{"id":13493,"date":"2021-04-01T19:30:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T18:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turski.blog\/?p=13493"},"modified":"2021-04-01T19:30:54","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T18:30:54","slug":"holy-thursday-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=13493","title":{"rendered":"Holy Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is it? A \u00a320 Scottish banknote.\u00a0What is it worth? That\u2019s a daft question, isn\u2019t it? Obviously, it\u2019s worth 20 pounds! Well, it\u2019s a bit more complicated. Take this note outside the UK and it\u2019s worth absolutely nothing, as I learnt first-hand whilst abroad. In itself, this is just a piece of plastic sheet with some patterns printed on both sides. In terms of raw materials and production, it\u2019s as cheap as dirt at an estimated cost of less than 2p per banknote. And yet, I can use this banknote to purchase items or services worth \u00a320. How is that possible? Someone with the right authority has ascribed such value to this particular piece of plastic. It\u2019s actually printed on the banknote: \u2018Bank of Scotland plc promises to pay the Bearer on demand twenty pound sterling at its registered office, Edinburgh.\u2019<\/em> Of course, I don\u2019t have to drive all the way down to Edinburgh with each banknote to get \u00a320 – that would defeat the purpose of this invention. Instead, I can use it to get various goods whenever I want and wherever the authority of the issuer is recognised.<\/p>\n

Who is it? That’s me. What am I worth? Some would say less than the banknote I\u2019ve shown; that\u2019s fair enough! But I\u2019d estimate it at around 240 pounds – that\u2019s what my bathroom scales read this morning.\u00a0 However, fundamentally I am worth as much as anyone else; I\u2019m just another human being. Fundamentally we are all of equal value. At some point in my life, someone with the right authority ascribed additional value to me and then – at my priestly ordination – I was given special powers to turn one thing into another.<\/p>\n

What is it? It\u2019s a piece of the simplest form of bread, made of wheat flour and water, also called unleavened bread. What is it worth? In terms of raw materials and production, it\u2019s so cheap that the cost of this one piece is negligible. Moreover, there\u2019s no other added value in terms of taste or fragrance; it\u2019s as plain and unassuming as it gets. And yet, in a few minutes’ time, someone with the right authority will ascribe it with incomprehensible worth by the action of a human being endowed with special powers. In this mind-blowing exchange, God will turn this piece of bread and some wine into the Body and Blood of Christ upon the action of an ordained priest.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what we are celebrating tonight. We believe that Jesus established the sacrament of ordination and the sacrament of the Eucharist at his Last Supper. Why?<\/p>\n

To understand that we must refer to His sacrificial death on the cross the following day, the first Good Friday. On that cross, the ransom of our freedom from sin was paid. But there\u2019s a problem. Jesus\u2019 sacrificial death took place just outside Jerusalem – about 2500 miles from Aberdeen as the crow flies; with current restrictions on international travel, such a journey would be quite difficult to make. To make it worse, Jesus\u2019 sacrificial death took place about 2000 years ago and – as far as I\u2019m aware – we haven\u2019t invented time travel yet. The distance of time and space means that Jesus\u2019 sacrificial death has no effect on us. Thankfully, not all is lost! Do you remember that pledge printed on the banknote? \u2018Bank of Scotland plc promises to pay the Bearer on demand twenty pound sterling at its registered office, Edinburgh.\u2019<\/em> Remember, I don\u2019t have to travel to Edinburgh with banknotes. In rather the same way, we don\u2019t have to travel in time and space to have a share in Jesus\u2019 redeeming death. \u2018God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. […] He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.\u2019 (1 Cor 1:27-30)<\/em> Through the two sacraments, the priesthood and the Eucharist established at the Last Supper, we can participate in the sacrifice of Christ as if we were standing at the foot of his cross just outside Jerusalem 2000 years ago. A bit like on the banknote, there\u2019s a pledge made by Jesus: \u2018I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.\u2019 (John 6:51)<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you believe it?<\/p>\n

\n

Image by Robert Cheaib<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is it? A \u00a320 Scottish banknote.\u00a0What is it worth? That\u2019s a daft question, isn\u2019t it? Obviously, it\u2019s worth 20 pounds! Well, it\u2019s a bit more complicated. Take this note outside the UK and it\u2019s worth absolutely nothing, as I learnt first-hand whilst abroad. In itself, this is just a piece of plastic sheet with some patterns printed on both sides. In terms of raw materials and production, it\u2019s as cheap as dirt at an estimated cost of less than 2p per banknote. And yet, I can use this banknote to purchase items or services worth \u00a320. How is that possible? Someone with the right authority has ascribed such value to this particular piece of plastic. It\u2019s actually printed on the banknote: \u2018Bank of Scotland plc promises to pay the Bearer on demand twenty pound sterling at its registered office, Edinburgh.\u2019 Of course, I don\u2019t have to drive all the way down to Edinburgh with each banknote to get \u00a320 – that would defeat the purpose of this invention. Instead, I can use it to get various goods whenever I want and wherever the authority of the issuer is recognised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}