HE TAUGHT WITH AUTHORITY
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
August 1, 2010
Mark 1: 21-28
Did you know Thomas Chinn? How about Olga Galbraith? John Arnold? David O. Moore? You should have. They were very, very powerful people. At least they had great power in my life.
Thomas Chinn? He was my 6th grade teacher. The first male teacher I ever had. My Dad had died 3 years before and I’d been sort of floundering in school. You know, great potential, little results. Until Mr. Chinn’s sixth grade class. He was great. And I began to excel.
Olga Galbraith? My American History teacher in the 8th grade. Miss Galbraith made learning enjoyable. Plus, she had this funny habit of sucking on her dentures. Everybody made fun of her, but we loved her. I also still remember a quotation from Horace Mann written at the top of the bulletin board which I saw every day of the year. “Be afraid to die until you’ve won some victory for humanity.”
John Arnold? He taught this strange subject in high school that seemed then so exotic: psychology. The study of the mind. He sent me on a lifelong quest to know myself better.
David O. Moore? College religion teacher. He opened to me a much larger world of the Bible than I had ever known existed. Where would I be without David O. Moore?
Amazing, isn’t it? Here I am, almost 63 years old, and these school teachers are still remembered as huge influences in my life. They were poorly paid for their profession. Didn’t make headlines. But, my, what power and authority they had.
When we think of power, we don’t usually associate power with teachers, do we? But what is power except the ability to change lives? Think about it: most of the people I learned about in Miss Galbraith’s 8th grade history class were considered powerful people: presidents, generals, empire builders. Yet the one who taught me about them – the teacher – she’s more powerful in the end even than they are!
I’m afraid times have changed since I was in 8th grade. Then, the most important people in every child’s life included teachers and preachers. No one was respected more than these people. I wish it were still so today, but it isn’t. Still, teachers have incredible influence. They have authority. They do change lives profoundly as they always have.
In fact, a study by Harvard educators released just this week followed 12,000 children into adulthood. They found that the biggest predictor of adult success as measured by annual income in later life had to do with their success in kindergarten. Their determination, remember they’re economists, was that a standout kindergarten teacher was worth about $320,000 a year. But, I don’t doubt it for a minute. Teachers, maybe more than anybody, change lives profoundly.
Accordingly, when we read today that Jesus, the teacher, the rabbi, entered the synagogue at Capernaum and began to teach, we ought to take note. Jesus was a teacher. No one ever called him “reverend,” or “father,” or “pastor.” He was called “rabbi,” which means, “teacher.”
As you’ve heard, our scripture reading from the first chapter of Mark is about Jesus’ teaching in a synagogue. No sooner than the lesson had begun than a man barged into the synagogue screaming, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth . . . I know who you are – you’re the Holy one of God!”
Jesus reacted calmly it seems. Scripture says he rebuked the unclean spirit within the man, and the man was healed. And then he sat down and listened to the rest of the story from Jesus.
The people were pretty impressed. They said as with one voice: “What is this? A new kind of teaching? And with what authority!”
Authority. Not only because of what he taught. But also how he taught. If a preacher can heal someone it really adds to your credibility. But, don’t miss this: the authority the people found in Jesus on this occasion wasn’t merely that of a healer. Rather, they took it as authority of life over death. Authority over evil as represented by the unclean spirit possessing the man.
It was some kind of authority, indeed. It was an authority possessed only by God. The first glimpse of Jesus we have in the gospel is as a teacher with authority for all of life.
Today there are multiple authorities. The local teacher and preacher no longer always have the last word. Instead, most people today find the authority for their lives in any of a number of sources.
Some find their authority in their family or friends. That is, they decide what to do on the basis of what their family or their friends think and do. Others find their authority in political ideologies, or agendas driven by a combination of politics and religion. And, of course, increasingly, individuals are becoming their own ultimate authorities. More and more people think, “I don’t need anyone to tell me what to think or how to act. I’m my own authority.” This latter path so seemingly mature is, in fact, a sure path to hell.
Modern life is indeed confusing. How does one decide who is to have ultimate authority in their lives? And then, the other side of the matter, how can one recognize when one has elevated something or someone to the status of ultimate authority who shouldn’t be?
Truth be told, we may have more in common than we imagine with that poor, demented man who barged into the synagogue screaming that day in Capernaum. In fact, that poor demented man wasn’t so much sick as he was possessed by an ungodly influence in his life. He had an authority in his life that was leading him to misguided, wrong, even evil doings. But Jesus changed all that when he healed him of his misguidedness and gave him a new, ultimate authority – in Jesus the rabbi, the teacher.
I think this little story about Jesus and the man who barged into the synagogue has a lot to do with why we come together every week to worship God. Even if we aren’t consciously aware of it. That is, we’re looking for authority. We’re looking for answers. We’re looking either for the first time for answers. Or, we’re looking to have our old answers reassured by what we hear.
After all, life is chaotic, even scary. Sometimes we don’t know what to do, where to go, how to respond? Turning on the TV or radio or surfing the web or even opening the newspaper will present us with a multitude of answers. Do we pay attention to Fox or MSNBC? To Oprah? Or Rush Limbaugh or Glen Beck or Rachel Maddow or the NY Times Editorial Staff?
Or maybe we ought to agree to listen again to Jesus. Maybe Jesus has the best idea after all. Maybe Jesus still speaks to human problems with ultimate authority.
Maybe we need a fresh look at Jesus. Maybe a first new look at who Jesus was and is since we last looked fresh at Jesus maybe years and years ago.
Maybe we need to look at Jesus where we’re not so much concerned that he justify all the ways of our lives, but concerned that we find out where we’re falling short of his way.
Maybe we can reduce the multiple authorities in our lives to just one. Jesus.
In the chapters that follow, Mark writes that this teacher commanded the waves of the sea to be silent, and they were. Says the teacher raised a little girl from the dead, fed several thousand people with just a few loaves of bread and cured a man of epilepsy. And much more. All of this is Mark’s way of reassuring us right from the first chapter: here is a teacher for us, unlike any other teacher, one who teaches with final authority. This is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Listen to him.
Mark is saying, He, Jesus, not your favorite teacher, not your mother, not your family, not Oprah, or your president, or your neighbor, or your boss, or your own conscience –
He, Jesus, teaches with authority. So, for your life’s sake, listen to him.
