Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Mark
1:21-28
February 1, 2015
© 2015
Alyce McKenzie, who teaches at Perkins
School of Theology, remembers her days as a soccer mom. Some parents would try
to out coach the coach, yelling at their children to score when the coach was
telling them to pass. Embarrassed players would shake their heads at their
parents to say, “You’re not the authority here. Be quiet so I can hear my
coach.” The interim between pastors is an opportunity to consider spiritual
authority for both clergy and lay leaders. The Church’s leaders are given
authority by the Holy Spirit when they nourish intimacy with Jesus by soaking
in Scripture and prayer.
The
starting place is getting to know Jesus by regular Gospel encounter. This leads
to building a comprehensive grasp of the totality of Scripture, avoiding
invoking proof-texts as evidence for preconceived and isolated ideas.
This
intimacy with Jesus goes beyond information. It grows from a deep prayer life in
tune with the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual
authority is exercised with humility that comes from an awareness of the best
current scholarship and the thinking of those who have come before us, without
getting locked into a particular school of thought.
In the way
Jesus began his public ministry we can see why and how the Church’s leaders are
given authority by the Holy Spirit when they nourish intimacy with Jesus by
soaking in Scripture and prayer. Mark 1:21-28 comes after Jesus had called
Peter and Andrew, James and John to follow him. At this point, Jesus seems to
have just these four disciples.
They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
God told
Moses he would send a prophet to speak his word to his people. The priests and
kings held hereditary offices, from which God sometimes displaced unfaithful
leaders. However, God called prophets from anyone in Israel at any time a
special word was needed. This line of prophets pointed ahead to a single great
prophet, whom the New Testament identifies as Jesus. (Acts 3:22; 7:37)
Mark contrasted Jesus’ teaching with the
scribes. They made their points by quoting other scholars who quoted scholars
who came before them. As dogmatic as they could be at times, none of them ever
spoke with confident authority. Their discussions and debates tended to degenerate
into hurling quotes at each other.
By contrast, Jesus would refer to the Hebrew
prophets, but he taught with his own words and stories. We see this most
clearly in the section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said, “You have
heard that it was said, but I say to you,” six times. (Matthew 5:22, 28, 32,
34, 39, 44)
Jesus not only taught with astounding
authority, he acted with amazing authority when he cast the unclean spirit out
of the man in the synagogue. Today’s Church needs leaders who will not only
speak but act with authority. So they must receive authority from the Holy Spirit when they nourish
intimacy with Jesus by soaking in Scripture and prayer.
Jesus was
not just demonstrating his spiritual authority. He was liberating a suffering
man from spiritual oppression, and in turn liberating that congregation from evil
control. Authentic spiritual authority is redemptive, addressing human
suffering with hope and love.
If in our post-Enlightenment world, we haggle
over the reality of “unclean spirits” as though we are sophisticated enough to
explain them one way or another, we miss the point of this challenge to Jesus’
authority. It is as though the unclean spirit was taunting Jesus, “Na-na-na-na-na-na!
I know who you really are!” It is not about doctrine but control, just as are
most church fights.
By silencing the unclean spirit, Jesus
refused to get into a shouting match. Jesus’ authority flowed from his
connection with his Heavenly Father, not by arguments or heavy-handed power
plays.
Both lay leaders and clergy are given authority by the Holy Spirit when they
nourish intimacy with Jesus by soaking in Scripture and prayer. During a search
for a new pastor we become acutely aware of how critical spiritual authority is
for new pastors and the congregations they serve.
The Search
and Call process is not like hiring executive staff but is about prayerfully
discerning God’s choice of a pastor who knows Jesus intimately through the
Gospels and the totality of Scripture, whose prayer life is alert to the whispers
of the Holy Spirit, who does responsible scholarship on the congregation’s behalf.
As an
interim pastor, I can tell you what is harder for called pastors to say. Hebrews
13:7, 17 urges you to imitate the faith and obey the teaching of those who “are
keeping watch over your souls …, so they can do it with joy and not with
sighing, for that would be harmful to you.” When your new pastor comes, don’t
hold back waiting to see how it goes, jump in immediately to help start strong.
Eugene
Peterson, who did The Message Bible
paraphrase, wrote that pastors “are abandoning their posts, their calling.” …
They “have metamorphosed into a company of shopkeepers, and the shops they keep
are churches. … Religious shopkeeping, to be sure but shopkeeping all the same.
… The biblical fact is that there are no successful churches. There are,
instead, communities of sinners. …The pastor’s responsibility is to keep the
community attentive to God. … Three pastoral acts are so basic, so critical,
that they determine the shape of everything else. The acts are praying, reading
Scripture, and giving spiritual direction.” Working
the Angles, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids,1987, pp. 1-3
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