{"id":14981,"date":"2025-01-12T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=14981"},"modified":"2025-02-22T08:03:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T08:03:51","slug":"the-baptism-of-the-lord-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=14981","title":{"rendered":"The Baptism of the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFootball isn’t a matter of life and death; it’s much more important than that.\u201d<\/em> For years, Bill Shankly\u2019s famous quote was just a catchy soundbite until I arrived in Scotland, immersed myself in its culture and realised that for the great Scottish manager\u2019s compatriots, football is as important as he\u2019d described it. I\u2019ve seen weddings planned around fixtures so as not to collide with major games and experienced unsuccessful parish events \u201cunwisely\u201d scheduled at the same time as important football matches. I quickly learnt that for some hardcore supporters, the latter phrase applied to every game played by their team. In practical terms, to me, it meant holding a diary in one hand and the fixtures table in the other while planning anything in the parish. I\u2019ve always liked football but more as a spectacle rather than a part of my identity. So, I don\u2019t really get the tribalism (in a positive sense) of so many football fans. It\u2019s evident in expressions like \u201cwe won\u201d <\/em>or \u201cwe lost\u201d<\/em> after the game while it was actually the eleven or so players on the pitch who did it. Those fans in the stands, sometimes called \u201cthe twelfth player\u201d, can rightly claim some credit for their active support; the rest, comfy on their sofas and in armchairs, probably less so\u2026 And yet, whether in the stands or in front of the telly, the sense of belonging to the tribe is unshakably firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough Jesus Christ our Saviour, […] being justified by his grace, we might become heirs.\u201d<\/em> It\u2019s hardly modern terminology that is used in the conclusion of today\u2019s second reading. These days, in our Scottish and British context, we occasionally hear it in reference to the royal family, but not that many people are interested in it. To our mind, shaped by the experience of living in a modern, widely democratic and meritocratic society, the idea that someone can be in power solely on the virtue of being born at the right time into a royal family seems strange and completely outdated. But there\u2019s another meaning to the \u201cheir\u201d,<\/em> this seemingly outdated term, a meaning much closer to our lives. It\u2019s associated with a strong sense of belonging to other people: the family. We take it as obvious that when one generation passes away, their children rightfully \u201cin-heir-it\u201d<\/em> their wealth and possessions. Even when there\u2019s no will left by the deceased, the children\u2019s right to \u201cheir-loom\u201d<\/em> is solely based on the merit of being born into the family. Sometimes, when families fall badly apart, some members might be \u201cdisin-heir-ited\u201d<\/em> as a form of punishment or estrangement. The latter word means turning someone close and familiar into an unwelcome stranger. The reverse action was described in these words: \u201cThrough Jesus Christ our Saviour, […] being justified by his grace, we might become heirs.\u201d<\/em> We are no longer strangers; we are God\u2019s children, with all the rights and privileges which come with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.\u201d<\/em> These words were addressed to Jesus in today\u2019s gospel. But He didn\u2019t need to hear them; He didn\u2019t need this sort of assurance from on high. As Jesus commented on a similar occurrence, \u201cThis voice has come for your sake, not for mine.\u201d (John 12:30).<\/em> He was called a \u201cbeloved son\u201d after He\u2019d been baptised in the river Jordan. That event caused some controversy as \u201cJohn [the Baptist] would have prevented him, saying, \u201cI need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?\u201d But Jesus answered him, \u201cLet it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.\u201d Then he consented.\u201d (Matthew 3:14-15)<\/em> Jesus\u2019 insistence was a natural consequence of His incarnation, God becoming man: He immersed Himself in the human condition, and that was symbolised by His immersion (baptism) in the river Jordan alongside His fellow human beings. The point of Jesus\u2019 self-abasement was to raise us up. St Paul explained rather well in his letter to the Romans: \u201cAll of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were […] buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.\u201d (6:3-4)<\/em> Then he continued: \u201cyou have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, \u201cAbba! Father!\u201d it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ\u201d (8:15-17).<\/em> Consequently, the words addressed to Jesus in today\u2019s gospel also apply to you: \u201cYou are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFootball isn’t a matter of life and death; it’s much more important than that.\u201d For years, Bill Shankly\u2019s famous quote was just a catchy soundbite until I arrived in Scotland, immersed myself in its culture and realised that for the great Scottish manager\u2019s compatriots, football is as important as he\u2019d described it. I\u2019ve seen weddings planned around fixtures so as not to collide with major games and experienced unsuccessful parish events \u201cunwisely\u201d scheduled at the same time as important football matches. I quickly learnt that for some hardcore supporters, the latter phrase applied to every game played by their team. In practical terms, to me, it meant holding a diary in one hand and the fixtures table in the other while planning anything in the parish. I\u2019ve always liked football but more as a spectacle rather than a part of my identity. So, I don\u2019t really get the tribalism (in a positive sense) of so many football fans. It\u2019s evident in expressions like \u201cwe won\u201d or \u201cwe lost\u201d after the game while it was actually the eleven or so players on the pitch who did it. Those fans in the stands, sometimes called \u201cthe twelfth player\u201d, can rightly claim some credit for their active support; the rest, comfy on their sofas and in armchairs, probably less so\u2026 And yet, whether in the stands or in front of the telly, the sense of belonging to the tribe is unshakably firm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14115,"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":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-c"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/post-header-yellow.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14981","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=14981"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15016,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14981\/revisions\/15016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}