Those in Authority

1989 (Year C), 27 August /
Pentecost 15

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

Eight years ago, just round the corner from where Maria lives now, a large crowd gathered jostling and shouting and watching. They were watching two middle-aged women fight each other with carving knives. When those men and women who were looking on were asked why they hadn’t intervened and stopped it, they said that they didn’t want to get involved, that they didn’t feel they had authority to do that; that was the police’s job.

Power and authority are hard words for anyone to face up to, and it seems particularly so for Christians. We assume that they are both intrinsically bad and we find it much easier to pretend we have neither – authority is something other people have, it’s not ours. And yet, from the very beginning of the world, so the bible says, God intended to share the wonder of creation with the creatures of that creation, and what is more he gave authority to those creatures. ‘For God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered.’

Refusal to accept the use of authority is seen as being as bad as misusing it – another story from the bible – ‘And the trees said to one another, you come and be our king, one after another they made excuses, the olive tree said to them, shall I give up my fatness, by which gods and men are honoured, and go to sway over you trees... the fig tree said, shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go and sway over the trees... the vine said, shall I leave my wine which cheers gods and men to go and sway over the trees... Then all the trees said to the bramble come you come and be our king, and the bramble agreed. All that it needs, so it seems, for evil to prosper is for the good to do nothing.’

And God, so we are told, remained faithful to the covenant he made in the beginning – even though the authority he had entrusted to us was misused. In an act of pure grace he put his glory into the hands of potential evildoers. Men and women were given authority to rule over the earth, even though they spoilt it once and might spoil it again.

None of us can say we have no authority; God has given it to all human beings in general. We find nothing about it being given to only one nation, one race, or one sex. The rights and duties of this God given blessing belong to all human beings – there is an authority which we can only exercise together. And in addition we all as individuals exercise our own authority as mothers, fathers, friends, colleagues, the list is endless.

Every one of us uses it, no one is exempt. Small children playing together are extremely skilled at it. Sometimes we use it well, other times we get it dreadfully wrong. Using authority well and misusing it are difficult to tell apart. It’s easy, with the benefit of 2000 years hindsight to point the finger at Herod and say he misused his power when he had the head of John the Baptist brought on that plate – he must have gone through agonies wondering what he ought to do – save face or be courageous and resist his daughter’s request. What we would have done in his place, or how we act in a hurry, is quite another matter.

Yet God having given authority to all his creatures continues the gift in spite of the seemingly most appalling misuse – Pilate was told – you would not have any authority over me if it had not been given you by my father. Still God continues to invite us to participate with him in the salvation of the world, and gives us authority to do just that. ‘Jesus came and said to them, All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me. Go therefore.’ God longs for to say ‘Yes’ to this invitation to share authority with him and we can use this gift to enrich, enliven, empower and resurrect. Through living prayerful lives, lives given back to God, we will be given the insight to tell how we might use our authority aright.

Finally, lest we think ourselves insignificant and our contribution so small that it goes unnoticed... the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is owing to the number who lived faithfully, a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs. AMEN