Once I was climbing the third highest mountain in the UK. At one moment the weather started worsening: the wind was blowing stronger and stronger; the drizzle turned into a downpour; the clouds covered the mountain dramatically limiting visibility to a few yards; the temperature noticeably plummeted. Hoping this was only a temporary change I carried on. But the changing weather persisted. I was a mile away from the top when I decided to turn back. I had the feeling that if I\u2019d pushed myself further I would have pushed my luck. Going down was a nightmare: horizontal rain lashing down mercilessly meant I was soaked to the marrow; I started to feel bitterly cold. At one particularly dangerous rocky passage a gust of wind threw me suddenly to the ground. I smashed my face and cut my knee against the rocks. My first thought was: \u2018this is the end\u2019.<\/p>\n
Every time I think about that excursion I ask myself what would have happened if I hadn\u2019t decided to return. Perhaps I wouldn\u2019t be delivering this sermon if I had pushed on to the summit. I have to admit that I\u2019ve turned back many times on my hikes \u2013 and I\u2019ve never regretted making that \u00a0decision.<\/p>\n
\u2018You must repent and be baptised\u2019<\/em> \u2013 these words are Simon Peter\u2019s answer to the people moved by his speech. Some of us might sigh and add the simple word: again… Not so long ago we finished Lent, forty days is a long time of repentance and self-denial. Now we are in the middle of Eastertide and again we hear the call for repentance.<\/p>\n I think the problem is with our patchy understanding of this term. Usually we associate repentance<\/em> with grave sinners, people doing really bad things, hurting themselves or other people. So it doesn\u2019t involve us. With this narrow meaning it\u2019s true. But the original Greek word has a wider meaning. It might be translated as \u2018look at your minds from some distance and change them\u2019<\/em>. This Greek word means some kind of reflection, meditation and revising what we think, our reasons and purposes. It means a constant, ongoing revision of the driving force behind our actions. Because we live in a dynamic reality, because we are affected by many external situations and internal yearnings and desires, we have to adapt our reactions to these ever changing elements. The moment we think we don\u2019t need any change in ourselves is the moment we die in our hearts. This might explain why so many people complain about their lives and blame everyone around them.<\/p>\n The second part of Peter\u2019s call is being baptized. Usually we perceive baptism as a single event. But that\u2019s again too narrow an understanding. At the end of Mark\u2019s gospel Jesus says these words: \u2018He who believes and <\/strong>is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned\u2019<\/em>. I would say: \u2018he who does not believe, even if he is baptised, will be condemned\u2019<\/em>. This message is very clear: salvation comes through faith; baptism is the way of expressing it in a sacramental and symbolic way.<\/p>\n Now we can understand Simon Peter\u2019s message generally as a call to a permanent reflection on our behaviours in the light of faith. This call is not a call from evil to good (it might be in some particular situations), but moving on from good to better. Our goal is not just avoiding evil; our goal is looking for the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once I was climbing the third highest mountain in the UK. At one moment the weather started worsening: the wind was blowing stronger and stronger; the drizzle turned into a downpour; the clouds covered the mountain dramatically limiting visibility to a few yards; the temperature noticeably plummeted. Hoping this was only a temporary change I carried on. But the changing weather persisted. I was a mile away from the top when I decided to turn back. I had the feeling that if I\u2019d pushed myself further I would have pushed my luck. Going down was a nightmare: horizontal rain lashing down mercilessly meant I was soaked to the marrow; I started to feel bitterly cold. At one particularly dangerous rocky passage a gust of wind threw me suddenly to the ground. I smashed my face and cut my knee against the rocks. My first thought was: \u2018this is the end\u2019. Every time I think about that excursion I ask myself what would have happened if I hadn\u2019t decided to return. Perhaps I wouldn\u2019t be delivering this sermon if I had pushed on to the summit. I have to admit that I\u2019ve turned back many times on my hikes \u2013 and I\u2019ve never regretted making that \u00a0decision. \u2018You must repent and be baptised\u2019 \u2013 these words are Simon Peter\u2019s answer to the people moved by his speech. Some of us might sigh and add the simple word: again… Not so long ago we finished Lent, forty days is a long time of repentance and self-denial. Now we are in the middle of Eastertide and again we hear the call for repentance. I think the problem is with our patchy understanding of this term. Usually we associate repentance with grave sinners, people doing really bad things, hurting themselves or other people. So it doesn\u2019t involve us. With this narrow meaning it\u2019s true. But the original Greek word has a wider meaning. It might be translated as \u2018look at your minds from some distance and change them\u2019. This Greek word means some kind of reflection, meditation and revising what we think, our reasons and purposes. It means a constant, ongoing revision of the driving force behind our actions. Because we live in a dynamic reality, because we are affected by many external situations and internal yearnings and desires, we have to adapt our reactions to these ever changing elements. The moment we think we don\u2019t need any change in ourselves is the moment we die in our hearts. This might explain why so many people complain about their lives and blame everyone around them. The second part of Peter\u2019s call is being baptized. Usually we perceive baptism as a single event. But that\u2019s again too narrow an understanding. At the end of Mark\u2019s gospel Jesus says these words: \u2018He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned\u2019. I would say: \u2018he who does not believe, even if he is baptised, will be condemned\u2019. This message is very clear: salvation comes through faith; baptism is the way of expressing it in a sacramental and symbolic way. Now we can understand Simon Peter\u2019s message generally as a call to a permanent reflection on our behaviours in the light of faith. This call is not a call from evil to good (it might be in some particular situations), but moving on from good to better. Our goal is not just avoiding evil; our goal is looking for the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-a"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355","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=1355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}