Living Under Authority

Second Sunday in Lent

Gospel Reading Matthew 10:24-39

Our Gospel reading clearly shows Christ came to establish the proper order of authority.  Looking back to the Laws of Israel they were divided into four areas.  One, The Ten Commandments or natural law.  These commands are universal and perpetual.  They found the basis for God to establish His people and His kingdom.  They are what would be the basis for civilized society for the rest of human history.  Second, the sacrificial laws.  These laws cover the rites the Levites would follow in their sacrificial duties.  These laws are limited.  They were meant to be temporary from Israel to its fall.  They were completed and ended upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Third is the dietary laws.  Under the Apostles these laws were also set aside.  We see this in the Acts of the Apostles and the Apostolic Epistles.  Finally, are the civil laws.  These had to be revised when Israel began their royal lineage.  For the most part these were implemented by the Emperor Constantine in Rome after he became Christian.  Along with The Ten Commandments the civil laws were the basis of Augustine's The City of God to take Rome from its fall to the establishment of the Church as the seat and all law for Christendom.

In today's Gospel and with what I have said before, the order of authority established by God's law and therefore, His authority is as follows:

1. God - Jesus Christ
2. The Sacrficial Law, now the Church
3. The Family, with the father/husband at its head
4. The Civil Law, now Government (Caesar in the Gospel)
5. Masters, now Employers

This is the order established by Christ.  Jesus Christ is the head of His bride the Church.  The Church is to help the family as Christ helps the Church.  Fathers are to love their wife and their children as Christ loves the Church, and as to support their families as the Church supports families.  Employers are to be as honorable to their employees as Christ is to the Church, as the Church is to families, as fathers are to their children.  This is the order of authority as established by Christ.

Our problems today arise from people not following this order and therefore refusing to live under authority.  Make no mistake, you do not have to agree to be under God's authority, you already are.  All the universe is under God's authority whether agreed to by humans or not.  God who creates, sustains, and guides needs not the agreement of creation to be under the Creators authority.  That is the message from Genesis to Malacai, and from Matthew to Revelations.  From Genesis to Revelations; from "In the beginning" to "Amen. Come Lord Jesus" the message is clear - God IS THE AUTHORITY from which all other authority is granted.

The Church decides through God's laws who gets ordained, and who does not.  The Church through Christ's authority decides who is granted matrimony.  Ordination and matrimony are not rights to any man or woman, they are gifts bestowed by the Church through the authority of Jesus Christ.  No person has a right to sacramental ordinance.  Homosexuals have no more a right to ordination than an Atheist.  Homosexuals have no more a right to matrimony than a man or woman already married.  The right to sacraments are decided by the Church from the Gospels of Christ.  The Church has no more a right to ordain or allow homosexual matrimony than it has a right to allow the ordination of a Wiccan to Christian ministry or to join in matrimony two turtles.  Both are equally sacrilegious.  What Caesar does is Caesar's business.  But Caesar had better be careful when his laws go against the authority of God.

Like it or not to the chagrin of Gloria Steinham and Gloria Allred, the husband/father is the head of the family.  Husbands are to love their wife as Christ loves the Church.  Wives are to love their husbands and to submit.  Submit does not mean to be a slave.  That is a feminist corruption of the word.  For a wife to submit is as a priest submits to the law of God and the ordinance of Christ.  That is what is meant.  It has NEVER been an open license for a man to abuse his wife.  That is just as abhorrent in God's eyes as the corruption of His Sacraments.  When one abuses their authority they incur the wrath of God.  When authority goes against God's law and the Gospels it is not law then but sin, and sin is to be rejected.

Today, government is taking Christ off the throne and placing Caesar there, again, will we ever learn from history?  The Church is being replaced by courts.  Family is being replaced by handouts.  Government is becoming The Authority.  President Obama is wanting Government to be all and to be the sole authority.  Obama has created his cult and has called himself "messiah".  Obama has said repeatedly the Church has no place above government.  Obama has repeatedly said this, "For the single moms out there, I'll be your husband, I see you get support."  As one who calls himself a Christian he knows better.  As a supposed Christian he knows the blasphemy he spews.  A Christian would NEVER defile Christ's authority and His Church and seek to corrupt the family with crude jokes.  These are not jokes to Obama, or to God, these are Obama's challenge to God given authority, and make no mistake; like Nebuchanezzar, Caesar, and others before him, Obama will fall to God.  Let me repeat, Obama will fall to God.  One day Obama's knee will bend to God.  Just as all knees will.  Be careful when you challenge God's authority.

All of this is outlined in scripture.  The Gospels outline Christ's and the Church's authority.  See Matthew 28:18-20, John 27:1-2.  Read 1 Timothy 3:10,13; Acts 20:17,28; 1 Peter 5:1-2; Hebrews 13:17.  The authority of the family is lined out in Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3:7, and Romans 1.  Government is to have no authority over God, the Church, and is to have limited authority over the family.  When government makes laws contradictory to Christ's Gospels then these laws can be ignored.  This has been the standard from the Apostles, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Employers are to pay fair wages to their employees and employees are to be respectful to their supervisors.  This is set out in the Gospels and in Ephesians 6:5-8, Colossians 3:22-25.

Our society is headed to certain disaster unless we return to living under authority.  Christians must put Christ back in our churches.  We must put Christ at the head, "Take the royal diadem and crown Him King of all." Amen.