Question Authority
Speaker: Rev. Matt Henry
Location: Whitney United Methodist Church
Date: February 1, 2009
It has been said that if you remember the 1960s you were never there. For those of us who do remember the 1960s they represented a seismic shift in American culture, and boomers like me are the product of that. We boomers were raised to believe in, and trust without question, authority figures. It would no more have entered my head as a kid to second guess a doctor’s diagnosis or question a pastor’s biblical interpretation than to think that someone would actually kill the United States President. But, along came Vietnam and Watergate and LBJ and “Tricky Dickie” and “Slick Willie” and the permanent damage was done to my innocent naive belief, my naiveté and unquestioned authority.
So, for us hippies like me, the slogan “Question Authority” became a bumper sticker to be plastered on our cars, became a statement to be put on our T-shirts. “Question Authority” became our mantra, man. It became our manifesto. Now, God has a wild, weird and downright wicked sense of humor, amen? He does! Because eventually karma caught up with me and I became an authority figure by becoming a pastor. Lord have mercy. And I can imagine many of you are saying that every week, too. Lord have mercy. You were better off as a hippie, man. I don’t necessarily disagree with you up front. If I had been told that I would be a pastor even fifteen years ago…you’ve got the wrong person in mind, man.
In the days of Moses prophets had cred. Questioning their authority to speak on God’s behalf was taking chances with the great almighty powerful Oz. And if that’s not a compelling image it certainly was real for them. The flaming pillars of fire, the booming voice, that disembodied head. “I am the great almighty and powerful God.” Man, that would do it to me. It did it to me as a little kid. In Deuteronomy I think we have the very first bishop, Moses, saying if the people do not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, God will hold them accountable.
Held accountable. What’s that mean? Held accountable. God will hold you accountable. Ooooh. Does that mean I’m grounded to my room? Does that mean no TV for a week? Does that mean I’m not at home now worshipping at the altar of my other god, the NFL? Held accountable; what’s that mean? Maybe it means something far, far, far, far worse like prison time or venereal disease or suicidal tendencies. Friends, what would be being held accountable look like for you? To what should we be held accountable, that no person goes hungry? Should we be held accountable to that? Or should we be held accountable to demanding the reduction of and only buying cars that get 40 plus miles a gallon to save this earth from its continued warming? Should we be held accountable to that? Maybe we should be held accountable to some system of universal health care. Should we be held accountable to the idea that if any one of us has a beef with anyone we will actually have the courage to work it out with them, face to face, instead of hiding behind the relative safety of an e-mail screen? Or worse, cranking up the old gossip machine of “truth” based on unchecked assumptions? Should we be held accountable to any of that? Is that what God means? I will hold you accountable.
I have a friend who I graduated with at seminary. His name is Dave. Dave is a Baptist pastor, and I asked Dave one time, “Dave, why did you become a pastor?” And this is what Dave said. I’ll never forget his answer. Dave said, “It’s the one job in the world where you can yell at people and get paid for it.” But, lest you think that preaching is an easy excuse to tell others how they ought to behave, think again. God spells out plainly what happens to prophets who abuse or misuse that responsibility…D–E–A–T–H…no questions asked, no second chance, no passing go, no get out of jail free card, man. The point seems to be, I think, that the only one here who has authority to speak is God, and both the preacher and the congregation need to honor that. We’d best not question authority, amen?
So, however, the question just hangs out there. If, as the pastor, I am a prophet called by God to speak for God, and I have yet to be struck D–E–A–D in or out of the pulpit, should you ever question my authority concerning biblical interpretation, theology, religion? Or would it help if I prefaced everything I said to you with the statement, “God told me to tell you.” Now, let’s get real. After all, we are citizens of the land of the free, amen? We claim the right in our culture to question authority, don’t we? Absolutely! We second guess our doctors and our auto mechanics and our political leaders and our pastors all the time. Some of us even make a career out of telling the “authority du jour” they’re wrong. If you would just listen to my tidbits of advice you’ll have a better part. Know what I’m saying?
It sometimes goes like this: I haven’t gone to college. I haven’t gone to seminary. I haven’t had to study and translate and biblical Greek and Hebrew, the actual languages of the scriptures that they were written in, as opposed to my modern NIV version. I haven’t studied theology nor Bible interpretation. I haven’t had to get a passing grade in any test nor write research papers, and I sure as heck haven’t paid thousands of dollars and gotten graduate degrees for all of it, but I sure am qualified to tell you, preacher, how the Bible is to be understood. I haven’t gone to medical school nor have I gotten certified as a cardiac specialist like you have, doctor, and I can’t read an EKG, but I don’t think it was a heart attack that made me feel like it was an elephant sitting on my chest. No, I’m sure it has something to do with my sinuses. Though I’ve never had a physics class or gotten training in structural engineering or materials analysis but any fool can see you’ll never be able to span the Golden Gate with a bridge. If man were meant to fly he’d have wings, right? All of those authority figures. God says, “And I will hold you accountable.”
Now many of you know by now that we have a radio broadcast on Sunday. Happens twice; it’s called “Reach Out and Trust.” And that’s how God calls us to trust in God and in God’s prophets…blind, unquestioning, faithful trust. And that’s precisely how the world got Adolph Hitler and Joe Stalin and Jerry Falwell. So get this friends. This is true. Don’t take my word for it. You can check this out on the Web. Jerry Falwell claimed that September 11, 2001 was God’s payback time on all of America for its lenience stance on abortion and gay rights. And this is during the George W. Bush administration….hello. Falwell, as a prophet, he must be speaking for God. He must be speaking for God and all those brave New York City policemen and policewomen and firemen and firewomen killed trying to save the day. They were just God’s collateral damage. That’s why we should pay attention to brother Falwell when he says that all human life is sacred. Or maybe we should not question the authority of God’s prophet like Ted Haggerty, speaking for God, and making a lot of money doing so, while all the time buying meth from a male prostitute.
So, as my brother Mac McDaniel says here, twice every Sunday morning on 94.1 KBXL family Christian radio. How can we know who to trust then as God’s actual, bona fide prophet? And how can we know how to know who to trust when they claim to speak with and on behalf of God’s authority? How do we know whether to accept or question authority of one who claims to speak for God? I think the Bible gives us a clue here. My question I would ask, whenever someone is claiming to speak for God I ask them, are you battling and attempting to cast out demons from people and churches? That’s one. Number two: are you more concerned with puffing up and releasing hot air or, as Paul says, loving people? Anyone who loves God is known by Him. Are you willing to discharge personal habits if they threaten someone else’s salvation? That is becoming a stumbling block to the weak. Friends, you know true prophets who speak for God not by their education or their lack of it, and not so much by what comes out of their mouths, because that’s easy, but by what comes out of their lives.
So my recommendation, brothers and sisters, for you and me is this. We best not, we best not question prophets when they speak because I, for one, don’t care to be squashed by God for questioning God’s authority. So, my final word is this. When you think of the word “Prophet” I want you to realize that the Prophet that the Bible is referring to over and over again is you, because you, all of you, have been called to speak for God, on God’s behalf with authority. And God will hold us all accountable for what we say and what we do. Amen.
This good news I bring to you I do so in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.