{"id":21764,"date":"2024-03-06T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T06:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-wednesday-6-march-2024"},"modified":"2024-03-06T06:15:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T06:15:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-wednesday-6-march-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-wednesday-6-march-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion Wednesday, 6 March 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
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inspiration in your inbox<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Wednesday, 6 March 2024<\/strong><\/span>
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St Mark 11: 27 – 33<\/strong><\/p>\n

Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, \u2018By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?\u2019 Jesus said to them, \u2018I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.\u2019 They argued with one another, \u2018If we say, \u201cFrom heaven\u201d, he will say, \u201cWhy then did you not believe him?\u201d But shall we say, \u201cOf human origin\u201d?\u2019\u2014they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. So they answered Jesus, \u2018We do not know.\u2019 And Jesus said to them, \u2018Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.\u2019<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/strong>
Well, there\u2019s a good question. By what authority do you do these things? Now, as then, authority is rightly questioned. Who is this Jesus who, earlier in the chapter, disrupted the Temple and cursed the fig tree? And we have also been reminded of our own authority \u2013 to forgive the sins of others even as we seek our own forgiveness. Now the chapter closes with a final verbal jousting match with the religious authorities who ironically, forget that their own authority is derived from God. 
 
Jesus answers their question with a question that isn\u2019t seeking an answer. It is seeking \u2013 and it gets \u2013 a response. A response that exposes the religious leaders for what they are. All they care about is preserving their positions, their power, their status. All they care about is pleasing the crowd. They have confused authority with power.
 
For us in the Church, the source of its authority is God who calls us to be a people where previously we were no people.  The paradoxical expression of authority is the Gospel of grace which transforms us in Christ and demands of us a totally new way of living, gifting us the resources to live this new lifestyle by the Holy Spirit. Authority is proved. Tested. Lived. But anytime personal authority starts to take the place of God\u2019s authority we are in trouble.
 
Ultimately it comes down to which authority we will submit to in our lives. The opponents of Jesus want to retain their own authority so they attack Jesus. Jesus, on the other hand, needs no institutional authority. Jesus IS authority \u2013 the author and giver of life. Once we have understood \u2018the purpose of authority as the discovery and expression of the mind of Christ in order to build up his body for effective discipleship\u2019*, we will understand our posture as  followers of Jesus is that of humility, surrender, and obedience. 
 
*quote from Authority in the Church  (Mission Council 1994)
 
Let us pray: <\/strong>
May the mind of Christ
live in me from day to day.
May I never think too highly of myself.
Let me conform to the mind of Christ
in humility, surrender and obedience.
In Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.<\/p>\n

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Today’s writer<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Rev\u2019d Nicola Furley-Smith, Secretary for Ministries, Purley URC<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright \u00a9 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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inspiration in your inbox Wednesday, 6 March 2024  St Mark 11: 27 – 33 Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, \u2018By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?\u2019 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion Wednesday, 6 March 2024”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}