Earning the Right to Be Heard

This doesn't need to be commented on or added to...just a loud, "AMEN!!!" This is a sermon by Tony Campolo. I wish I had written it.

I’m going to talk about power and authority. There is a difference.
Max Weber, one of the great sociologists of modern times, says that power carries with it the ability to coerce. Coercion is always in the background when we talk about power. For instance, when the policeman in the patrol car pulls up behind me on the highway with the red lights flashing, I pull over. I don’t want to obey. I don’t want to yield to his request that I pull over, but I do because I have to. He’s got power. It’s called a gun and I yield to him because he’s got power! He doesn’t have to pull the gun. He doesn’t have to use the gun. The very fact that coercion is a possibility makes me obedient.

Authority is quite different. My mother had great authority over me. No power. She was a little Italian lady. I could have kicked her down the steps. But when she spoke, I obeyed because she had authority. Where did she get that authority? She got that authority by thousands and thousands of loving sacrificial things she did for me over the years. Her sacrifices, her loving sacrifices, earned her authority.

There is a big difference between power and authority. And what I want to say is this: when the Church tries to play power games, when the Church tries to use, for instance, political power to impose it’s will on people, it loses even when it thinks it wins. The Church has a need to speak with authority.

Now, a good example of what I mean by authority is in the story of Mother Teresa. There is a city not too far from Eastern University where they have a state hospital. In the state hospital they have people who are emotionally and psychologically disturbed. It’s a huge place. Well, the directors of the hospital wanted to start these halfway houses so that people who were on their way to full recovery could be nurtured from the hospital back into society, by first going to these halfway houses and from there they could get jobs and, little by little, own their own residences. It was a transition stage and that’s why they wanted these five halfway houses. Needless to say, the people in the city weren’t particularly thrilled with the possibility of this prospect. There was a city council meeting. The place was packed. Five hundred people plus squeezed into this hall, yelling and screaming their opposition to the halfway houses. They didn’t want the, quote unquote,“crazies” living in their neighborhood.

Needless to say, the city council voted unanimously against the proposal. Not much discussion. A lot of yelling and a lot of screaming and the city council said no to the proposition. No sooner had they voted that the back doors of the auditorium were opened and in came Mother Teresa. She was in town for a ceremony dedicating a Sisters of Charity program and she heard about this meeting. She came down the center aisle and everybody gasped as Mother Teresa came to the front, got down on her knees in front of the city council, raised her arms and said, “In the name of Jesus, make room for these children of God! When you reject them, you reject Jesus. When you affirm them, you embrace Jesus.” And then with her arms upraised, five times in a row she said, “Please, please, please, please, please, in the name of God, make room for these people! Make room for them in your neighborhoods.”

Now, you’re on the city council, the television stations have followed Mother Teresa into the place and they’re grinding away. The newspaper reporters are there. There is Mother Teresa on her knees in front you. What are you going to do if you’re on the city council? You guessed it! “I move we change the decision.” And then a second to the motion and they voted unanimously to reverse the decision they had made a few minutes earlier. The newspapers reporting on this the next day said the most remarkable thing is that of the five hundred plus people packed into that hall, not a one of them uttered a word of opposition to the motion. Why? Because of Mother Teresa. She spoke as one having authority. Where did she get that authority? On the streets of Calcutta, loving sacrificing for the poor and the oppressed of the world, giving of herself to meet the needs of others sacrificially. Sacrificial love earned her authority.

Whenever the Church speaks with authority, people listen. But the Church has to be sacrificial. And I’m afraid that the Church has not been sacrificial enough. In these days of an economic downturn there is a tendency in the Church to say, well, we’ve got to keep our own building intact, we’ve got to take care of our own staff, we have our own needs. And I’m telling you that the church that forgets itself and sacrifices for the needs of the poor and the oppressed—not only in their own neighborhood but around the world—that’s the church that will speak with authority. The church that speaks with authority doesn’t have to resort to power. People will listen.

Jesus resorted to authority. They said in Scripture he speaks as one having authority. It says that he emptied himself of power in the second chapter of Philippians. He took upon himself the form of a servant—the word is actually “doulos” which means slave in the original Greek—and made himself of no reputation. And here it is: he humbled himself even unto death, even unto the death of the cross. But listen to me. It doesn’t end there. The passage of Scripture from the second chapter of Philippians goes on to say, “therefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But we Christians know that his Lordship was not built on power but on a cross. His sacrificial act of love earns him the name that is above every name.

You know this is true in the family, as well. I hear mothers and fathers say to me: “My son, my daughter doesn’t listen to me anymore! When I talk about God, when I talk about Scriptures, they roll their eyes and say ‘Do we have to listen to this?’ They just don’t listen!” I say it’s because you don’t have authority. “What do you mean I don’t have authority?” Well, the kids see you spend $150 for a ticket to go a football game and throw $5 into the offering plate for the poor. When you talk about God, that kid knows it isn’t serious. After all, you would have sacrificed in love if it was serious.

The Church, the family, you as an individual need to imitate Jesus who constantly turned away from power, constantly did the temptation experience. “Turn the stones into bread,” said Satan. Economic power. Jesus said no. “Go and jump off the pinnacle of the temple. Show them a miracle down there at the temple.” Religious power. Jesus said no. To the top of the mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. Political power. Jesus said no. I don’t want political power. I don’t want economic power. I don’t want religious power. I want to change the world by lovingly sacrificing for the poor and the oppressed because the more I sacrifice and love, the more authority I will have. In today’s world we need a Church, we need families, we need persons who are ready to sacrifice to meet the needs of others. That’s what changes the world.

Martin Luther King didn’t have political power, but he changed America. Mahatma Gandhi didn’t have political power. He never commanded an army. He changed a nation. I tell you that they understood Jesus better than most church people do. They understood that the way to change the world is not to impose your will on others but to lovingly sacrifice and earn the authority that when you speak, they will listen. They said of Jesus: He’s not like the religious leaders. He’s not like Herod. He’s not like Pilate. When this man speaks he speaks with authority. Would to God, we learn from Jesus.