" By What Authority?"

Matthew 21: 23-32  
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Ordinary Time – Season of Creation  
First United Church – Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

I went to bed Wednesday night hoping for a miracle. Troy Davis, a prisoner on death row in Georgia, had been scheduled to be executed at 7:00pm on Wednesday, but due to last-minute Supreme Court deliberations, he was still alive when I went to bed around 10:00pm.

In case you missed the news this week, let me give you a brief re-cap. Troy Davis has been on death row in Georgia since 1989. He was convicted of killing an off-duty cop. Since his conviction – which happened with no DNA evidence and no physical evidence tied to a weapon – seven of the nine witnesses have recanted their testimony. Do we know for a fact that he’s innocent? No, we don’t. But is there a reasonable doubt? Absolutely.

When I woke on Thursday morning, I called David, who had already left for work and said, “What happened?” He said, “There was no stay. They executed him.”

Quite literally, the only thing that kept me from bursting into tears was the fact that my son was clamoring at my feet, begging to be picked up. I hung up the phone, wiped away the tears forming in my eyes and resolved not to cry until after M went to school. After all, how could I explain to a one-year-old the reality that our society pays people to inject poison into other people’s veins and kill them? And that this is completely legal and sanctioned by our government?

As I got M ready for school, the same thought just kept coming into my head over and over again – Troy Davis was like this once-upon-a-time.

I don’t know much about his upbringing, but I know he had family that loved him. I know that his mama must have made him breakfast, changed his diaper, laughed at his funny faces, kissed his boo-boos.

I just kept thinking – Dear God in heaven, what if this were to happen to my son one day?

Now, to be sure, the chances of this happening to M are slim. There is one huge difference between M and Troy. M is white and Troy was black. And in this country, that matters. According to the 2010 census, 13% of us are African American and 72% of us are white. [1] But of those folks currently on death row in this country, 42% are black and 44% are white. And of the people we as a nation have executed thus far, 35% have been black and 56% white.[2]

Race matters.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t be executed by the state if you’re white. In fact, another high-profile execution took place on Wednesday. White supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed on that same evening in Texas. He was convicted of dragging a fellow child of God, James Byrd, Jr. to death in Jasper, Texas in 1998. [3]

There were no last-minute pleas for Brewer’s life. Unlike Troy Davis, he did not claim his innocence while being prepared for execution. He did not offer forgiveness to his killers as they prepared the syringes that would take his life.

For those who support the death penalty, this was a clear-cut case – Brewer was a man who committed an absolute atrocity against Byrd and against all of humanity. He was unrepentant. [4] He was, in many people’s minds, unforgivable. In all honesty, when I recall his crime, my stomach turns and I have an incredibly difficult time remembering that God loves men like Lawrence Brewer.

But there was one line in the New York Times article I read about Brewer’s execution that snapped me back to reality. The article noted that Brewer’s parents were there at his execution, as was his sister. They watched him through the glass window as a tear slipped down his cheek and he closed his eyes for the final time.

Brewer, like Davis – like all of us – was loved. He was a child who ran through his house causing mischief and inspiring laughter. He was held and rocked and soothed. His parents had dreams for him. Regardless of what a child does or does not do with his life, no parent should have to stand by, helpless, while their government coldly kills their child and calls it justice.

And as hard as it is to believe, Brewer, just like Davis – just like you and me – was loved and is loved by God.

Did God weep and mourn when Brewer took another man’s life? Absolutely. I would even go as far as saying that God watched with great anger and disgust. But you can be angry with someone and still love them. Their actions can disgust you and you might still hold out hope that they will one day walk a better path.

God loved both of these men deeply. God had dreams for what their lives would be. God was with them when they died and God is with them now.

*******

By what authority do we, as a society, claim the right to execute another child of God? Where is it written that it is okay for us to punish murder with murder?

Well, if you’ve read much of the Bible, you know it actually says it a bunch of times in the Bible.

There are tons of references to capital punishment in the Hebrew Scriptures – none of them making a big deal out of it. Of course, in the Christian Scriptures, things are more complicated. You might even recall Jesus mentioning that it’s not okay to take an eye for an eye; that we are supposed to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us; and that only those of us without sin can judge others. [5]

Jesus got in trouble for talking like this. His expansive ethic of love was not immensely popular at the time. In fact, it got him killed.

People who lived alongside Jesus often found themselves wondering, “Just where does this guy come from? How does he say all this stuff like it’s okay to just say it?!?”

In today’s story from Matthew, we see one of these encounters in great detail. Jesus was teaching in the temple in Jerusalem and the chief priests and other religious leaders came upon him. Irked that he was standing up just saying stuff like he had every right to be there, they approached him and asked, “Hey, who gave you the authority to teach here?”

Let’s pause for a moment and get our characters straight.

These chief priests were members of the Jewish elite in Jerusalem. They were not known for being the most upstanding guys. Maybe they had initially gotten into the priesthood with good intentions, but most had long-since been corrupted by power.

They were in the back pocket of the Roman occupiers – for example, the high priest had to actually get a key from the Roman governor so he could get his vestments out of a locked room before visiting the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. [6]

The folks challenging Jesus in this story were not, “the Jews.” Not all Jews had a problem with Jesus. We know some Jews were really into Jesus or they wouldn’t have been gathered in the temple to hear him speak.

I can imagine these chief priests were curious about Jesus’ authority because they felt threatened.

Their God-given authority as priests had long-ago been corrupted by the state-sanctioned authority given to them by their occupiers. Here was a young man who spoke of God, claiming God’s authority. Of course they were annoyed by him.

The way Jesus responds to their challenge is beautiful. Rather than just saying, “God gave me this authority” he actively claims authority through his actions.

He responds to their question with a question. Far from being cavalier or avoiding their challenge, this was actually a way of answering the question without answering it directly. Answering a question with a question was a very rabbinical thing to do. By playing the role of rabbi to the other religious leaders, he made it clear that his authority was from God – whether or not they chose to recognize that authority.

And the chief priests respond in a way that shows they have pretty much lost their God-given authority. Once called to speak truth on behalf of God’s people, they have learned the art of pandering to the powers that be and you can see it in their answer. Or should I say, non-answer?

They hem and haw and think about all the possibilities each answer to Jesus’ question would hold. They are trapped in a situation where neither answer is beneficial to them.

If they say that God gave John his authority, they will be in trouble because they weren’t fans of John when he was alive. If they say John was just popular with the people, they will make the crowd angry because many of them loved John.

So they choose not to answer. And Jesus chooses not to answer their initial question….except it’s clear to everyone present who had the upper hand in this little power-struggle.

********

Authority is a tricky little word.

Authority and power are often used interchangeably, but there are differences.

Authority conveys a sense of legitimacy. When the religious leaders ask Jesus by what authority he is teaching, they are not questioning whether or not he is able to teach. They are questioning whether or not he has the right to teach – whether or not he is allowed to do so.

Power, on the other hand, is the ability to get things done. The very fact that Jesus was standing there, in the temple, with people gathered around him listening showed that he had power. He had the power to make people listen. If he hadn’t had power, the chief priests wouldn’t have cared about his authority.

Those who do the work of grass-roots advocacy talk a lot about power. If you want to learn about power, go read some Saul Alinsky. One of his more famous quotes is that power isn’t about what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

Power is about getting things done. And in a world that is rife with injustice, power is crucial. We need good people who have power to work on behalf of God’s dreams for the world.

But I would also caution us to always remember this tricky concept of authority. Legitimacy. Authorization. You might even say it’s a calling.

As Christians, our authority comes from God.

I’m not going to lie – I get scared even saying that out loud because Christians have caused so much trouble through the millennia by claiming to speak and act on behalf of God.
 
But I do believe it is true. We are given authority by God to act as beacons of hope in the world.

We are called, like Jesus, to take a hard look at the practices of our governments and our religions and hold them up to the plumb line. We are called to speak up on behalf of those who are being oppressed. The Spirit of the Lord is upon us because we are anointed to bring good news to the poor, to set the captives free, to help the blind see, to let the oppressed go free, and proclaim God’s realm right here and now.

Perhaps more than anything else, we are given authority to love. If God is love and God so loved the world to send Jesus Christ as an example for all of us….and if Jesus Christ loved even unto death and beyond…then how could we be called to do anything but continue to unleash that love into a hurting world day after day after day?

If someone asks us, “where did you get that authority to love?” I hope we will respond with a warm embrace and words of peace and kindness.

If I ever find myself in a place where I’m supposed to spit on a fellow human, tell them they’re unworthy, or chastise them for the things they’ve done, I hope I will find the strength to love them instead. I hope I will offer my hand in fellowship and if anyone asks me how I could love a person who is so despicable, I hope you will be there with me, reminding me that it is on God’s authority that we love.

Nobody ever said this following Christ thing was easy. The only way I can figure out how to do it is to walk alongside you and hope that you will encourage me along.

If we can somehow find a way to hold each other in times of difficult decisions…if we can promise to love each other even through controversial issues…if we can quietly and firmly remind each other that we, the Church, are given authority to be God’s agents of love in this world….if we can do those things together, I think we can make it work.

We will find in each other, the strength to do the hard things. And when we do, we can rest for a moment and just breathe, saying, “Thanks be to God.”


[1] http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/


[2] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-death-row-inmates-executed-1976


[3] http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/09/21/us/AP-US-Texas-Execution-Dragging-Death.html?_r=1


[4] http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenation.com%2Fblog%2F163536%2Fother-execution-tonight%25E2%2580%2594-man-who-dragged-james-byrd-jr-his-death&h=YAQAVFYhwAQB2XW1w414z7CiVIi5II5h0tX59Fsmum5_3yQ


[5] Matthew 5, Matthew 7, and John 8.


[6] Preaching the Gospels Without Blaming the Jews. Allen and Williamson, page 74.