Those in Authority
1994 (Year C), 4 September / Pentecost 15
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
It’s quite extraordinary what gets into the papers. A Roman Catholic Bishop in Leeds has recently made the front page of my newspaper for preaching about:
The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly, And order’d their estate.
‘its nonsense’, the Bishop said. And of course it is. Yet what’s amazing is that it was ever thought newsworthy. Surely, even in the stillest backwater there can’t be anyone who would claim that it’s true. Everyone must recognise in this verse from ‘All things bright and beautiful’, an anachronistic vision of society. It has far more to do with the way some sought to retain authority and power, than it has to do with the Kingdom of God.
For times change and so do our understandings of God, ourselves, and our society. We no longer recognise this static picture of our community as accurate, and certainly not something divinely ordained by God. Movement and change happen with tremendous speed. Yet some things remain constant. Just as in Jesus’ time there was a tension between what was seen as God’s authority and those who exercise earthly power, so it is today. There have always been those who attempt to retain authority by claiming its divine. And there are others who add to this confusion by inventing other gods and investing them with all kinds of authority.
Most in our society see no need of God. We can become God if we have to. We have the ability to make light and darkness. We can create vast wealth and protect it. We have the means of anaesthetising ourselves from all kinds trouble. We have no need of God but we have created many; each one capable of challenging and usurping the authority of the truly divine. We build temples to them. Take a walk through the City or Docklands you’ll see new temples being built every day. And as you see them you’ll be able to recognise the gods in whose honour they’re built and who worships who.
Those who exercise divine authority enrich us, enliven us, and quicken our hearts. They encourage us to reach beyond ourselves; point us higher. Their authority comes from God. It liberates. Yet there are others. We all know them, who initially seem even more powerful. They point only to themselves and deaden our spirits for they enslave. And at various points in our lives all of us have to have to make decisions. Which of these two to accept?
Our religious history is littered with stories of those who have struggled with this dilemma. One is Moses.
When I was a child we had a beautiful illustrated Bible at home. Moses stood out in the Old Testament. Moses. He looked like God the Father in person, like my own father, tall imposing, and full of authority. That’s the way Michelangelo immortalised him in stone. But that’s only one picture of him.
To someone born in a different time and place he was the great liberator. The prototype of hope. ‘Go down, Moses’ and ‘Let my people go’. Whatever your picture it’s not likely to be the nit-picking grouser, with his endless objections who is actually there, always whining to God. This real Moses offers all kinds of reasons why he should not face earthly authority, ‘No-one will believe you’ve sent me’. He claims he’s a poor speaker. He stutters. He’s disabled and the problem’s got no better since he had that encounter with God. In the end he just plain refuses. ‘Send somebody else ... anyone but me.’
But he can’t get rid of the Lord. In the end he has to submit to the authority of God, with Aaron doing the talking when things get difficult. A poor shepherd and an ageing Priest set against the authority and might of Egypt. This is the real story of the exodus. It was human, earthly. And the question to ask is why didn’t the Israelites just forget this embarrassing little story when they came to tell it to their children. Why didn’t the make Moses out to be an out and out freedom fighter or a hero like Michelangelo. Why did they tell of his ugly little weaknesses?
The reason is this. The Israelites had glimpsed a great truth. The Lord doesn’t use authority and power as worldly authorities do. They make pretence at liberation. They flatter to deceive. In reality their authority paralyses the liberty of the children of God. Rather God’s authority frees people through people, with all their handicaps, with their signs of age and their disabilities.
The powers and authorities of this world are frightening. Anyone challenged by God to take them on will mobilise anything and everything to avoid having to make a stand. ‘No -one will listen, I’m not equipped well enough, Send someone else’. Moses is like you and me as we try to exercise God’s authority. It appears tired, frightened, limping in human hearts.
Yet the truth is that all authority must be tested to see if it really does come from God. It’s not our duty to simply pray for all those are exercise authority, and for those who exercise it badly so that their minds may be changed. Nothing will ever be gained by submitting to unjust and cruel authority no matter what it says in the Bible about those being blessed who suffer persecution for righteous sake.
So let there be no misunderstanding. Ultimate authority is the Lord’s. That authority creates and in the end is irresistible, ‘I am the Lord, there is no other; I make light, I create darkness, author alike of prosperity and trouble. I, the Lord do all these things. And to that God to whom all might majesty authority and power belong be glory now and for ever. AMEN