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   “Authority” is a word frequently used in matters of religion. We speak of the authority of the church and of church leaders. We speak of the authority of scripture. But authority is also a word which makes many people feel uncomfortable, especially when it is used in a religious context. For authority means power, and we are only too well aware of ways in which religious power can be abused.

Lord Acton once remarked, “All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Earlier in the month the Vatican forced the resignation of the editor of the Jesuit weekly America, because he had presumed to publish opposite sides of issues controverted in the church.

But however uncomfortable the words authority and power may make us, we also know that we cannot do without them. When there is a power outage, the elevators stop running, the pumps stop working, the lights go off, and we are left groping in the dark. Northrop Frye’s last book, on the Bible, is entitled Words with Power, and, indeed, if we did not experience the power of sacred scripture, it would no longer be read.

So power is a reality which makes human life and the spiritual possible. The question comes down to this: where does power come from, by whom is it exercised, and over whom? In the gospel reading Jesus exercises power over an unclean spirit, compelling it to leave the man whom it had been victimizing, so that he could return to a normal life in the community (Mark 1:23-26).
All of us need power over our inner demons, which seek to destroy our lives and our humanity. I recently saw a terrifying series of photographs, taken by the police, of the progressive deterioration of drug users, to the point that their faces no longer seemed human.

All of us, at one time or another in our lives, have recognized our powerlessness against the forces raised up against us. The collect for Sexagesima reads:

O Lord God, who seest that we put not our trust in any thing
that we do, mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended
against all adversity.

The Prayer Book is often criticized for its emphasis on human weakness, but those of us who have been brought up on Prayer Book spirituality know that constant reliance on divine help, on power which comes from a source outside the ego, is a realistic attitude which can save us from great harm.

Pentecost, we saw, was the feast of empowerment. Some see the spirit as a gift to the church, leading it into all truth and legitimating all its actions.

I prefer to see the spirit as a gift to the individual, struggling against fearful odds, but confident, like the apostle Paul, that “I can do all things in the one who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

May 29, 2005

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