{"id":421,"date":"2012-01-29T11:00:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-29T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=421"},"modified":"2020-01-28T18:01:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T23:01:16","slug":"authentic-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2012\/01\/29\/authentic-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Authentic Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service.
\n<\/a>Click here to hear the sermon only.
\n<\/a>Mark 1: 21-28<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus greets us today as the voice of authentic authority, in our own experience.<\/p>\n

Three aspects of his authority are announced today, in the Gospel According to St. Mark. \u00a0 We shall trace their emergence in our hearing, and attempt to apply them to our spiritual benefit.<\/p>\n

Tradition<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

First, notice the lingering power of tradition. \u00a0Not traditionalism, but the forms of inherited tradition. \u00a0The dominical voice of authentic authority whistles through the willow branches of tradition.<\/p>\n

Jesus speaks.<\/p>\n

When does he speak? \u00a0On the Sabbath. Where does he speak? \u00a0In the synagogue.<\/p>\n

How does he speak? \u00a0As a teacher.<\/p>\n

All three of these aspects of his speaking are named for us, though we might have inferred two of the three from just the mention of one, or another. \u00a0They go together\u2014holy time, holy space, holy words. \u00a0The gospel means to emphasize by repetition.<\/p>\n

There is, at the outset, a regard, a lingering respect for what has been, for what one inherits. \u00a0For tradition, though not traditionalism. \u00a0The Sabbath is the occasion. \u00a0The synagogue is the setting. \u00a0The role of teacher frames the message.<\/p>\n

A time of rest and refreshment, Sabbath, here receives Jesus\u2019 blessing, at least in the manner of his recognition and participation. \u00a0 Sunday can be a time of Sabbath rest. \u00a0A time for sleep, for recovery, for reading, for gathering. \u00a0 We are a sleep deprived people, somnambulant in a sleep deprived culture. \u00a0So a traditional occasion, a time for retreat and renewal can feed us, if we let it. \u00a0There are none so weary as those who will not sleep.<\/p>\n

Following my sermons, some arise inspired and some awake refreshed. \u00a0Both are good outcomes.<\/p>\n

Likewise, synagogue, a coming together, is a traditional form. \u00a0It means, a gathering together. \u00a0Blessed are the hosts, for they shall be called the cooks of God. \u00a0 When you have had a hand in gathering together a gathering together, you have brushed close to something good, something godly.<\/p>\n

The other Sunday, a cold one, I made the mistake of walking to worship without a hat. \u00a0Brr! \u00a0I put my hands over my ears. \u00a0I hurried on to come here, eager to see who would be with us in church, eager to hear a response from the listening congregation, eager to be nourished by the ministers of music, eager to be gathered into a warm, inviting, loving, embracing community. \u00a0When it is cold enough, you can really appreciate a heated church home. \u00a0When it is relationally cold enough, you can really appreciate a gathering together. \u00a0When someone finds a church family to love and a church home to enjoy\u2014when the gathering together holds\u2014there is a holy moment.<\/p>\n

So, too, the role of the teacher. \u00a0A familiar role, a familiar social location. \u00a0It is not in some exotic form that Jesus greets his hearers today. \u00a0The form is familiar, the teacher. \u00a0We may sometimes look too far, too wide for what we most want and need, when nearby, familiarly so, our health awaits.<\/p>\n

Sabbath, synagogue, rabbi. \u00a0Tradition. \u00a0Here Jesus is more than willing to don the raiment of inheritance, to be harnessed by the yoke of tradition. \u00a0Jeremiah recommended the old paths. \u00a0Matthew prized every jot and tittel. \u00a0We hunger for those voices that will help us translate the tradition into insights for effective living.<\/p>\n

Some memories of college years, here, will be connected to the particular sound of our choir. \u00a0Some recollections of exams passed or nearly passed, will be held in earshot of a meal or a trip or a talk, here. \u00a0Some remembrances of things past, even of hard moments of loss or regret or disappointment, will have about them a shaft of light through stained glass, an echo of truth through scripture read, an admission of prayer needed and offered.<\/p>\n

Our gospel today, which announces Jesus\u2019 voice of authentic authority, notices the lingering power of tradition.<\/p>\n

It is in the midst of this house, this lineage, this inheritance that Jesus speaks, not absent it.<\/p>\n

His hearers are astonished. \u00a0He is not confused in their hearing with their hearing of the scribes, his usual opponents in the flow of this gospel. \u00a0They know a different voice when they hear it. \u00a0A voice of authority, authentic authority.<\/p>\n

But we are not told what exactly made the voice authoritative.<\/p>\n

Like last week, in the calling of the disciples, the two sets of brothers. \u00a0We are told nothing, there, about what made them move, what caused their decision, what set them free. \u00a0And this week, in the authorization of teaching, we are told nothing about what made the sermon so good. \u00a0Only that it was.<\/p>\n

Over time, we all finally decide what constitutes authentic authority, what such authority sounds like.<\/p>\n

Sometime a bit of old tradition can sound and seem like a new teaching. \u00a0Our neighbor at Boston College, Kerry Cronin, teaches students about an old fashioned tradition called \u2018dating\u2019. \u00a0She gives them a script. \u00a0She advises: \u00a0women should ask men too; ask in person not by twitter; if you ask, you should pay; enjoy talking for an hour; make it alchohol free; you cannot pass her course without going on a date. \u00a0\u201cIf we can retrieve from the old dating script a set of low level expectations\u2026that would be great\u2026The script can ultimately give you more freedom. (CC, 1\/25\/12, 29)<\/p>\n

Jesus greets us today as the voice of authentic authority.<\/p>\n

Three aspects of his authority are announced today, in the Gospel According to St. Mark. \u00a0 We shall trace their emergence in our hearing, and attempt to apply them to our spiritual benefit. \u00a0First, tradition.<\/p>\n

Confrontation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Second, notice, and how can you help it, the centrality of confrontation. \u00a0Here there is an unclean spirit loose, loose amid the holy time and place and role.<\/p>\n

Authentic authority calls out his nemesis. \u00a0We are straightway here in the realm of apocalyptic, cosmic apocalyptic, battle.<\/p>\n

Last week we hosted a memorial service here in Marsh Chapel as now we do three times or so a month. \u00a0With some of our BU family we grieved, remembered, accepted and affirmed. \u00a0As is not uncommon in some religious traditions, though perhaps not common for many of us here today, as the service began we heard a long, low wail. \u00a0The crie de couer continued, ramped up in volume, split out in thunderous cacophony, then trailed off again, only, again to ramp up in volume, split out in thunderous cacophony, and trail off again. \u00a0I can remember the first burial, now nearly thirty years ago, in which such wailing occurred in my hearing. \u00a0It was startling, as, for many, here, it was last week. \u00a0But it was true and real. \u00a0That is, now and then, people still \u2018cry with a loud voice\u2019, sometimes, in church.<\/p>\n

Our worldview is not cosmic apocalyptic confrontation. \u00a0We do not see a convulsive as one demon, of an unclean sort, challenging another Jesus demon of an authoritative sort. \u00a0We are late modern people, women and men who do not cry out in public, unless we are at a sporting event, drinking heavily, or about to call the police into a domestic dispute. \u00a0Maybe, in compensation, that is why sports and drinking and all become so central to us.<\/p>\n

Authentic authority involves confrontation, not just pleasant courtesies of disagreement, but \u00a0genuine squaring off. \u00a0To your roommate you finally say: \u2018One of us is wrong and I think it is you.\u2019 \u00a0To your boss you finally say: \u00a0\u2018Look, do you want to do my work or will you let me do it?\u2019 \u00a0To your political economy (known by the way for good reason as \u2018capitalism\u2019 not \u2018laborism\u2019, because capital rules labor in capitalism) you finally say: \u00a0\u2018One way or another my son needs a job.\u2019 \u00a0To your good friend, gently, you say: \u2018I am sorry you feel that way. \u00a0Goodbye\u2019. \u00a0To your spouse you say: \u00a0\u2018You can have me or him but not both at the same time\u2019. \u00a0To your warring world you finally shout: \u00a0\u2018My son is not your cannon fodder\u2019.<\/p>\n

One thing I truly admired about my dad was how he easy he was around confrontation. \u00a0A man would stand up and shout and carry on a church meeting, walk out of worship the next Sunday, or send a blistering hand written hate note to the pastor, and my dad would shrug and smile and say, \u2018I like to see him get worked up. \u00a0It is worth the price of admission just to see him so angry.\u2019 \u00a0Less naturally and more slowly, I too have learned to honor and receive anger. \u00a0Mark would understand.<\/p>\n

Here Mark is starting his gospel, with a confrontation. \u00a0The verb here rendered \u2018be silent\u2019 (so polite) means \u2018to muzzle\u2019. \u00a0Be muzzled. \u00a0Shut your trap. (so J Marcus, loc. Cit.). \u00a0Matthew begins his public gospel with the Sermon on the Mount. \u00a0Luke begins his public gospel with the sermon in Nazareth. \u00a0John begins his public gospel with the wedding in Cana (again, Marcus). \u00a0But Mark? \u00a0He begins with demons and confrontation.<\/p>\n

When we get angry we get in touch with something deep inside, something not necessarily at all related to what we think we are angry about. \u00a0We are not so very far from the \u2018unclean spirit\u2019 of Mark 1. \u00a0We are complicated creatures.<\/p>\n

You see and hear this again in the current play, \u2018Freud\u2019s Last Session\u2019, an imagined conversation between Sigmund Freud, the great psychologist, and C. S. Lewis, the great apologist. \u00a0Bombs are falling on London. \u00a0Freud is suffering with mouth cancer. \u00a0Lewis is struggling with his young man\u2019s sexuality. And through it all\u2014the question of God. \u00a0Freud and Lewis confront each other. They lock horns for 90 minutes of verbal combat. \u00a0Each memorizes and delivers the equivalent of two Sunday sermons. \u00a0They square off and argue. \u00a0Good.<\/p>\n

Lewis: \u00a0\u2018in pleasure God whispers, in pain God shouts\u2019. \u00a0Freud: \u00a0\u2018just why are you living with your best friend\u2019s mother?\u2019 \u00a0Lewis: \u00a0\u2018I got on my cycle an atheist, and got off a believer, all one day\u2019. \u00a0Freud: \u00a0\u2018you might want to see somebody about that\u2019. \u00a0Lewis: \u2018faith is most reasonable thing on earth\u2019. \u00a0Freud: \u2018yes, such a good God\u2014bombs, death, disease, pain\u2019. \u00a0Lewis: \u2018I will pray for you\u2019. \u00a0Freud: \u00a0\u2018you do that\u2019.<\/p>\n

Yet at the very end, though Freud has turned the radio off to mute the music in carries for much of the play, and of course Lewis, in good Freudian fashion, has asked why the good Dr. cannot listen to the music, and has given his spirited and spiritual analysis, at the end and alone, dying and in pain, the great psychoanalyst slowly turns up the music, and Mozart rings out.<\/p>\n

There is no resolution\u2014how could there be in 90 minutes? \u00a0But there is confrontation that exudes an authentic authority.<\/p>\n

Jesus greets us today as the voice of authentic authority.<\/p>\n

Three aspects of his authority are announced today, in the Gospel According to St. Mark. \u00a0 We shall trace their emergence in our hearing, and attempt to apply them to our spiritual benefit. \u00a0Second, confrontation. \u00a0It takes the exorcising power, the authentic authority, finally, of love, to move us.<\/p>\n

Response<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Third, response. \u00a0Notice the response. \u00a0The emphasis falls on an acknowledgement of authority, authentic authority. \u00a0\u2018With authority\u2026a new teaching\u2026he commands\u2026even the demons obey\u2026his fame spread throughout the north country\u2019. \u00a0 It works. \u00a0Whatever he said, whatever he taught, it helped somebody. \u00a0We wish we knew what it was!<\/p>\n

Yet, there is a quieter wisdom in the silence of Scripture here. \u00a0If we knew, we would be tempted just to repeat rather than to rehearse. \u00a0We need to have the tradition, in the moment of confrontation, translated into insights for effective living which, in response, we can use. \u00a0That is authentic authority in the full. \u00a0If we knew that he used the 100th Psalm, we would repeat it every Sunday. \u00a0If we knew he preached on Jeremiah, we would invariably do so. \u00a0If we knew he taught specific proverbs, we would ignore the rest. \u00a0No, there is freedom in the silence of the gospel, here, a freedom to live and love with authentic authority. \u00a0To respond.<\/p>\n

Freud finally turned on the music.<\/p>\n

And you?<\/p>\n

I am a Christian because the best people, leading the best lives, in my experience, have been so. \u00a0I respond to the freedom and love I see in other people of faith, now 65 generations after the exorcism in Capernaum, and the response all across Galilee. \u00a0In other lives I have seen glimpses of what I could be and do, if I would only straighten up and fly right. \u00a0Some of those lives are in this room. \u00a0Some are in memory. \u00a0Some are out there waiting to be introduced. \u00a0Don\u2019t kid yourself. \u00a0Especially, especially in a University setting, people are taking your measure. \u00a0Good. \u00a0Your example counts, matters, lasts, works.<\/p>\n

Tradition and confrontation evoke a response. \u00a0The unclean spirit leaves. \u00a0The congregation murmurs. \u00a0The report goes forth.<\/p>\n

Let me turn it around. \u00a0When you fail somehow, and we all you do, sometime, you know the negative influence of your own response. \u00a0Give yourself some credit then, on the up side of the ledger. \u00a0Dean Jones gave me a book. \u00a0Professor Jones listened with care. \u00a0That TA gave me the benefit of the doubt. \u00a0I will always be grateful for what Chaplain Jones did for me. \u00a0Let me say to those of us thirty years old and more: \u00a0eyes are watching, ears are listening, minds are considering what path to take. \u00a0Your example makes a difference in their response, right here, right now, right at Marsh Chapel. \u00a0We are forever teaching and learning, learning and teaching.<\/p>\n

Someone taught you. \u00a0A High School band director? \u00a0A Latin teacher in college (Agricola, agricolae\u2026)? \u00a0A chemistry professor who lingered with you in the lab? \u00a0Who?<\/p>\n

Nellie responded to her Latin teacher. \u00a0Bob responded to his science teacher. \u00a0Jan responded to her history teacher. \u00a0Jen responded to her family matriarch. \u00a0Larry responded to his theology professor. \u00a0As Carlyle Marney put it: \u00a0\u201cWho told you who you was?\u201d<\/p>\n

Somehow, with four growing children and a preacher\u2019s meager salary, my parents managed to give us all piano lessons. \u00a0My teacher was a farm wife, thirty years younger than her husband. \u00a0The distance from the barn to the house, from the manger to the piano, was very short, in both geographic and olfactory senses. \u00a0I feel the warmth of that space and that tutelage today, even though those precious parsonage dollars were almost entirely wasted on me, to my regret. \u00a0I can\u2019t play a scale, after at least 5 years of lessons. \u00a0I can though appreciate the difficulty of what others do. \u00a0And there was something more, somewhere between Lewis and Freud, in those afternoon lessons, which usually began with an honest question: \u00a0\u201cDid you practice?\u201d and a less than honest response: \u00a0\u201cSome\u201d.<\/p>\n

You know, looking back that was one of the few places and times, week by week, when I was in the sole presence of a non-parental adult: honest, trustworthy, kind, caring. \u00a0Now where the farm was there is an auto dealer and a pizza parlor. \u00a0But the hay, the barn, the milking, the home, the warmth, the music, the teaching, the\u2014may I call it friendship?, live on. \u00a0In her forties she died of cancer, three fine children, one great marriage, several years of crops and evenings and mornings of milking, and some less than stellar piano students later. \u00a0At her funeral the minister preached this sermon: \u00a0\u2018You Are Song That God Is Singing\u2019. \u00a0That itself is thirty years ago, but I remember it in full. \u00a0\u2018You Are Song That God Is Singing\u2019. \u00a0You are too. \u00a0And so are you. \u00a0And so are you.<\/p>\n

The music is playing all around us, all through us, in our triumph and in our tragedy. \u00a0We just need to respond. \u00a0To lean over, and turn the dial, and set the music free.<\/p>\n

Five winters ago a young woman in graduate school stopped to talk after worship. \u00a0She said, \u2018That sermon was about me.\u2019 \u00a0She started coming every week. \u00a0She found her ministry here. \u00a0She took on a major responsibility, and then a big job. \u00a0A whole lot of you all who are here in this sanctuary this morning are here because of her outreach, her welcome, her embrace. \u00a0She heard, and she responded. Then she met another graduate student, another Texan, on the T of all places. A romance on the T. \u00a0They started to like each other. That had all that Texas stuff in common after all. Pretty soon they were in love. \u00a0Not long later they were engaged. \u00a0And then they got married. \u00a0And then moved by the United States Army to some place in Oklahoma. Elizabeth and Brian both responded and evoked response. You can too, starting today. \u00a0This is your moment. \u00a0You are a song that God is singing.<\/p>\n

Oh, I wish they hadn\u2019t moved. \u00a0Of course I miss them. But that doesn\u2019t worry me. \u00a0I wish they were closer. \u00a0But that doesn\u2019t make me anxious. I wish they were in the pew this morning. \u00a0But they aren\u2019t and I am not concerned. \u00a0Because I know those two fine young people will let their music resound wherever they are. \u00a0And those in any chorus with them will be the richer for their presence. \u00a0Authentic authority is found in real response.<\/p>\n

The Gospel According to St. Mark starts off with a voice of authentic authority. \u00a0When you are searching for a sense of reliable, authentic authority, then hunt around a healthy bit of lost tradition, and for a courageous and cleansing moment of confrontation and \u00a0for a real and personal, public response.<\/p>\n

~The Reverend Dr. Robert Allan Hill,<\/em>
\n<\/em> Dean of Marsh Chapel<\/em>
\n<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service. Click here to hear the sermon only. Mark 1: 21-28 Jesus greets us today as the voice of authentic authority, in our own experience. Three aspects of his authority are announced today, in the Gospel According to St. Mark. \u00a0 We shall trace their emergence in our hearing, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2628,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions\/2628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}