From the Daily Lectionary for Monday in the First Week of Advent
Luke 20:1-8
One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders and said to him, “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?” He answered them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” They discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it came from. Then Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
We began a new church year this past Sunday, it being the first Sunday of Advent. In the Sunday Lectionary we move from Matthew into Mark, the terse and “in your face” Gospel, the only Gospel that has no resurrection appearance. It is the darkest of the Gospels. In the Daily Lectionary, the “everyday lectionary,” we begin this new year with Luke. All of the Gospels address the issue of authority, in particular, the authority of Jesus up and against the authority of the religious institution. The institution is represented by the scribes, the Pharisees, and the priestly class. They are stewards of the Jewish tradition, guardians of the status quo. But as with most institutions they have become self-serving; and worse, they are complicit with the occupation of Palestine by the Romans. They are, in short, protecting their own power and status. They have succumbed to the culture.
The authority of Jesus stands counter to the authority of the establishment. That is because Jesus and his followers have opted for the truth above all else. They have given themselves over to the premise that taking care of the least of us, the marginalized and the outcasts, has everything to do with the viability and sustainability of a society. They have gone back to the roots of Torah, back to the source. That is what the word authority actually means: “from the source.”
Ever since Christianity became the religion of empire in the fourth century it has, to a great degree, lost its counter-cultural and prophetic edge. Power is what defines culture. Vulnerability and sacrifice define faith. The tension in the Gospels having to do with authority hold up the contrast between the life of faith and a life informed by culture.
We, sisters and brothers, belong to the truth, which means we belong to the prophetic and counter-cultural message of God’s radical love and nurture. It means we are vigilant as to the designs of our institutions, their compromising tendencies toward self-interest, their infidelity to the truth, their abdication of empathy.
In our day and time the truth has been relativized. Post-modern philosophy holds that there is no universal truth, that truth is contingent to power. We know better as people who follow Jesus. We know that kindness and compassion and empathy and justice are rudiments of our true humanity. We know, in short, that love will outlast the wiles of power. There is no compromise in that. And that is not just what we believe; it is our authority. In this moment in history the world so desperately needs an authoritative voice for the way ahead… the voice of truth… if not us, then who?
A Prayer of the Incarnation (BCP p. 252)
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
