I couldn\u2019t help but notice some common threads between our Old Testament reading and the Gospel.\u00a0 In both cases, authority was delegated by the principal.\u00a0 David delegated his authority to Solomon; and Jesus delegated his authority to the Apostles.\u00a0 In both cases, Kings delegated their authority- the righteous King of Israel, David; and Christ the King.<\/p>\n
The delegations carry with them some important advice.\u00a0 David tells his son to always, always, obey the law of God.\u00a0 Jesus tells his disciples to preach repentance; meaning that the folks in the towns they visited needed to mend their lives in accordance with the law of God.<\/p>\n
However, there are some differences as well.\u00a0 David\u2019s delegation of authority carried the full weight of the government.\u00a0 After all, he was the earthly King of Israel.\u00a0 Jesus delegation of authority was totally outside either the political or religious governing bodies.\u00a0 Jesus was heralding a \u201cnew way of living\u201d.\u00a0 Jesus was asking folks, through the \u201cChurch\u201d he was forming to convert the minds and hearts of the people to repent , without the legal weight of the government.<\/p>\n
Just who should we listen to these days?\u00a0 The Government?\u00a0 The media?\u00a0 Charismatic\u00a0 self-proclaimed experts?\u00a0 Information and pundits are prolific in our society.\u00a0 All of us have access to hundreds of TV and Radio Stations; \u00a0an infinite resource of information sources over the Internet; and more books, periodicals, and other written sources than one can imagine.\u00a0 And lots of the information we hear conflicts.\u00a0 Political commentators conflict on root causes of problems and there are many views on moral standards because of the acceptance of pluralistic views on religion, all of which vie for our time and claim to have the truth, the answer to what life is all about.\u00a0 Just who should we listen to?<\/p>\n
The answer rests in what real authority is.\u00a0 The root meaning of authority in this sense of the word is simply this:\u00a0 They were given power by the legitimate source of power.\u00a0 David was the King of God\u2019s chosen people, the people of God in the Old Testament.\u00a0 Jesus is Christ the King, the King of all mankind in the New Covenant.\u00a0 Jesus has the legitimate power to delegate, and his message is pure and unencumbered by earthly corruption.\u00a0 The Apostles didn\u2019t assume this power; they were given this power by Jesus.\u00a0 So, the message was not their message; it was God\u2019s message.<\/p>\n
Now, the Apostles were told not to take anything extra.\u00a0 In other words, they weren\u2019t bringing their own message forward; and they weren\u2019t asking for anything of material value in return for it.\u00a0 They were neutral; they had nothing personal to gain.\u00a0 They were messengers who were simply following God\u2019s will for them.\u00a0 They had the simplest and most pure motivation, their enthusiasm for the message of Jesus.\u00a0 Lastly, they had faith, great faith- the kind of faith that David speaks about in his parting words on his deathbed.\u00a0 David told Solomon to always, always obey the Lord in all things, never questioning the law.\u00a0 That takes tremendous faith.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And because they had these simple characteristics- faith, authority, and purity of purpose; they were able to work wonders as they moved through the people, driving away unclean spirits, curing the lame, and healing the sick.<\/p>\n
In the politically correct, pluralistic , secular society in which we live\u00a0 Who should we listen to?\u00a0 Our government? Wikipedia? The latest silver tongued \u201cfeel-good\u201d preacher? \u00a0\u00a0Or do we listen to people who are like the Apostles that Jesus sent out.\u00a0 The choice is yours.\u00a0 As for me, I\u2019ll stay with the Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time 1 Kings 2: 1-4, 10-12; Mark 6: 7-13 Dc. Larry Brockman I couldn\u2019t help but notice some common threads between our Old Testament reading and the Gospel.\u00a0 In both cases, authority was delegated by the principal.\u00a0 David delegated his authority to Solomon; and Jesus delegated his authority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[327],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions\/827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}