{"id":2873,"date":"2021-07-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/?p=2873"},"modified":"2021-07-26T11:53:50","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T10:53:50","slug":"a-reflection-by-rev-douglas-galbraith-for-sunday-4th-july-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/?p=2873","title":{"rendered":"A Reflection by Rev Douglas Galbraith for Sunday 4th July 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ah kent yer faither!<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Sunday\u2019s gospel reading is Mark 6:1-13. Nobody came out of it well. Even Jesus was wrong-footed, disconcerted. \u2018He could do no deed of power there.\u2019 He had arrived home after a long trip, where people thronged round him and marvelled at his work. According to Mark, there was the woman who could not stop bleeding and the little girl at the point of death, the daughter of a synagogue leader. A hero there, he returns to stony glares in his own local synagogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say it about the Scots \u2013 but it is one of these things which can be true anywhere \u2013 the degrading put down that the successful achiever tends to get. \u2018Ah kent yer faither\u2019 means \u2018You come from the same place as me so don\u2019t act as if you are better than me\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(\u2018Ken\u2019, a familiar word for \u2018know\u2019, comes from the Old Norse kenna<\/em> for \u2018perceive\u2019.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phrase crops up in a number of contexts. It was reported as a theme even in a recent event to promote Scottish companies where it was seen as something which inhibits innovation. We need to get rid of this old Scottish mentality, it was suggested. We need to stop warning people not to get above their station. We have to take risks and be ready to expose ourselves. It is an attitude to success which does us no favours in the wider commercial and business world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not Jesus\u2019 teaching that was wrong, it was his connections. Carpenter\u2019s son, socially not one of the elite who read and studied. Who is he to tell us what to think, what to do? Jesus challenges social division based on status. He did not himself claim that status; it was the quality of his insight, the breadth of his compassion, that compelled people. This refusal to stand on ceremony is borne out in the later verses where he sends out his disciples in twos, and instructs them not to overload themselves with gear, nothing for their own security and comfort. \u2018Take nothing for your journey.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a sense in which the Christian must \u2018travel light\u2019, without undue reliance on the signals of status or the lure of comfortable living. These distractions can \u2018inhibit innovation\u2019 (to quote the business conference), the innovation that the Christian faith promises when it speaks of Christ as making all things new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Prayer<\/strong>
Living God,
in Christ you make all things new.
Transform the poverty of our nature
by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
show forth your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common Order<\/em> 1994<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah kent yer faither! This Sunday\u2019s gospel reading is Mark 6:1-13. Nobody came out of it well. Even Jesus was wrong-footed, disconcerted. \u2018He could do …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wider-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2874,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions\/2874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.markinchchurch.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}