2019-02-17

It’s Election Time...

Election times are tricky because it isn’t just about evaluating different policies, but fundamentally about different people and parties having different ways of viewing the world, of viewing one another as well what this means for how things should be… They generally all carry on about how the world will end if the other side is elected, about how the other side is out of touch with reality, they would basically have us believe their opponents are crazy, stupid just straight up evil…

Now last week we looked at how Jesus said things that people thought sounded crazy… And how this lead his followers to do things that people thought were crazy too… This week, we get Jesus doing more of the same...

Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God in a way that describes almost exactly the opposite of what people are familiar with… Because of this, you may have heard people in church talk describe the Kingdom of God as the Upside-Down Kingdom and that is something we will look at a bit more today.

Looking at the Passage

Luke 6:17–19 GNB

17 When Jesus had come down from the hill with the apostles, he stood on a level place with a large number of his disciples. A large crowd of people was there from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon; 18 they had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those who were troubled by evil spirits also came and were healed. 19 All the people tried to touch him, for power was going out from him and healing them all.

So we have fast forward a bit from last week, Jesus now has the disciples in toe and continues to travel and preach...

Luke 6:20–21 GNB

20 Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours! 21 Happy are you who are hungry now; you will be filled! Happy are you who weep now; you will laugh!

Luke 6:20 GNB

20 Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours!

Luke 6:22–23 GNB

22 “Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and say that you are evil, all because of the Son of Man! 23 Be glad when that happens, and dance for joy, because a great reward is kept for you in heaven. For their ancestors did the very same things to the prophets.

Side note on the prophets… If you have had the persistence and discipline to read the 2nd half of the Old Testament (Because, let’s be honest, we often focus on the 1st half) we are confronted with stories of God’s people struggling to live out what God has asked them to do, sometimes completely unaware of how they are missing the mark.

Basically, these prophets came and sought to address the ways that God’s people were falling short… The catch is that they generally weren’t well received...

Most of us generally don’t like being hated by those around us… The thing is that

Luke 6:24–25 GNB

24 “But how terrible for you who are rich now; you have had your easy life! 25 How terrible for you who are full now; you will go hungry! How terrible for you who laugh now; you will mourn and weep!

Luke 6:26 GNB

26 “How terrible when all people speak well of you; their ancestors said the very same things about the false prophets.

The way Jesus Speaks of Rich and Poor would have sounded Crazy...

As we hear this passage today, it can be easy to just read this saying that being poor is good and being rich is bad, but there is more too it than that.

We need to remember that Jesus lived in a time when the idea that both rich and poor have some kind of equality, that both have the same basis for some kind of rights, was entirely foreign, would have seemed completely absurd.

When Jesus talks this way about the rich and the poor and what place they will have in the Kingdom of God, Jesus is essentially telling his hearers that everything they think they know about the world, everything in which they place their trust and everything that they use to understand themselves in relation to each other, is completely wrong...

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A different perspective can be threatening to others...

When Jesus talks this way about the rich and the poor and what place they will have in the Kingdom of God, Jesus is essentially telling his hearers that everything they think they know about the world, everything in which they place their trust and everything that they use to understand themselves in relation to each other, is completely wrong...

This fundamental shift in seeing the world is a huge deal. It isn’t simply a minor change in opinion, but something that can fundamentally undermine the assumptions on which people built their lives...

It’s a bit like someone pointing out that you holding a map upside-down… And have been doing so for years… That would just embarrassing, especially if it happened in public… Especially if you also thought you were actually reading correctly it beforehand...

What Jesus said seems crazy because we live in a world that is mostly upside-down… We are just so used to it that we don’t notice… But the kicker is that this is not the way things are meant to be, nor is it how things will finally be when God renews all creation…

This Kingdom of God that is both coming in the future, but embodied now in Jesus ministry, will be one where those who are seen by others as powerless, unimportant, of no value, will be recognized as they truly are, as God’s beloved children.

Likewise, those who trusted in the status quo, who trusted in their own resources and didn’t acknowledge God’s claim on their wealth will find that it wasn’t worth much after all.

May we live as a community which embodies this Upside-Down Kingdom today

As God’s people, we are to live as a community which embodies this Kingdom of God today. That isn’t content with simply seeing people in terms of the social, ethnic and political categories given to us by others, that isn’t content with defining people in terms of what they have done, how good they are, how bad they are, but sees one others as God sees them and sees that they too are called to know grace and forgiveness in Jesus.

As God’s people, we are to live as a community which isn’t content with simply spiritual salvation, but seeks to make the Kingdom of God real in our community, that seeks to use the resources that God has given us to build a community of love, support and grace. That we live, speak and act assuming that God’s vision for creation, God’s Kingdom, is more real than any social, political or economic system that would distort our view of reality.