Mtr Kelli Joyce

Dear friends in Christ,

Adults have lots of different phrases they use to describe children and their personalities. "Bookish" and "tomboy" were ones I frequently heard growing up. Another, meant negatively but which I wore with pride, was "authority issues." What this meant, of course, is that I was seldom content to accept the instruction or direction of adults if their words didn't seem right to me. As I grew up, I learned that there are more positive ways to frame this trait - "independent thinker," for example, or "passionate about fairness and truth."

A broad skepticism of arguments from authority is common, I think, in the Episcopal Church - we may have a hierarchical church structure, but we like to understand ourselves as independent thinkers. And, as someone whose "authority issues" have persisted into adulthood, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. But today's reading from Mark suggests that, at least when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth, we may have to take a different approach. The thing that made crowds marvel at the teaching of Jesus was not how kind he was, or how clear his teachings were, or how easy they were to accept. No, what struck people about Jesus was that "he taught them as one having authority." And this authority is shown not only in his teachings, but in his actions - he casts an unclean spirit out of the man it had been afflicting, and again the crowd marvels: "With authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him."

The measure against which all earthly authority must be judged is that of the One who has true and final authority over our lives - Jesus Christ, God made flesh. His commands, which are for our good, are binding on us as Christians, and we must follow them even if it means conflict with the authorities of this world. His teachings, which are true, are authoritative because they come from the one who is Truth itself. To swear our allegiance to Christ and declare that he is Lord is to say that all other claims on our allegiance can never be more than secondary, and all other rulers and powers and authorities must take second place in our lives to the one who is our Lord. And while this may sound difficult or harsh, it is ultimately the path of life, because Jesus is the only Lord whose commandments are always selfless, whose teachings are always true, and whose goal is always and only that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.

In peace,
Mtr. Kelli