Sermon from October 21, 2001
For a number of years I had my college and seminary diplomas framed and hanging on my office wall. Then I read Richard John Neuhaus's book Freedom for Ministry and took them down. He said in effect to pastors like me, "Why do you have your diplomas hanging on your wall? Is that where your authority comes from?"

His words stung me, because in my mind my authority did rest on the seminary education which that diploma represented. He started me thinking, and for the first time I had the sense that the real authority for my ministry was not my abilities nor my seminary education nor even the church leaders who ordained me. The real authority for my ministry was an act of God. He had called me away from the honorable pursuits that a young man aspires to and had placed me in the Church as a representative of Christ.

The personal abilities, the seminary education and even my ordination served as symbols and mediations and confirmations of the mysterious divine decision that has shaped my life. If I have any authority in the kingdom of God, it flows out of that mystery. Realizing that has made all the difference.

It does not make up for deficient knowledge, but it sanctifies my continual learning. It does not give me the right to be overbearing with people, but it does give my words and actions authority in the conscience. It does not guarantee success in all I attempt, but it does gather me up in the eternal purpose of God, which will ultimately succeed. It gives me confidence without arrogance. It gives me hope without presumption. It gives me joy without a smirk.

I want to explore what this authority means for our congregation, but first, I need to build a context for doing this. As always, the surest context is Jesus' words and deeds. Our text today gives them to us in Mark 11:27-33. This passage takes us back to something basic to the Gospel of Mark.

Mark has constructed his story of Jesus around two major building blocks, authority and identity. The first four chapters established the authority of Jesus by a series of episodes in which the words and deeds of Jesus manifested the love and authority of God. Chapters 5-8 told a series of stories that establish Jesus' identity as the Messiah of Israel. The end of chapter 8 through chapters 9-10 deepens Peter's confession. The thrice-repeated threefold pattern of those chapters reveals Jesus to be a Messiah who was doomed to suffer and die as a ransom for many. Now in chapter 11 Mark brings us back to the question of Jesus' authority, this time with an eye to the source of that authority.

Think for a moment of the three public acts of Jesus that opened chapter eleven. He comes riding into Jerusalem to the adulation of the people and in such a way as to declare that He is the rightful King of the Jews. On the next day, in an unprecedented, inflammatory act, he drives from the Jerusalem temple the people who make possible the temple sacrificies. On the day after that, His disciples see a fig tree withered away to its roots as a result of His cursing it. What gives Him the right to do these things? Where does His authority come from? And those are just starters. Just wait until you see what chapters 12-13 say He does.

Whatever people thought about His extreme actions, they could not accuse Him of going into hiding. He keeps coming back for more. Verse 27 says, They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. The fact that representatives of all three groups go to meet Him lends gravity to the occasion.

Their question in verse 28 raises the issue that Mark wants His readers to deal with. "By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?" That is a reasonable question on several counts.

First, Jesus could offer no formal credentials for His public life. He had no diplomas. No school of rabbinic thought certified Him as a member in good standing. Apparently, He even wore the everday garb of Jewish men, not the garb of a rabbi.

Furthermore, even with credentials a person does not do in the Jerusalem temple what Jesus had done. Without credentials His actions there were even more provocative. It makes Him seem even more like a loose cannon on the good ship Judaica.

Third, we know from chapter three that some people in Jerusalem had already concluded that Jesus got His power and therefore His authority from the devil. That does not come up here, but it reinforces the skepticism and hostility that greeted His action in the temple. Maybe the authorities who raised this question intended to bring up His connections with the demonic. Whatever their intentions, Jesus interdicted them by posing a revealing question of His own in verses 29-30.

Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John's baptism – was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!" If we go back to chapter one, it reminds us that John's ministry attracted multitudes of people from Jerusalem and Judea. People remembered Him fondly, and they remembered His execution by King Herod with anger. In their minds Jesus' question is welcome. Right there in the temple for all to hear it was about time that the Jerusalem authorities declared openly their attitude toward John the Baptist.

It was a politically sensitive question, and the temple with its Passover crowds was no place to air their feelings about John the Baptist. Verses 31-32 offer a most unflattering insight into the men who had come to take Jesus to task. They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' But if we say, 'From men' ...." (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)

They had walked right into Jesus' trap. They had rejected John the Baptist, when he preached by the River Jordan. They certainly do not believe that he is a prophet. And while they had no share in his execution, their attitude is, "Good riddance!" But can they say that publicly? No matter what answer they give, they are going to cause trouble with the crowds who are listening in.

Verse 33 tells us what they decided to do. So they answered Jesus, "We don't know." That is lame. It is the answer of men who are afraid. They feared public opinion. It makes me want to ask them, "By what authority are you doing what you do in the religious leadership of Israel? And who gave you authority to be chief priests, teachers of the law and elders in Israel?" Are the representatives of the chosen people incompetent?

If these men had not been implicated in the death of Jesus, I would say we should have mercy on them, even if they have lost all credibility. It takes courage to be a leader. It takes courage to go against public opinion in a public way. They did not have such courage. Where, indeed, did their sense of authority come from?

Although Mark makes nothing of it, it is obvious that their non-answer to Jesus has blown their cover. Their expedient agnosticism does not hide from anyone the fact that they did not think John really was a prophet. Their soul is naked before the crowds. They are thoroughly discredited, and there is nothing they can do to save the situation.

Jesus does not crow about the impotence. He simply drives the nail into the coffin. Verse 33: Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." "If you guys will not answer my simple question, why should I answer yours? When you are ready to talk, I'll be here. I'm not going anywhere."

And yet He does indirectly answer their question. At least, we can be sure that those chagrined authorities go away knowing that Jesus believes that His authority comes from the same place He believes John the Baptist's authority came from. It comes from heaven. He did not say that, but what other conclusion could they come to?

That is the conclusion that Mark wishes us to come to. The authority to ride into Jerusalem like a king, the authority to create an uproar in the temple, the authority to shrivel a fig tree as an acted parable – that authority comes from heaven. God authorizes Jesus to act thus. God authorizes Jesus to bypass the usual credentials for being a holy man. Even more penetrating, it is obvious that Jesus acts with the consciousness that divine authority empowers Him to act as he does.

Perhaps it is not strictly necessary to say what I am about to say. However, potentially larger issues may be at stake, so I want to give a fuller explanation of the authority that empowered Jesus to act as He did, even though He did not have the usual credentials for doing so.

Let's begin by reading a statement from the Old Testament prophet, Amos. In Amos 7:14-15 Amos answered Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'"

The Old Testament suggests that schools of prophets existed in Israel. Belonging to such a school of prophets gave a man credentials for being esteemed as a prophet. What is significant about Amos' call to be a prophet is that it took place outside the usual channels. Others would still weigh his words to verify his claim to be a prophet, but the authority for what he did came from an inner sense of God's action.

Here is another Old Testament example. The great Jeremiah left a memoir of his calling to be a prophet. It comes from Jeremiah 1:4-8, and here is how it reads.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
     "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
     before you were born I set you apart;
     I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

"Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

It sounds like God's call came to Jeremiah as a child or young boy, and it left Jeremiah with the consciousness that God had that in mind for him before he was born. Again, others would weigh his words to verify his claim to be a prophet, but the authority for what he did came from an inner sense of God's action, and came long before the guardians of the common good could have known.

In Jesus' case the decisive moment seems to have come at His baptism. The Holy Spirit descends upon Him like a dove, and the voice from heaven says, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased," (Mark 1:10-11).

The authority to speak and act as a prophet within Israel came from deep within a person's soul. That did not negate the need for public affirmation, but it most definitely preceded public affirmation. The authority came from a Source greater than public opinion. That is why Amos, Jeremiah and Jesus could stand against public opinion in a public way, while Jesus' accusers could not.

My point sticks in two ways. First, Jesus' actions may have aroused great consternation and great passions, but His sense of authority to act fell well within the experience of Israel's prophets. Second, Jesus' actions were Jewish actions through and through. The tension between Jesus and the authorities was a quarrel among Jews. It was actually an old quarrel, going back hundreds of years to the likes of Elijah, Jeremiah and Amos. But in Jesus, who was a prophet and more than a prophet, the quarrel had reached a decisive stage.

Now, I want to come back to where I started today. The sense of authority for ministry that has come to have such an important place in my awareness is an authority derived from Jesus' Himself. Formally, its transmission is accomplished and confirmed formally by the laying on of hands at the time of ordination. I share the authority that was called into question that day long ago in the temple. I do not share it in the same measure as Jesus experienced it, but my license to do what I am able to do comes from heaven just as surely as His came from heaven.

All of which brings me to a most interesting pastoral question. Is there some way in which the authority invested in me by Jesus Christ also empowers you, my congregation whom I love and long for? Let's go back to the impact of this authority.

Being invested with authority by Christ does not give me the right to be overbearing with people, but it does give my words and actions authority in their conscience. When you talk to others about Christ and Christianity, your power does not come from coercion or a coercive demeanor. However clever or simple your presentation of the message may be, the authority for what you say is invested in the Christian message itself. You bear witness to that authority when you say, "The Bible says," or "the Church teaches," or "Our pastors say."

Let's put this in contemporary perspective. Since September 11, more than two million new prescriptions have been written for drugs to treat depression. A lot of people are finding it hard to cope with the anxiety and fear that the attack on America has caused. We live around, work with and hang out with some of these people. I believe God has empowered you to minister to them.

That may at first sound daunting, but you don't need to make it hard. First of all, I suspect that most of us have similar feelings. So, we are setting ourselves on a pedestal, as if we were somehow above fear and anxiety. We can freely acknowledge that to people. But we can also take it one step further.

We can say that we have found a place of comfort and strength in our relationship with God, and then we can say, "Can I pray with you?" I have offered to pray with many people, including total strangers, some of whom knew and some of whom did not know that I was a pator. I have never had anyone turn me down. As you stumble over your words, you may wonder if God is even listening. But when you finish, and that person rises to embrace you with tears, you will know great joy at being empowered to minister to people in need. Perhaps America's hour of crisis will awaken the Church to her authority in the earth. Would you be sensitive to opportunities? People are waiting.