By Who's Authority?

Palm Sunday Mass was great yesterday. Well, Mass is great all the time. But my own experience of it was a good one. I felt close to the Lord and it was a great way to start the day and to begin Holy Week.

An aquaintence's cousin's son was getting "dedicated" that day as well. So we went to church at another place in the town with the rest of her family. This church is a "plant" from a big church in a local bigger city near here. It's also in an auditorium. I'm never going back to that place, even if I'm asked to show support. Ever.

For some strange reason, I knew at some point that the pastor was going to bash Catholics. I don't know how I knew, I just did. He was more blatant than I expected. And what makes it worse is that her cousin's wife is a "former" Catholic and her mother was there too. I just don't understand it.

The pastor was speaking on the authority of Christ. I thought that it was something good to talk about. However, whenever a Protestant talks about authority I have to chuckle and pay attention. He was doing alright until I started to notice a trend in talking about "ritual" and "tradition" in a negative light. "Jesus bashes the Pharisees; let's bash the Catholics, because clearly they aren't scriptural." By the way, he was referencing Luke 4.

He specifically said, "We can't put our trust in authority other than in Christ and the Bible. Look at the Roman Catholic church now and all that has been in the news." We can't trust our leadership, huh? How can these people trust you as a pastor? How do they know you have the authority to preach and condemn the Catholic church?

Boy, I sure am glad he set me straight! Thank Jesus for the 'authority' of this guy to preach in His name. Oh, and by the way, he felt compelled to tell the audience that he was afraid what he was saying this week didn't match with what he said last week. And he thanked God for preventing him from contradicting himself. Whew.

Ugh....