Grace Remembered and Relived; Entry 20 (see first Entry here.)
10 October:
Luke 7:1-17:
"For I also am a man set under authority."
Well, discovering this entry in my journal was an interesting surprise, because my sermon this Sunday will be about authority, based in part on Mark 1: 27: "What is this? A new teaching-- with authority!"
According to Phyllis Tickle in her concise, engaging, and useful exploration of The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why [Baker Books, Grand Rapids, (c) 2008], the central question in any renewal of church and society is the question of authority.
In the passage from St. Luke, a Roman centurion recognizes in Jesus a kindred spirit. Both of them are men "set under authority," and therefore have authority themselves, the centurion authority to command, and Jesus authority to heal.
In St. Mark's Gospel, Jesus astonishes the people because he teaches "as one having authority, and not as the scribes." In other words, Jesus' authority comes directly from God, and not from a scribal interpretation of the Torah.
Is the Emerging Church, which is Christianity's entry in the Great Emergence, remembering and reliving the grace of the early Church, when, as Phyllis Tickle says of Pentecostalism, "ultimate authority [was] experiential rather than canonical?" [p. 85]
In the context of the parish conflict during which I was keeping this journal, I am sure these words helped remind me to persevere in spite of the difficulties and discomforts in my situation, because I, too, was "a man under authority."
What does it mean to be a woman or man set under authority? What then is our authority?
Good questions as I prepare to preach. Good questions as I prepare to serve.
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