH: 378
H82: 671
PH: 280
AAHH: 271, 272
NNBH: 161, 163
NCH: 547, 548
CH: 546
LBW: 448
ELA: 779
W&P: 422
AMEC: 226
STLT: 205, 206
Renew: 189
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”
found in:
UMH: 381
H82: 708
PH: 387
AAHH: 424
NNBH: 54
NCH: 252
CH: 558
LBW: 481
ELA: 789
W&P: 440
AMEC: 379
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
“My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
found in:
UMH: 452
H82: 691
PH: 383
AAHH: 456
NNBH: 273
CH: 576
LBW: 479
ELA: 759
W&P: 419
AMEC: 415
“Sing Unto the Lord a New Song”
found in:
CCB: 16
Renew: 99
“We Worship and Adore Thee”
found in:
CCB: 6
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God, who by nature is the great authority on all that is: Grant us the wisdom to seek your word for our lives today that we may walk the path of wisdom and righteousness; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you know creation from its very inception. You know us and the path we need to follow. Help us to seek you as the authority on living so that we may walk in wisdom and righteousness all the days of our lives. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our failure to seek true authority based in the wisdom of God.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us and this wonderful world in which we live. You know us better than we know ourselves, and you understand life as your precious gift. Yet we do not turn to you for guidance; we seek our authorities in those who see things the way we see them. We are, indeed, the blind leading the blind. Open our eyes and minds and hearts, that we may truly seek you as the authority in our lives. Help us to follow you into a life that is full, abundant, and joyful. Amen.
Leader: God is wise and God is gracious. God gives us all we need to live in the fullness of God’s presence and love. Receive God’s gifts and share them with others.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise you, O God, for the wisdom with which you created us and our world. You are wise, and all your works reflect your wisdom.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have created us and this wonderful world in which we live. You know us better than we know ourselves, and you understand life as your precious gift. Yet we do not turn to you for guidance; we seek our authorities in those who see things the way we see them. We are, indeed, the blind leading the blind. Open our eyes and minds and hearts, that we may truly seek you as the authority in our lives. Help us to follow you into a life that is full, abundant, and joyful.
We give you thanks for all the ways you speak to us, sharing your wisdom so that we might have full and abundant lives. You have shared your wisdom in so many ways; even nature itself displays your wisdom and grace.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We know many suffer because they or those around them do not act in your wisdom. We pray that as you seek out your children who are lost, we may be filled with your Spirit and wisdom to assist those around us to choose the path that leads to life eternal.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Pull out a map of a distant state and tell the children that you are looking for where you are on the map. (If you can, display it on an easel.) When you can’t locate your town, ask the children why if they haven’t already told you where you are. Go to another map of an adjacent state. Then pull out your state. If you want to know where something is in your state, you need your own state’s map. You have to go to the right authority. We also need to seek the right authority about how to live. We read our Bible, we pray, we attend Sunday school and church. We listen to God and Jesus, who are our authorities.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
What Did You Learn Today?
by Chris Keating
Mark 1:21-28
Gather ahead:
* Kid-friendly bulletins (Using your typical worship service as a guide, print out an outline of your church’s Sunday morning worship. For example, list call to worship, prayer of confession, hymn of praise, scripture, anthem, offering, doxology, Lord’s Prayer, sermon, etc. in the order used by your congregation.)
Parts of this week’s scripture lesson may be hard for children to understand. Some will be confused by the imagery of an “unclean” man. Care needs to be taken not to associate people with disabilities or medical conditions as bad or unclean, nor as persons of whom we need to necessarily be afraid. However, should you feel comfortable exploring Jesus’ message of inclusion of persons who are different, this text would offer an opportunity to explore the topic. Share with children that people in Jesus’ time had different views of illness and disabling conditions than we do today. Some people were fearful that these were signs of God’s displeasure in a person. You can think out loud with the children by saying “I wonder if that man felt welcomed to the synagogue that day,” or “How did Jesus show God’s love to this person?” What would it be like for us to show God’s love to new people who join us for worship?
As an alternative, this text provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on how Jesus was a teacher. Children are experts on teaching! Explore with the children how they might teach someone something. What is the best way, for example, to teach someone how to tie their shoes or tell time or learn how to read? Who has helped them learn new things?
Related to that is the idea that Jesus used worship as an opportunity for teaching the people in Capernaum new things about God. The people were curious about Jesus. He was doing things and teaching things about God that they had never considered. Help them explore what it means to see coming to church as a time for learning.
The idea that worship is a time to learn may seem strange to the children at first, but we can remind them that our worship time is a chance for our entire community to learn together. It’s sort of like school, but it is very different too. Using the kid-friendly bulletins you have created, spend a few minutes talking about each part of the worship service. There is probably not sufficient time to go over every detail, but in these few moments the children can begin to learn how to make sense of worship. Each time we gather for worship, we come prepared to learn something new -- just as we do in school.
Helping the children learn why we say a prayer of confession or sing the doxology, for example, might be a “new teaching” for them. Remind them that when you see them after church, you might ask them “So, what new thing did God show you in church today?”
Close with a prayer giving thanks for the gift of curiosity, and asking God to help us to remain open to the new things God wishes to teach us in Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, January 28, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2018 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
