Show us your credentials.

“Show us your credentials. Who authorized you to teach here?” Big questions that keep coming up. Paul faced it repeatedly – with his crazy ideas about not following Mosaic Law. Paul said his authority came from being an apostle of the crucified and risen Christ; whose authority came from his faithfulness to God the father; whose authority was found in God’s faithfulness to the covenant to restore humanity and restore creation. Authority found in actions.

In many ways Matthews’s gospel is all about these questions. In telling his story he sought to show both where Jesus authority came from and to describe the nature of that authority. Jesus credentials we seen in the fruit of his actions; actions that gave flesh to what scripture taught when read from the central themes of love, compassion, generosity.

We continue to wrestle with this. For example as we struggle over blessing same sex marriages the underlying question is always “who authorizes us to change what we have believed up to now?” In doing so we need to ask how our actions reveal God’s love, compassion, generosity.