Authority Issues

Luke 24:13-49, Acts 3:12-26

The disciples waited, as Jesus had instructed them to wait in our gospel reading, and on the day of Pentecost they were “clothed with power from on high,” as he had promised. And their ministries grew more spiritually powerful than ever. God was working within and through them.

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, three o'clock in the afternoon. And a man who was lame from birth was being carried in and laid down at the gate of the temple, where, every day, he was laid, so that he could ask for alms from the people who were entering the temple. A strategic location. When the lame man saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them also for alms. Peter, the Scripture says, looked intently at him, as did John, and she aid, "Look at us."

And so the lame man fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive some money. But, instead, Peter said to him: "I have no silver or gold, but what I do have I give you – in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk."

And Peter gently assisted the man, taking him by the right hand and raising him up. And immediately the man's feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered the temple with Peter and John, walking and leaping and praising God. When the people in the temple saw the man walking and praising God, they recognized him as the one who used to sit outside and ask for alms; and they were awestruck. And they all ran together over to Peter and John to get a close up look at this amazing event. Who wouldn't?

That is the background story to this morning's reading from the book of Acts where Peter, when he realized what was happening, says to the crowd: “Why do you wonder what it is that happened here? Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made this man walk?”

And Peter goes on to essentially re-direct all the credit, the glory, the admiration, the praise.... away from themselves, as disciples of Jesus, and turn it toward the Living God, who sent his Son to reveal to us what God is actually like in human terms.

What's wrong with Peter? He should've realized that he was being presented here with an incredible opportunity for advancement. If he had played his cards right here, he could have had a whole Temple full of disciples of his own. And all he would have had to do was to simply let the people go on doing what people naturally do – let them go on worshiping those they imagine to have more power than they themselves do. Donald Trump would never have passed up an opportunity like that. It's through proper handling of those kinds of opportunities that empires are built!

But Peter was not just anyone's fool. He was a fool for Christ, which is a good kind of fool to be. And so, he deflected all the credit and the glory that was being ascribed to him... back where it belonged... back to the One who alone is worthy of such devotion. This is a very different Peter than the one we saw struggling through the Scriptures of Lent. This Peter has finally learned something significant from his Lord. He had to learn it through the school of hard knocks, but at least he learned it. Now his way of operating in life is finally showing some signs of movement – from a miserable life which is all about “me & mine” … to the truly good life which is all about “Thee & Thine.” Peter was finally growing up.

Down through history, right to the present day, the leadership of the church has always faced this very same temptation that Peter faced.... But, unfortunately, unlike Peter, not all church leaders have come through those trials smelling like a rose. It has become a sad fact of history that leaders in the church have often given in to the kind of glory-grabbing that seeks to position them on a level above ordinary mortals, a level where they can claim that they are entitled to a greater share of power and control than ordinary men and women. This problem has been so prevalent through the course of history that there is even a word in Webster's dictionary for it: Clericalism. Websters defines “clericalism” as a derogatory term for excessive influence or power of the clergy. A problem has to be fairly serious and widespread before it gets to have it's own entry in the dictionary!

Some would say that churches with a more Catholic administrative structure – like the Anglicans, the Lutherans, the Roman Catholics, and the Eastern Orthodox... are always at a higher risk for clericalism than churches with a more Protestant administrative structure, because our Catholic structure is more hierarchical. We have bishops and archbishops and dioceses and synods, and the ordained clergy are very clearly at the higher levels of the hierarchy. I suspect it's true that our kind of structure does indeed place us at risk for clericalism. But it's more complicated than that.

It's also true, for example, that the Catholic way of structuring the church is the structure that has the longest tradition, dating back to the original 12 apostles. And why is that? Is there a wisdom in that, which we should heed? It is not hard to see that it becomes much easier for the leaders in the church to actually lead... when they have greater administrative decision-making power.

Where the risk factor seems to come in is in the balance between the administrative authority that a leader has to make decisions... and the spiritual authority, the genuine virtue of character, that the leader needs in order to make (reliably) good decisions. The less balance there is in a given situation, the higher the risk there is that good decisions will not actually be made.

This particular Book of Common Prayer belongs to me. It is leather-bound and has large print for my aging eyes. My name is written on the inside cover as a statement that this particular BCP is under my administrative authority. And so, I may decide to do with it almost whatever I will. But what I actually can do with it... ...and what I actually do end up choosing to do with it.. will greatly depend on the content of my character. If, by opening myself to the saving grace of God's Spirit, I have cultivated a virtuous character in my life, I will be strongly inclined to only use this book in ways that actually increase my love of God and neighbor... and your love of God and neighbor. But if, on the other hand, by closing myself off to the grace of God, I had cultivated a vicious character in my life, I would be inclined to either ignore this book altogether, or perhaps to use it in a vicious way by (figuratively speaking) hitting myself, or others, over the head with it. The point is that, as long as I don't break any laws, I possess the administrative power to use it as I decide best. But for me to actually do something good with it requires that I possess power of a different sort, a spiritual power which inclines me to understand... and intend.... and judge.... and decide.... and act... in ways that are truly good... truly virtuous, truly Christlike.

The common people in Jesus' day were accustomed to the ways of their Scribes and Pharisees, who had great administrative authority.... “They sit on Moses' seat,” Jesus said. They called the shots. But they were very weak in the spiritual authority department... because, as Jesus said, “they do not practice what they teach” (Mat 23:2-3.) There was great imbalance between their administrative power and the virtue of their character, and so, it was predicable that they were persons who tended to make poor decisions in life. So Jesus' counsel was to “listen to the words they say (because they're teaching what Moses taught)... but don't imitate their actual way of life, whatever you do, because it's all twisted. Their walk doesn't match their talk. They didn't call it “clericalism” back then, but it seems to be the same kind of dynamic.

And, of course, this was what so amazed the people about Jesus. No clericalism in him. He would eat with sinners, touch lepers, live among the outcast, not cower in front those who imagined themselves to be superior. And there was no gap at all between his talk and his walk.... He had genuine spiritual authority (Mat 7:28-29, Heb 5:7-14). He didn't have a whole lot of administrative authority, though, except among his disciples.

Picture Pilate with Jesus at the decision point which led to the crucifixion. Pilate has enormous administrative authority, but a relatively vicious character. Jesus, in contrast, has absolutely no administrative authority, but virtually all the spiritual authority in the world (Col. 1:19.) So it was a situation of radical imbalance, and as a result, a bad decision was made, to say the very least. But God was able to bring the greatest good out of it.

The need for balance between power and virtue is a biblical principle that is crucially important to proclaim and teach in our society. And the very best means available to the church for proclaiming and teaching this principle is her own example.

In our society, people who find themselves in positions of leadership, can acquire extraordinary technical, administrative, and political power, whether or not they have the kind of virtuous character that is required to use that power wisely, for the common good. That shouldn't be the case in the church.

In the church, we are called to a different standard, the standard of Christ, who came into our world not to lord it over us, or to be served by us, but to serve, to give us his all, so that our brokenness could be healed (Mark 10:43-45.) And so, whoever would lead among us doesn't have to be perfect, but must be one who is closely following Jesus, in his or her thoughts and feelings and attitudes and motivations and intentions and decisions and actions. There is no place for clericalism in the church. The Body of Christ has only one true Head -- and Jesus received that position not through administrative power, or domination, or persuasion, or violence... but through humility and self-giving love. And those are the powers he enables to grow in us (Phil 2:3-11; John 10:10-18; John 15:8-15).

In our day, the church is in trouble for want of competent leaders like Peter, fools for Christ, who will refuse to exploit the devotion of God's people in order to glorify and advance themselves, who will point us instead to God and God alone. Otherwise, they're not leading us in the direction we need to go; instead of pointing out the way to God, they're getting in the way of God. The church needs leaders who are very good at getting out of God's way.

It seems to be getting harder and harder to find leaders who actually live like the disciples that we heard described in this morning's gospel – whose hearts are burning within them because they spend considerable time walking and talking with Jesus, letting Jesus open up their hearts and minds to the Scriptures, listening to what the Living Christ is saying to them and hanging on his every word, ...encountering him in the breaking of the bread.

And this is not just an Anglican problem. It's certainly a problem in the Roman Catholic church. And every mainline denomination in North America that I'm aware of is also speaking about the leadership crisis in the church. And we are all questioning: what are the best ways to respond to this crisis?

Our diocese, in the Synod that will begin at the end of May, is taking some very serious steps to address the leadership crisis as we are experiencing it right here in Huron. During this Synod, the bishop will be putting forward revisions to many of the Canon Laws in the diocese.

"Canon Laws” may sound like something you'd find in big dusty old books, somewhere in the basement of church house, but actually they are very important to the everyday life of our parish... because the Canon Laws govern how the entire diocese operates, in all of its parishes, including us.

Reforming the Canons is one of the starting points for reforming the entire Diocese and all of its parishes.

This past week the wardens and I received our copies of the proposed changes in the Canon Laws, and the changes are greater than we could possibly have imagined. Just to give you a quick sense of these changes, I would summarize the intent behind them as threefold:

• The 1^st intent is to radically develop the leadership of the diocese, to assure that our leaders have the kind of spiritual authority and credibility that will enable them to make reliably good decisions, so that we can better care for God's people and better grow the church.

• The 2^nd intent is to give greater administrative authority to the leadership of the diocese; so that crucial decisions can be made that will allow the church as a whole to not only survive, but to thrive.

• The 3^rd intent is to wisely 'recycle' the financial resources of the Diocese into new ministry initiatives that will both support the church and grow the church by reaching out into the surrounding communities.

One of the new initiatives that we have already been introduced to here in the parish is a new focus on lay leadership development. One of the most obvious and natural ways to protect the church against the problems of clericalism that we touched on today is by developing the spiritual leadership potential of the laity. By all of us coming to better understand that we are all called to be ministers of the gospel, in one form or another, we help protect our clergy from falling into the dangerous trap of imagining that they are less finite, less sinners-redeemed-by-grace, than the rest of us. All of us, lay and ordained, have the potential to become well balanced fools for Christ. Thanks be to God. Let us pray.

Holy One ,

In your Son, Jesus,  you continue revealing to us what it truly means to be fully human, to live a consecrated life, to be a leader. We hear you calling us all, both lay and ordained, to grow beyond living solely on milk, to make the transition to solid food.  We are learning that you would engage us all in those practices which effectively train and form our hearts and minds, so that we may discern and make the very best choices in our lives, so that we may continue developing into mature and happy followers of Jesus.  

In the midst of the many reforms that are now being undertaken here in Huron,  help us to hear your voice and to discern your will for us –  individually, as a parish, and within the larger community of the Diocese. Enable us to understand and respond to change in ways that allow your kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

We ask this in the name of your Son, and our Lord, Jesus Christ.   Amen.