Pastor Detweiler’s sermon for Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009:

“Jesus, the one who taught with authority, promises to be with us to guide and support us as we seek to do his will and follow in his footsteps.”

Mark 1:21-28

Teachers are authority figures in the classroom, at least in the lower grades. One day our son came home from kindergarten rather subdued. When queried about his mood, he responded (about his teacher whom he adored but who was known for her impish sense of humor) “Mrs. Vines (Froehlich) is mean. She told us that if we weren’t quiet she would put thumbtacks through our ears and hang us from the bulletin board.”

It was all I could do to keep from bursting out laughing – I reassured him that she was teasing but must have been frustrated with the class – I waited to laugh until Jesse had left the room! Mrs. Vines was a voice of authority and therefore she was believed even when she was joking.

Today’s gospel raises the question of who it is that speaks with authority, the authority of God? How do we know whose words or what words are God’s word?

From “Luther’s Small Catechism” we know that some kinds of speaking are always the word of God:

• The declaration of forgiveness after confession, when the pastor says as an expression of his or her office or role, “I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
• The words spoken at baptism: “Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”
• The promises spoken at Holy Communion: “This is my body, given for you.’ “This is my blood, shed for you.”

In today’s gospel it is said about Jesus: (Mark 1:22) “They were astounded at his teaching, for taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

Not only the faithful recognized Jesus as one who spoke with God’s authority; even the representatives of the forces of evil – the unclean spirits – recognize him as the Holy One of God who has come to take away their power and destroy them and the evil they represent.

When Jesus casts out this unclean spirit people marvel and say (Mark 1:27) “What is this? A new teaching – with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

And in the first lesson today we heard the promise that the Lord will raise up a prophet – one who speaks with authority – like Moses, who spoke the words that God gave him. We take this to refer to Jesus, who spoke with the authority of God because he was God’s son.

But now – today – how do we know who speaks for God? There are always those who claim special inside information and have the potential to lead people astray or to God.

A woman in another congregation told her pastor “When I speak, it is Jesus speaking.” How do we tell – how do we evaluate whether or not people are speaking for God?

There are at least two questions to ask:

1. Is what is being taught or said in continuity with what has been believed and taught by the Christian Church throughout the ages? Is it in line with the teaching of the apostles as we know that from the NT? In other words, is this teaching biblical?
2. The second question is: Does this teaching proclaim Jesus as Lord – the one who leads us. Does it proclaim him as the suffering Lord – is this message shaped by the cross?

True authority, like Jesus’ authority, rests on a willingness to risk the life of the individual or community for the sake of the truth of the Word of God.

In the latter half of the 20^th century in Europe the voices of truth were those of people who risked their lives to oppose totalitarianism. In Germany most of the churches went along with Hitler, at least quietly. But there were those who formed a Confessing Church and risked their lives to say that state control of the church and exalting one national group over others was wrong.

In the Soviet Union and East Germany during the Cold War, while most of the churches quietly cooperated out of fear of losing everything, there were those who risked everything to say that those who believed in Christ should be free from coercion and able to exercise their religion.

The congruence of their words and actions with Jesus’ death on the cross invested them with moral authority, the authority of the truth. It was communal prayer every night in the churches of Leipzig that was the final chapter in the collapse of the East German government, which then brought on the collapse of the Soviet Union some months later. It was enacting the truth of God’s word in praying for peace that brought about what I never thought I would see in my lifetime.

Real authority is cross-shaped. It risks itself for the sake of the truth and others as Jesus did. It is hosting 12 step groups, serving at soup kitchens and shelters, hosting the Fox Cities Warming Shelter, quilting for LWR, working at Echoes, or participating in relief efforts elsewhere in the United States or world that put flesh and blood on our proclamation of the word of God.

It is direct involvement, the willingness to carry someone else’s burden – to wrestle with evil – that causes people to notice our ministry in Christ’s name and gives integrity and authority to our congregation’s ministry. Such self-giving reflects the cross of Christ and embodies the word of God as Jesus embodied it.

Faithfulness to the one who taught with authority means that our lives and our congregation’s ministry are shaped by the teaching of the apostles as we know it in the New Testament, and by the self-giving death of Jesus on the cross. Our worship is centered on Jesus’ death and resurrection to which we are grafted in baptism and which we celebrate in Holy Communion.

It means we will risk ourselves and what is important to us for the sake of the gospel’s being heard and believed.

Jesus, the one who taught with authority, promises to be with us to guide and support us as we seek to do his will and follow in his footsteps.