Voice of Authority

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Mark 1:21-28

At the start of a presidential campaign year we have several months ahead to be bombarded by voices that would beg for our listening ears and convinced hearts and minds that they are the one voice to heed.  Each would-be candidate will spend millions of dollars trying to be the person whose voice, passion, convictions, and actions are worthy of the trust of this nation and the world.  Each one speaks as if they are the final authoritative word on the subject at hand; if everyone would just listen to them our country and the world would find a fix.  While each will use the rhetoric of a passionate public servant, underlying each speech is a degree of self-promotion, of ego, a personal quest.

Emmet Fox, early 20^th century pioneer of the New Thought movement writes:  Every thought is made up of two factors, knowledge and feeling.  A thought consists of a piece of knowledge with a charge of feeling, and it is the feeling alone that gives power to the thought.  He says you may have a vital piece of knowledge given but if there is no feeling attached the knowledge goes nowhere, whereas there may be a less significant piece of knowledge but is accompanied by intense feeling that drives it forward. (January 28 entry from Around the Year, Emmet Fox) Check out Fox’s thought suggestion as you listen to speeches and speakers and pay attention to your feeling that accompanies their information.

I wonder about the information and knowledge combined with feelings regarding authoritative words today.  If indeed there is a desire to serve a greater good, to be public servants, then perhaps would-be leaders today might receive a lesson from the prophetic voices of scripture (though my cynical side believes that for the most part, our candidates are likely to have very few similarities to the voices of authority from the Judeo-Christian tradition).  A few questions we might ask include: 

From where does one’s authority come? Who authors it?

Are the hearers the authority grantors?

Is it responders or followers that lend authority to another?

Where does truth and worthiness of trust fit into the authority equation?  and how do we know truth?

What creates positively charged feelings to accompany information?

Moses was the authoritative voice in early Hebrew history.  His role as the prophetic law-giver and leader of God’s people places him as the traditional authoritative voice in Jewish religious history. Reading Moses’ history we know that in his early years he likely received an excellent education and was surrounded by opportunities to instill leadership as he grew up in Egyptian emperor’s household.  He fled in fear of the consequences of his killing-found-out only to become a shepherd in the wilderness. 

Perhaps it was those desert years of soul searching, of reviewing all the knowledge he had, charged with his feelings and wondering, that honed and humbled him in order that he could become both a public servant and spiritual leader.  First off, he paid attention to the mystery around him, he listened, and he initially resisted a public leadership role.  Then he relied on something greater than himself.  When Moses returned to the Egyptian scene he did not come with a self- promoting agenda but with a vision, a possibility, and a promise beyond his own capability, that would require trust and shared responsibility in community. 

Moses was a prophet, a mouthpiece for God. The Biblical tradition implies that Moses’ authority was authored by God.  The Hebrew people heard and responded in increments, with growing trust as the words of Moses took on new meaning and value.  Bit by bit Moses’ words became reality. Knowledge increasingly charged with positive feelings, created a movement.  He became the visionary and the voice of authority as the one who stood between the people and their God.  Though both Moses and the Hebrews wavered many times, it became evident that Moses had authority as God’s servant, a voice to be heeded. The designated reading from Deuteronomy invites the hearers to pay attention to the prophet voices that would come after Moses, who would speak not on their own behalf, but be the mouthpieces for God, who would be trustworthy as the words of their mouths were fulfilled.  These voices of authority would be God-authored.  It’s interesting to note that most of God’s prophets we read of were reticent to take that authoritative role.  Not one promoted their own agenda.

The reading from Mark’s Gospel places Jesus at the beginning of his ministry.  At this point he has not garnered the concern of the religious authorities, whose authority came from the religious institution of the day.  In the gospel reading the story takes place on the Sabbath Day, a healing takes place on that day within the synagogue, an act that in time would incur the wrath of religious authorities but endeared him to the common people of the land.  In this reading for today, Sabbath healing was not what drew attention.  Authority is what surprised those present.  Jesus spoke with authority.  He taught with authority.  This seemed to be a new thing, a different thing, a surprising teaching that had authority behind it, unlike what folks typically heard.  His authority seemed to have power with it, even over negative, aggressive, outspoken spirits that would publically deride him. He had an authority that lent peace, healing, wholeness.  His message, information, or knowledge was accompanied by feelings of awe and amazement that attracted listeners and instilled a powerful, positive response.

Where did Jesus’ authority come from?  Later in his ministry that was the very question the religious authorities wanted to know also. Who had given him authority to even dare speak in public? He did not come up through the approved ranks of sanctioned learning and leadership.  He was appointed by neither political nor religious entities. Even those in his hometown would question his authority. He did not attempt to rally the masses, or desire to overthrow anyone else’s authority, nor tow some party line.  He offended some nearest to him, and frightened others who would “shush” him out of protection.  Jesus’ authority seemed to be something new because it came from some other source, or perhaps some inner source.  Perhaps it seems so unusual because of the integrity, compassion, and truth-telling and powerfully charged feelings that accompanied it. Perhaps it was his humble stance in the midst of people rather than a posturing that separated one from another.  Perhaps it was the authoritative message of grace, the good news that God is love more than an angry judge. Perhaps people were instilled with hope.  That was something new.  His authorship, the one scripting his message, the inspiration (or the in-breath of Spirit) offered a different voice, one with a different kind of authority.

Such an inspired voice always bears with it opposition.  Who are the prophetic voices of our generation and where are they?  Many, like Jesus, were killed because of this inner authority that scripted their message creating feelings that led to violence: Bonhoeffer, Gandhi, and M.L.King.  Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela managed to survive and lead hopeful transition with their voices of an authorship from beyond their own agenda.  Like Jesus, these also had the shouts of spirits that would deride and accuse and in some ways clearly identify that their message carried in it of something more than what was, something new, something greater, something of holiness.

I don’t think we can choose to be such a voice of authority. I believe authority has to choose us, write or script into us the essence of some truth beyond ourselves, and then we need to be willing to give voice to the message.  It’s not something we can pursue with our own interests for power or success in mind.  The best way we might find ourselves becoming a voice that lends some authorship of depth is simply to be open to it and cooperate with it, no matter the outcome.

As the presidential debates, advertisements, posturing, accusations, mudslinging, and pulling-the-wool over our eyes and wolfish personalities comes our way in the months ahead, I wonder if we can listen with the ear of our heart and soul, with the ear for the word of God’s voice, with a sensitive to feeling instilled, and maybe, just maybe, discern some new prophetic authority coming through human flesh.

If you have been given a place or voice of authority, from where or whom does it come?   Who or what authors you?  Who or what writes the script by which you speak and lead?  What happens when that voice of authority goes out to those we encounter?

May the Spirit of wisdom, justice, love, and transformative power speak to and through us.  Listening, may we cooperate with Spirit’s life in us to engage in the world for the good of all things and all people for Love’s sake.  May we heed holy authorship.