One With Authority
Mark 1:21-28
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
January 29, 2006
Rev. Sandy Messick

• Remember the old E.F. Hutton commercials? It might take place in a restaurant, lively conversation going on all around, the sounds of dishes clattering, people laughing. Then someone says, “Well my broker is E.F. Hutton, and he says…” And suddenly there is only silence as everyone strains forward to hear what he said. The announcer then says, “When E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen.” E.F. Hutton had authority.
• John Maxwell in his book, the 21 Irrefutable laws of leadership, calls this law #5, the E.F. Hutton law. To discover who has authority within a group, look to see who people listen to. It’s not always the one in formal authority, sometimes it can be the person who rarely speaks. But when that one speaks, other conversation stops, all lean forward to hear what they have to say.

• When the mainline church remembers “the good old days” aka the 1950s we often remember it as a time when we were E.F. Hutton. People listened. People wanted to be in church, the minister (male, of course) had authority, people listened to what he had to say, and when the church acted in the world people noticed. Of course, the church was acting in concert with society rather than against it, so what was there to object to, but that’s not really the point. The point is, the church had some kind of authority, respect. It was the grand old dame, and when she spoke…
• But times, they have a way of changing. The mainline church just doesn’t carry that kind of authority. Sometimes, it’s hard to hear her speaking at all over the din and ruckus of culture and politics, and other faith traditions. What she has to say is irrelevant, spoken in archaic and incomprehensible language, and what’s remembered about her is more likely to be her misdeeds and abuses than her prophetic words.
• People are more skeptical, more suspicious. We don’t take anyone’s word for anything, clergy don’t command the same kind of respect, churches don’t command the same kind of respect.
• As Fred Craddock pointed out in his landmark book from years ago, preachers today, and I would say most churches today, really come to the task of proclamation as one without authority seeking to express God’s word.

• Jesus, on the other hand, had authority, at least according to Mark. He spoke as one with authority. Granted, his speaking led him to the cross at the hands of those who didn’t like his authority, but still, he had authority.
• In the passage from this morning, we have that first glimpse of it in Mark. Here Jesus, the teacher, finds himself at the synagogue and he does what he does, he teaches. The congregation is impressed, “Wow! He preaches with authority, not like the scribes.” But then, just as Jesus is getting fired up, he gets interrupted. A man with a demon bursts into the room, screaming, “We know who you are! What have you to do with us! You’re the Son of God.” To which Jesus responds with just as much energy, “Shut up you, and get out of that man.” And the demons do. And the man is made whole. And the congregation says with awe, “What is this? A new teaching! With authority he commands the demons to depart and they do!” And his fame began to spread.
• Jesus had authority. His authority, to be sure, came from God, was blessed by God, but in the gospel of Mark, his authority was made known not just in words, but in words lived out by action. Not just by teaching, but by casting out demons. In the gospel of Mark, “Jesus as Teacher” is almost always backed up by “Jesus as Healer.”
• This passage takes place in Chapter 1, but in Chapter 4 it was Jesus the teacher who stilled the storm, and in Chapter 5, it was Jesus the teacher who raised a dead girl, and in Chapter 6, Jesus the teacher who fed the hungry crowd, and in Chapter 9, Jesus the teacher who cured an epileptic.
• Jesus taught as one with authority, but he taught not with words alone, but with words backed up by acts of grace.

• Fast forward to today. As one of our sister denominations so rightly reminds us, God is still speaking. Christ is still teaching, and with authority. And Christ has chosen to speak and teach through the church (or around us if need be, but hopefully through the church). How will the world hear if the church has lost authority? How will the world hear if the words we speak can no longer be heard?
• The answer my friends, is the same way it has always heard. When Christ’s words spoken through us are backed up through acts of grace. When we claim Christ’s authority not to have all the answers, but to bear witness to God’s good news still being heard. When the words that we speak, always with humility and trusting in God’s guidance, are made real in the world through our actions, then Christ can be heard through us.
• When we teach about Christ feeding us here at this table, then go out and feed the hungry at a table in a homeless shelter. When we teach about God’s love for all people, and then go out and actively seek out those the world does not love and invite them in. When we teach of God’s hunger for justice, and then go out to boldly confront injustice even when we are the guilty party, then Christ is speaking through us. Then will the One who has authority to speak be heard.
• I knew a church once that wanted to reach out in mission but didn’t know how. So they formed a committee to study the issue. But they wanted to do something in the meantime and so decided to offer a free meal for the community, whoever wanted to come would be welcome, take out was available, delivery could be arranged if needed. Unknowingly, they touched a nerve. The first meal served 100 people. The second 200. By then the committee had disbanded and everyone was learning to cook. About that time a young lady came to church. She came to Sunday morning worship clutching the flyer advertising the free meal. She came not looking for a handout, but because, as she put it, “I saw what this church was doing, and I wanted to be part of a church like that.” No amount of preaching could ever have gotten her in the church doors. But God’s voice spoken through acts of grace did.
• There is an old saying, attributed to St. Francis, but maybe not…. “Preach the gospel at all times, use words if necessary.”
• And to that I say “Amen.”