June 10, 2012

The Text we’ll use this Sunday is from 1 Samuel 8:4-10 and Mark 3:20-25,31-35. In Samuel, people insist that he anoint a king to rule over them. Samuel prays to God about it. Both Samuel and God see this as a sign of weak faith, but allow it anyway. Samuel warns them about the expense and intrusion government will have on their lives, but acknowledges that with weak faith, people cannot govern themselves. The people did not have faith in their inner authority and the natural unity of authority in their community. In Mark, the crowds are suspicious of Jesus’ authority, believing it comes from Satan. Jesus tells them that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, and then goes on to define the core relationships within God’s Kingdom—we are spiritually one family, brothers and sisters with one another. The preamble to the “Design” of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which we will look at Sunday, talks about the “whole family of God” and affirms that our final authority for church is in Jesus Christ. The hymn of the early church, as found in Philippians 2, would say, the “Christ Mind,” (Christos Nous). The sermon this Sunday is entitled, “Trusting Our Inner Authority.”