{"id":14483,"date":"2024-01-21T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T00:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turski.blog\/?p=14483"},"modified":"2024-03-01T21:25:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T21:25:59","slug":"3rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=14483","title":{"rendered":"3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, a friend of mine came across a street preacher in Aberdeen city centre. His efforts seemed to have no traction with the city dwellers, unlike the prophet Jonah in today\u2019s first reading. The street preacher\u2019s enthusiasm, zeal and megaphone failed to attract any attention. I can admire his resolve as he continued despite having no effect on anyone. I know how soul-destroying and frustrating it can be because I\u2019m a professional preacher. I mean that \u201cit is my profession\u201d<\/em>, not that \u201cI deliver professional results\u201d<\/em>. In my case, it takes me almost a week of reflection, meditation and thinking about the biblical readings, accompanied by some research or study, followed by three hours (on average) on a Friday night to compose and write down my sermon, then have it proof-read by a well-educated friend for final tweaking and polishing on a Saturday morning. After all that time and effort, you get a sermon that is about 10- minutes long and often coma-inducing; its only saving grace is its relative shortness. Imagine what you could get if I were a talented preacher. Unlike in the case of the street preacher, your <\/strong>perseverance and resolve must be admired, and greatly so.<\/p>\n

The process of preaching requires two sides: a preacher and an audience. There\u2019s little point in talking about \u201chow to preach and be successful\u201d<\/em>, as most of you are on the receiving end of the process. So, it makes more sense to consider that side of it. Today\u2019s gospel reading offers us a great opportunity to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time has come, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the good news.\u201d <\/em>These are the very first words of Jesus reported in St Mark\u2019s gospel. However, when we pay a bit more attention, the evangelist didn\u2019t mention any audience Jesus had addressed His call to. It’s as if He was talking to nobody in particular. That would be very bad preaching unless it was something completely different: the overarching theme of the gospel or Jesus\u2019 entire ministry encapsulated in one opening line. The kingdom of God is the main offer; it\u2019s imminent, and to make it happen, we have to respond positively with repentance and faith.<\/p>\n

In the highly politically charged atmosphere of the early first-century Holy Land, the proclamation \u201cThe time has come, and the kingdom of God is close at hand\u201d <\/em>could have been easily seen as a call to arms against the Roman Empire in the fine tradition of popular uprisings. There was no shortage of fighters with itchy fingers waiting for a leader to lead the rebellion. So, such a proclamation would have certainly caught people\u2019s attention, which is the first \u201cmust-have\u201d in the preacher\u2019s handbook. It\u2019s a time-honoured mechanism used in all walks of life: a promise of reward, achievement or advantage is made to grab people\u2019s attention. This is the reason why we all hate adverts – despite being called \u201ctargeted\u201d, they rarely appeal to our needs or desires; they miss their aim. The same applies to us when we hear the phrase \u201cthe kingdom of God is close at hand\u201d<\/em>. What do you think or imagine when you hear that? Are we going to die very soon? Or are we on the cusp of creating a theocratic country like Iran or Saudi Arabia, but with Christian ideology at the heart of it? I suppose that the most common reaction would be: \u201cWhatever\u201d.<\/em> How do we translate \u201cthe kingdom of God close at hand\u201d<\/em> into modern language to convey its perennial meaning? This is something we will have a chance to consider over the next 40 weeks or so when we will read and listen to the gospel of St Mark on most Sundays. I hope we will find the idea <\/strong>of the kingdom of God attractive and appealing at the end of this process.<\/p>\n

The proclamation of \u201cthe kingdom of God close at hand\u201d<\/em> demands a response to make it happen: \u201cRepent and believe in the gospel\u201d,<\/em> to use the most literal and – at the same time – highly imprecise translation from the Greek original. Our English version strongly implies a single, one-off action or decision. But that\u2019s not what Jesus said. Let\u2019s start with the first word, \u201crepent.\u201d<\/em> In common English, it\u2019s associated with changing one\u2019s moral stance, turning away from evil and to good deeds,\u00a0 often a bit begrudgingly. The Greek word \u201cmetanoia\u201d <\/em>used here must be translated in a descriptive way as \u201cchanging one\u2019s mindset\u201d<\/em>; a moral change – if and when it happens – comes almost as a by-product of such transformation, not as its main goal. Such a meaning is connected with another crucial aspect of the phrase \u201crepent and believe\u201d<\/em>. The Greek original uses the form that implies a continuous process; it can be translated as \u201ckeep changing your mindset and believing the gospel\u201d.<\/em> That makes it far more applicable and relevant to our lives. How often have you made a strong resolution to change something in your life and then failed miserably? In my case, so often that I have already lost the ability to blush; otherwise, my face would be permanently red. I\u2019m pretty sure my experience isn\u2019t unique. Having failed at the first hurdle, we should have given up, but Jesus called us to keep on trying.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another aspect to the continuous form of Jesus\u2019 call to \u201crepent and believe in the gospel.\u201d<\/em> Life is ever-changing; it throws a great variety of challenges, problems, and troubles at us. Every time, we have to adapt or find solutions or ways of dealing with such situations. If we approach life from a religious perspective, we dynamically apply our principles. For example, although an instinctive reaction to being hurt is to pay back in kind (and a bit more for good measure), we apply the \u201cturn the <\/em>other cheek\u201d <\/em>principle to stop or break a vicious circle of vengefulness and to try to resolve the conflict peacefully. That\u2019s the practical meaning of \u201cbelieving in the gospel.\u201d<\/em> Because we don\u2019t always succeed in such attempts, we have to keep trying to change our mindset, \u201cmetanoia\u201d<\/em>, so eventually we will be able to take control of our actions. Those two things are intertwined: you apply the principle (\u201cbelieve in the gospel\u201d<\/em>) and reflect on how successful it\u2019s been (\u201crepent\u201d<\/em>). Then rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n

The last but not least important aspect of the phrase is well reflected even in our necessarily imperfect English translation. \u201cRepent and believe in the gospel\u201d<\/em> is inherently inward-looking. You can\u2019t \u201crepent someone else\u201d<\/em>, only yourself. In that respect, when I\u2019m preaching, I\u2019m addressing myself first and foremost. If anyone else benefits from that, that\u2019s a bonus. For a \u201cprofessional\u201d preacher like me, it\u2019s a perfect way of avoiding frustration because there\u2019s always someone who listens to me: myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, a friend of mine came across a street preacher in Aberdeen city centre. His efforts seemed to have no traction with the city dwellers, unlike the prophet Jonah in today\u2019s first reading. The street preacher\u2019s enthusiasm, zeal and megaphone failed to attract any attention. I can admire his resolve as he continued despite having no effect on anyone. I know how soul-destroying and frustrating it can be because I\u2019m a professional preacher. I mean that \u201cit is my profession\u201d, not that \u201cI deliver professional results\u201d. In my case, it takes me almost a week of reflection, meditation and thinking about the biblical readings, accompanied by some research or study, followed by three hours (on average) on a Friday night to compose and write down my sermon, then have it proof-read by a well-educated friend for final tweaking and polishing on a Saturday morning. After all that time and effort, you get a sermon that is about 10- minutes long and often coma-inducing; its only saving grace is its relative shortness. Imagine what you could get if I were a talented preacher. Unlike in the case of the street preacher, your perseverance and resolve must be admired, and greatly so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14051,"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":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-b"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/posts-headers-green.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14483","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=14483"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14588,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14483\/revisions\/14588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}