4 Epiphany B
Text: Mark 1:21-18
sermon by Rev. Robert Klonowski
Faith Lutheran Church, Homewood, IL
January 31, 2021
Authority
I was nineteen years old when I started coaching youth baseball. The first two years I assisted a head coach named Spike Marquardt. After that apprenticeship I was out on my own, a head coach myself.
Once, a few years later, Spike paid me the tremendous compliment of coming to one of my games. I was excited that he was interested enough to come, but I was also really nervous. I was young, still in my twenties, and worried about whether he’d think I was doing a good job.
And sure enough, after the game he had for me some, shall we say, constructive criticism to offer. “You need to assert yourself more out there, Bob,” he told me. “You need to be a bigger presence. When people are just walking by your game, they should be able to tell right away who is the head coach on that field.”
I pushed back. “I’m not that kind of coach, Spike; you know that. You’re not going to see me out there yelling and carrying on.”
He looked at me like I’d insulted him. “Did I say anything about yelling? Did you ever see me yelling out there? No? Well, then, how do people know I’m the head coach?”
I thought for a second. “Because you’re the one who’s out there teaching. You’re the one managing the game and working with the kids.”
Okay, now he didn’t look insulted. Now he looked pleased and happy. “All right, then. Stop sitting in the dugout and letting the game come to you. Your job is out on the field, teaching young men.”
The Gospel lesson this morning is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, in the very first chapter of Mark, and right off the bat we learn that this ministry is going to be all about the nature of power, and authority. Jesus enters the synagogue and he begins to teach. We are told the people were astounded at his teaching, for he taught as one having authority. Call it the Spike Marquardt model of ministry, for we get the word teach, teaching, taught three times and that’s what gets us in the end to the word authority. People just walking into the synagogue that day could tell right away who was the head coach, and it wasn’t the scribes.
And if this is about teaching, well, then, as every schoolteacher and every baseball coach knows, you’ve got to repeat it in order to learn it, and so we get this same lesson again with some of the same language at the end of the story. Jesus cleans out the unclean spirit from the man, and the exclamation of the amazed on-lookers is “What is this? A new teaching – with authority!”
The word used here for Jesus is authority; it is not power. That’s not to say that Jesus is not powerful – to throw unclean spirits to the mat in the wrestling ring here, or to throw demons off the cliff as he does in another story, those are acts of real power.
But I did a little word study this week, and it seems that in the New Testament power is not the same thing as authority. I was kind of surprised to find that when the word “power” is used it’s almost always with negative connotations. That’s kind of like me assuming that when Spike wanted me to be a bigger presence he was talking
about yelling and carrying on. It’s as if power is something external that you have to grab for yourself, being loud and intimidating, imposing yourself on others.
Authority, on the other hand – the way it’s used in the New Testament, authority seems in contrast to be something almost internal; something you don’t have to reach for because it’s already there. The Greek New Testament word that is used here, for authority – eksousían – means “out of one’s essence;” essential. It’s the same Greek root from which we get the word existence; authority is a matter of our existence, our essence, itself. So when Jesus throws out the unclean spirit it’s a demonstration of power, of course, but it’s recognized as important because it’s a demonstration of authority, a demonstration of his inner life and essence. It is of his very essence to confront evil, rebuke it, and to heal us.
It occurs to me that this distinction – power as something to be grasped; authority as something that simply is, of the essence – has important consequences for our lives, for our public lives, and for our faith life.
For our lives: how much of our lives do we spend grasping for something, working to get our own way, looking to get more stuff and more power over, power over others and power over our own lives? And how different does our life look if instead of grasping we live with hands that are open, living into the what-is-already-there-in-us – internally, if you will – living into the authority of what God has authentically made us. You don’t have to grab; you can just be, in the knowledge and faith that what God meant you to be, is enough authority in its own right.
For our public lives: think of a world in which public leaders, instead of blustering and working hard to tell everybody how great they are, rely instead on the simple authority that comes with honesty and high moral integrity and principle. That is simple authority, I say, but it is also the way of great authority.
For our faith lives: this would mean, not religious leaders living into the external power granted by position, eager to maintain that power – not as the scribes lead their religious community – but rather religious leaders among us as servant leaders, recognizing and celebrating the God-given authority in ourselves and others. Servant leadership, paradoxically enough, is authoritative leadership, and that’s true for every one us who serves as clergy, and also for every one of you who serve as leaders of one kind or another in a Christian community. Servant leadership is authoritative leadership; that is as true in the Church as it is on a youth baseball field.
It is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry and he comes right out of the gate with the great calling-card that will define all of his ministry: here is one who teaches, with authority. For those of us who follow Jesus, let that be the calling-card that defines us, as well. At the other end of Jesus’ ministry, in the very last verses of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells it to us this way:
“All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. [You,] go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them …, and [- are you ready for this? -] teaching them, to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
Your job is out there on that field, Spike Marquardt told me once, teaching young men. Your job is out there in the world, Jesus tells us, teaching the Way. Relying, then, on the Way that is of Jesus Christ, let it be said of us that we teach, with real authority.