The World Turned Upside Down

Lectionary Reflections for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (A)

By James A. Kelsey

Readings for Epiphany 4, Year A, Jan. 30, 2005

Micah 6:1-8
Psalm 15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12

The world was turning upside down. Not just spinning on its axis, not just rotating in slow motion around the sun, but I mean to say, the world was turning upside down – because of the gospel and those who had been gathered and then sent out to spread it.

It's just a little turn of phrase in the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, when Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica and there was a riot in the streets because of the radical implications of their preaching. The irate townspeople complained to the city authorities about them – these disciples, these apostles of Jesus: “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also. . . They are acting contrary to the decrees of the empire. . .”

What were the apostles saying, that so enraged the townspeople? No doubt, they were simply repeating the words of their teacher, when he taught them as that day on the mountainside: “Blessed are those who are poor – in possessions and in spirit. Blessed are those who have suffered loss and are in mourning. Blessed are the meek, and those who are hungry and thirsty – for sustenance and for justice; for righteousness. Blessed are the innocent, and those with purity of heart. Blessed are those who seek and work for peace: shalom, wholeness, health, fullness of life for all.”

[W]hy is it, that these thoughts are so revolutionary that they actually cause the world to be turned upside down – and that those who espouse them as principles for daily living and for social and political contract are made to suffer persecution and ill repute for daring to suggest that they are true?

And how is it, and why is it, that these thoughts are so revolutionary that they actually cause the world to be turned upside down – and that those who espouse them as principles for daily living and for social and political contract are made to suffer persecution and ill repute for daring to suggest that they are true?

We know it has to do, in part at least, with power and material wealth. It has to do with relationships of dominance and submission. It has to do with notions of security, coming out of fear and prejudice. All of these ingredients contribute to the emotional commitment to a top-down, hierarchical orientation to social structure, so familiar to us in our white male-dominated culture. The haves writing the rules for the have-nots.

And it is this world that the gospel turns upside down. Calling have-nots “Blessed”?? Can you imagine?

There are many dimensions to this matter of “blessing,” and they mostly revolve around God's approving and loving smile directed at those with whom God is “well-pleased.” And the power of this week's gospel passage is the declaration that those whom the world and the Mediterranean culture in particular saw as the weak, the dispossessed, the marginal, the wounded ones, are in fact those most loved by the Creator, and in fact most clearly destined to be agents of God's most important work of reconciling the world and establishing a "kin-dom" of justice and peace, in which the oppressed are set free, the poor are raised up, the proud are scattered in their conceit, the mighty are cast down from their thrones, the hungry are filled with good things, and the rich are sent away empty. The world is turned upside down.

And no wonder, when this happens or even is talked about by those who share this vision, that the proud, the mighty, and the wealthy get angry. Whoever said it was going to be easy to give our lives away to God's work of turning creation into what it was birthed to become?

In that story from Acts, the citizens of Thessalonica were furious with the apostles, and even with those who showed them hospitality. We know other stories throughout scripture and throughout human history of strained and sometimes broken relationships resulting from this clash between the dominant culture (“the decrees of the emperor”) and the vision of the new, inverted world promised by the Word of God. Many of us have experienced it first-hand, when those around us (sometimes very close to us) have been shocked by the implications of that Word which calls us and our world to radical renewal and reformation.

“How can we take actions and proclaim truths which have the power to divide the Body?” some ask. But my question is this: How could we do otherwise? And why should we be surprised that some in the church-at-large would be angry that we have responded this way to the Breath of the Spirit?

Today in the church, there is much concern about strains within the Anglican Communion over issues which, especially for our culture and our generation, rest at the very heart of the gospel. “How can we take actions and proclaim truths which have the power to divide the Body?” some ask. But my question is this: How could we do otherwise? And why should we be surprised that some in the church-at-large would be angry that we have responded this way to the Breath of the Spirit? The Franciscans remind themselves, “We are prepared not only to speak out for social justice . . . but to put these principles into practice in our own lives, cheerfully facing any scorn or persecution to which this may lead” (The Principles of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis, Day Nine). Today, in our own generation, we are invited to the same degree of commitment to God's radical work.

The world is turning upside down. And those who are losing altitude in the transaction are not well pleased. But as those who have been held down for so long are allowed to rise, with God's new laws of gravity, we are all of us blessed with an opportunity to rediscover how we are bound one to another, to God, and to all of creation.

The Rt. Rev. James A. Kelsey is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. He may be reached by email at jimkelsey@upepiscopal.org .