Earned Authority

On this last Sunday of the church year, we mark the Reign of Christ, in a time when our own country and others around the world roil in power struggles over democracy versus authoritarianism. Questions of power are front and center— who has power in our world, and where does that power come from?

When I was a chaplain in training, my supervisor gave us, his students, a simple model of types of authority, to help us navigate our encounters in hospital rooms. The first kind of authority he told us, was ascribed. That is the authority someone has simply by their title. The second kind of authority is asserted—the kind someone might get by being the loudest, strongest, or most threatening person in the room. The last kind, according to my teacher, is earned. This authority comes from trust and the experience of walking alongside another.

It is the last kind of authority that Christ models for us, in the suffering and radical hope that he took on in the human experience. What does trust in Christ’s leadership look like for our time, now? How can we share and build authority with neighbors, for the sake of our wider community and world? Midwesterners, I’ve learned, sometimes shy away from their own power—but in Christ, we see power that is with, and for, our neighbors. At St. Timothy, we hear the call from the prophet Micah to love mercy, seek justice, and walk humbly. What does that call look like in your life, today?