Homily - Epiphany 4 B (4th week after Epiphany in Year B)

Epiphany is a time of revelations, of sudden insights.   And the readings during Epiphany point to new characteristics or insights about Jesus.   As people in community, I believe everything we learn about Christ also has something to say about us.  About my relationship with God.  My relationship with my community.  Our relationship with God.  Today is no different.   And today, we have some insights about Authority.

The Gospel is pretty clear.  CHRIST HAS AUTHORITY.   This story is early in Mark’s Gospel. Mark skips the stories about the nativity and baptisms and heads right to stories intended to show us who Mark believes Christ is.  In this story, Jesus enters the synagogue and astounds the people, because he teaches with authority.   The story goes on that while he’s teaching,  he is confronted by a man with an unclean spirit.  Jesus didn’t start this conversation, the man did.  The unclean spirits recognize Jesus as the Holy One of God, initiates a conversation, and directly challenges Jesus, asking “have you come to destroy us?” Jesus orders the unclean spirits out of the man, and performs what amounts to an exorcism in the synagogue. Not only does Jesus teach as one with authority, he has power and authority over even the unclean spirits.   God is all powerful.

The psalm tells us that God is full of honor and majesty. God is gracious and merciful, faithful and just.  God is loving.

Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to good people?  If God is so all loving and all powerful, why does God permit bad things to happen?      For thousands of years, people have argued about whether God can be both all powerful and all loving at the same time.    Bad things could be explained by a God who isn’t all powerful.  Bad things could also be explained away, if God weren’t truly good.  But I think there’s another answer, and I think today’s readings gives us a glimpse of that other possibility.

All powerful.  Loving.  Homelessness, hunger, pain.  Have we hit the place where the unstoppable force hits the immovable object? Not yet.

Now the readings introduce another complicating factor.  Us.

We hear that  God will lift up a prophet from the people, creating someone with some authority from the community.  That person will receive the word of God, and will speak to the people everything God has commanded.   God says that the people should heed the prophet, and that the prophet should speak only God’s words and lead people rightly.  (pause) God also provides for a contingency plan.  If the people don’t heed the prophet, God will hold them accountable.  Likewise, if the prophet speaks falsely, or leads people anywhere other than towards God, God will hold the prophet accountable, with more serious consequences.

God, who is all powerful, provides prophets who will speak the word of God.  And God provides consequences should we humans not follow through with everything as planned.  All powerful, yes. All controlling?  Not always. 

We hear from Paul, who is writing to the people of Corinth.  The people are fearful that the meat they eat is defiled, because it may have been offered to false gods.  Paul’s message is that what you eat or don’t eat isn’t what makes you defiled.  And besides, there are no other gods, so it’s not really defiled anyway.  So go ahead and eat it.  You have the authority to eat it, because there’s nothing wrong with it. 

But after making that argument, Paul seemingly does an about face, and pronounces that if eating the meat makes one person stumble, Paul will never eat meat.  He advises, “take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak”.  Just because you can eat the meat, doesn’t mean you should.  If exercising your authority or your freedom causes another to stumble, don’t.   

Authority needs to be tempered by its impact on others. 

Authority isn’t all controlling.

The question of Christ’s authority is black & white.  Christ has authority.  The grey area occurs when we humans are involved. 

God has authority.  But God also gave us authority.    We are free to choose to act rightly or wrongly.  God’s ok with that choice, because God offers consequences for our choices.  Follow the prophet or deal with God. 

And when we exercise our authority, sometimes we need to hold back, because sometimes it would cause another person in our community to falter, like the meat eaters in Corinth.

Like the people in the Old Testament story, sometimes we’re in a position of following.  We’re the people who’ve been sent a prophet.   We have the freedom to choose to follow those who lead us to God, or to walk away.  Sometimes it’s hard to be a good follower, even if you know you’re being led rightly.   Sometimes, I don’t like following.  I don’t like doing what I’m told.  I don’t like the advice, even if I  know it’s right.  At that moment, as a follower, I have the authority to do right, or not.  When we as followers exercise our authority to do right, all is good.  When we choose another path, we contribute to the troubles.

Like the prophet in the same story, sometimes we’re in a position of leadership.   We can be that leader at work settings, church settings, and at home.  Someone is watching, following, and emulating our behavior.  When we are in a position to lead, like the prophet, we need to exercise our authority to lead with integrity, and lead people towards God.  To do anything else we are part of the trouble.   Following Christ’s teaching, we need to lead people towards love, towards light, towards God. 

And always, like the people of Corinth, we are in community.  We need to be aware that our authority, our choices have impacts on others.  Regardless of whether they’re our friends, co-workers or strangers, as Paul says, “exercise no liberty that will cause the stumbling of the weak.  Independent of any position of authority we might hold in that community, we should act in ways that help build up the weak.

While this may sound like it’s all on us, we’ve got a built in advantage.   And as people of the cross, we believe that God has already conquered sin, evil and death with Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension.  The battle isn’t waging now. There’s no chance that sin, evil and death will win.  God has already won.  We just need to exercise our authority in a way that lets that victory be apparent to everyone.   To see that victory in our every day, we need to follow well, lead even better, and always look out for our neighbor.