In my younger days there was a bumper sticker slogan that popularized young
peoples' belief during the later 1960s: "Question Authority!"  Many of us had good reason to buy into that statement: Between Lyndon Johnson and Viet Nam and Richard Nixon and Watergate, much of American youth culture felt they had been lied to by the government, that august body of leadership that had once represented unquestionable moral authority for the American people.  As a growing adolescent, it never occurred to me, nor my parents, nor anyone else I knew that our elected officials would ever lie to us, even though my wise maternal grandfather had once warned me as a young boy, "Don't ever trust a politician."  Sadly, the unquestioning faith and trust I once held in our governmental officials, no matter who is in charge, has been greatly eroded away, never to return as before.

After all, questioning authority, whether it be a doctor's diagnosis, a lawyer's representation, a teacher's lesson or a preacher's sermon, is what has sadly become "the American way," and often for good reason.  So, as this radio broadcast's name encourages us to "reach out and trust," how and why should this happen?  Upon what grounds can any of us again feel secure about not questioning authority?  This is what I've discovered and it comes from studying Jesus and Paul.  The only thing that merits my trust in an authority is how they live their lives.  Do their actions reflect God's love, forgiveness, and grace for others?  Everyone thinks and says and has various opinions about everything and all too often we judge them based on such surface criteria.  Paul says it is only "love" that builds up trust in others.  And Jesus shows us this is the case.  Question authority? Maybe-but it all depends on the authority in question.  Do your doctor, lawyer, teacher and preacher show by their actions they truly care for you and are worthy of your trust?

 

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: ‘If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.’ Then the Lord replied to me: ‘They are right in what they have said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.’

 

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

 

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.

Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘no idol in the world really exists’, and that ‘there is no God but one.’ Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ‘Food will not bring us close to God.’ We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling-block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.