In some of my preaching recently I have been having a thread about Jesus turning the world upside down, reality upside down; being the upside-down King; God’s upside-down kingdom…
Sunday I preached about Jesus’ resurrection: so what?! Is it only worth a couple of episodes on a late night TV channel of the world’s unexplained mysteries? (UFO lands in Russian outback; crop circles appear in England; body disappears from tomb in Palestine/Israel…)
In Sunday’s Gospel all the stuff that Jesus has been saying and doing – we are now to do this too. In the same way God sent me, says Jesus, so I send you. To speak out against injustice. To help the poor. To care for the lonely. To live with integrity; and joy; and compassion…
Jesus turns living upside down – we used to live for ourselves. He is the man who lives for others.
Jesus turns death upside down – now it is the doorway into transformed life; into newness of life.
Easter makes the difference because it is not just a strange unexplained mystery that happened to someone else 2,000 years ago on the other side of the planet. Easter isn’t just a story about Jesus – it is our story. Our story of continuing his story.
I’m sure most of us have had the experience of looking at some picture and not making sense of it, and then turning the picture upside down and realising that that’s the way it makes sense. Then we go – Oh dear, silly me, now I get it.
We look at the picture of life; we look at the picture of reality – and we can’t really make sense of it. Jesus comes along, and in his life, his death, and his resurrection he takes the picture we have been looking at and turns it upside down. And we go – Oh dear, how silly of me, now I get it. Now it all makes sense. Now life makes sense.
In response to my sermon, one of those present sent me the above video clip. A cool illustration. Thanks!
A little more poking around also led me to:
Hey – really nice. Have you noticed the false inter-textual reference in Isaiah 24 on this. I posted on it in Greek Isaiah a few days ago: Curious how the KJV creates an intertextual reference in Isaiah 14:1 to Acts 17:6 through the words upside-down perhaps triggered by the LXX οἰκουμένην (the world) which occurs in both verses. The ‘turn upside down’ is a free rendering of וְעִוָּ֣ה פָנֶ֔יהָ. This chapter with 25 and 26 can certainly be read as destruction and rebirth.
Thanks, Bob, for pointing us to this. Easter Season Blessings.
Is the written text to the sermon available?
Sorry, Br David. I normally tend to preach very much to the context of people I am with, so normally do not produce a full text for other contexts. Easter Season Blessings.