{"id":7493,"date":"2017-09-03T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T23:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turski.me\/?p=7493"},"modified":"2017-09-03T00:00:27","modified_gmt":"2017-09-02T23:00:27","slug":"22nd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/?p=7493","title":{"rendered":"22nd Sunday in Ordinary time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s offer, as made by Jesus, doesn\u2019t look attractive. Initially he announces his own inglorious end of suffering grievously and being put to death.<\/em> This is so shocking that the Apostles completely miss the last bit of the announcement, about Jesus\u2019 coming back to life three days after his death. They are so scandalised that Peter remonstrates with Jesus: \u2018This must not happen to you.\u2019<\/em> Perhaps Peter means well, but the response he gets is unpleasant \u2013 to put it mildly. Jesus calls him \u2018Satan\u2019, in a stark contrast to Peter\u2019s elevation to the role of the rock, on which Jesus would build his church, as we heard in the Gospel reading a week ago. \u00a0What a spectacular fall from grace! And as if that\u2019s not enough, Jesus introduces an impossible set of conditions in order to become a follower of his: \u2018If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.\u2019<\/em> So, are you going to sign up?<\/p>\n

No wonder Christianity seems to be in an apparently unstoppable and irreversible retreat. It\u2019s too austere, too gloomy, too unfunny. In other words, Christianity strips life of joy, offering in return just a vague promise of eternal life. To the world set on self-indulgence and personal pleasure, where everything should be \u201cfun\u201d, Christianity has no appeal at all. I hope you\u2019ve picked up my sarcastic tone! Let me be clear: I\u2019m absolutely sure that the message of the gospel remains as relevant nowadays as it\u2019s always been. But the message needs people who will champion it; it needs those who will proclaim Jesus as the ultimate answer to people\u2019s anxieties and fears. The message needs people, who themselves have put Jesus in the centre of their lives, to champion and proclaim it. Jesus needs you<\/strong> to be a witness to his transformative power. And those conditions, set out by Jesus in today\u2019s gospel, are the way to do so.<\/p>\n

\u2018If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.\u2019<\/em> These three conditions are often misunderstood as a call to self-flagellation and self-inflicted misery. It\u2019s time to put that misunderstanding right and to make the conditions work for us.<\/p>\n

To renounce myself<\/em>. Biologically we are animals; mammals, to be rather more precise. We have the same instincts as any other animal. Sometimes we hear a piece of advice: \u2018follow your instincts.\u2019<\/em> It\u2019s a very risky course of action. If I were to follow my instincts as my dog does, no female acquaintance would be safe, and I\u2019d embarrass myself. So, therefore, I take control over my instincts. I don\u2019t suppress them, and I don\u2019t pretend that I don\u2019t have them, but I do control them, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

To take up my cross<\/em>. Sometimes when I\u2019m out on the road I find myself stuck behind a lorry or a piece of farm machinery, moving at a snail\u2019s pace along a winding road. I follow it patiently, without raging or swearing at the driver, until it\u2019s safe to overtake. I appreciate that those slow-moving vehicles effectively provide \u2013 directly or indirectly – all the goods we need to live our comfortable lives. I carry my cross<\/em> of unavoidable discomfort because I can see the wider picture or the long-term benefits from it – though I seriously do not appreciate those people who drive their cars far too slowly for no reason\u2026<\/p>\n

To follow Jesus<\/em>. Jesus defined his attitude as that of one who came to serve, not to be served<\/em>. His death on the cross was the ultimate proof of that; he didn\u2019t die for his own benefit, but for ours. We all have a \u2018natural\u2019 tendency to be self-centred. Looking out for other people\u2019s needs requires putting in some effort. Following Jesus involves battling against my own \u2018natural\u2019 selfishness. It\u2019s a paradox: but the less self-centred I am, the happier and more fulfilled my life is.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve given you three very simple examples to illustrate the meaning of those conditions set in stone by Jesus in order to be his followers. That\u2019s the point! Living out the gospel isn\u2019t all about heroic, extraordinary, spectacular actions: it\u2019s all about everyday life in its simplest form. Each morning you and I have yet another opportunity to be a witness to Jesus, if we choose to do so.<\/p>\n

\n

Photo by\u00a0maxlkt<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s offer, as made by Jesus, doesn\u2019t look attractive. Initially he announces his own inglorious end of suffering grievously and being put to death. This is so shocking that the Apostles completely miss the last bit of the announcement, about Jesus\u2019 coming back to life three days after his death. They are so scandalised that Peter remonstrates with Jesus: \u2018This must not happen to you.\u2019 Perhaps Peter means well, but the response he gets is unpleasant \u2013 to put it mildly. Jesus calls him \u2018Satan\u2019, in a stark contrast to Peter\u2019s elevation to the role of the rock, on which Jesus would build his church, as we heard in the Gospel reading a week ago. \u00a0What a spectacular fall from grace! And as if that\u2019s not enough, Jesus introduces an impossible set of conditions in order to become a follower of his: \u2018If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.\u2019 So, are you going to sign up? No wonder Christianity seems to be in an apparently unstoppable and irreversible retreat. It\u2019s too austere, too gloomy, too unfunny. In other words, Christianity strips life of joy, offering in return just a vague promise of eternal life. To the world set on self-indulgence and personal pleasure, where everything should be \u201cfun\u201d, Christianity has no appeal at all. I hope you\u2019ve picked up my sarcastic tone! Let me be clear: I\u2019m absolutely sure that the message of the gospel remains as relevant nowadays as it\u2019s always been. But the message needs people who will champion it; it needs those who will proclaim Jesus as the ultimate answer to people\u2019s anxieties and fears. The message needs people, who themselves have put Jesus in the centre of their lives, to champion and proclaim it. Jesus needs you to be a witness to his transformative power. And those conditions, set out by Jesus in today\u2019s gospel, are the way to do so. \u2018If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.\u2019 These three conditions are often misunderstood as a call to self-flagellation and self-inflicted misery. It\u2019s time to put that misunderstanding right and to make the conditions work for us. To renounce myself. Biologically we are animals; mammals, to be rather more precise. We have the same instincts as any other animal. Sometimes we hear a piece of advice: \u2018follow your instincts.\u2019 It\u2019s a very risky course of action. If I were to follow my instincts as my dog does, no female acquaintance would be safe, and I\u2019d embarrass myself. So, therefore, I take control over my instincts. I don\u2019t suppress them, and I don\u2019t pretend that I don\u2019t have them, but I do control them, not the other way around. To take up my cross. Sometimes when I\u2019m out on the road I find myself stuck behind a lorry or a piece of farm machinery, moving at a snail\u2019s pace along a winding road. I follow it patiently, without raging or swearing at the driver, until it\u2019s safe to overtake. I appreciate that those slow-moving vehicles effectively provide \u2013 directly or indirectly – all the goods we need to live our comfortable lives. I carry my cross of unavoidable discomfort because I can see the wider picture or the long-term benefits from it – though I seriously do not appreciate those people who drive their cars far too slowly for no reason\u2026 To follow Jesus. Jesus defined his attitude as that of one who came to serve, not to be served. His death on the cross was the ultimate proof of that; he didn\u2019t die for his own benefit, but for ours. We all have a \u2018natural\u2019 tendency to be self-centred. Looking out for other people\u2019s needs requires putting in some effort. Following Jesus involves battling against my own \u2018natural\u2019 selfishness. It\u2019s a paradox: but the less self-centred I am, the happier and more fulfilled my life is. I\u2019ve given you three very simple examples to illustrate the meaning of those conditions set in stone by Jesus in order to be his followers. That\u2019s the point! Living out the gospel isn\u2019t all about heroic, extraordinary, spectacular actions: it\u2019s all about everyday life in its simplest form. Each morning you and I have yet another opportunity to be a witness to Jesus, if we choose to do so. Photo by\u00a0maxlkt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7496,"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-7493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","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\/7493","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=7493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}