Crucis: The World Upside Down
God Turns the World Upside Down
Mark 1:9-15
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. Feb. 18th, 2024
The Acts of the Apostles recounts a riot that took place in Thessalonica. Paul arrived in the city and preached in the synagogue about Jesus, as was his custom. Some of the Jews were persuaded, but Paul had more success among the greeks and some of the leading women of the city. He had enough success in his mission that others in the city saw him as a threat. They formed a mob and set out to find Paul and his associate Silas at the house of a man by the name of Jason. When they couldn’t find Paul and Silas they decided Jason and the others in the house were a good prize. They dragged them before the city authorities shouting, “These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has entertained them as guests!”
Turning the world upside down. How long has it been since the Church has had the same accusation leveled against her? Paul walked into the city of Thessalonica preaching to both Jews and greeks. He told women that they had the same dignity as men. He told the poor that God became poor for their sake, that they might have God’s riches. He told the Romans that Jesus, this crucified carpenter and not Caesar is Lord. He was disrupting the Synagogue, he was subverting the hierarchy. The accusation was not entirely out of place. These people have been turning the world upside down. As Mary sang, “He has shown the strength of his arm, He has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.”
It can be hard to see this reality. It can be hard to see why this should be the reality. But the world turned upside down is but one way to describe the Kingdom of God.
As we begin Lent, we return to the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus is baptized by John and the heavens are torn open like the temple veil, the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, and Jesus hears a voice from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am delighted.” And as soon as this miraculous event takes place, the announcement of the Father’s delight, the rending of the skies and heaven meeting earth, Jesus is driven by the Spirit that was like a dove into the wilderness. There, in the wilderness, he is tempted by Satan for forty days with only wild animals and angels to wait on him. When the forty days are up, when John had been arrested, Jesus is ready to begin his public ministry.
“The time is fulfilled,” he says, "and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
The heavens torn apart, the Spirit of God driving Jesus into the wilderness, wild animals made tame, angels at his beck and call, Satan unable to lift a finger, this is all wild stuff. It’s like the new creation, with the spirit descending on the waters of baptism and the wild animals in harmony with Adam. It is the strange stuff of a new world. The time being fulfilled. The Kingdom of God coming near.
But while the heavens are open and the Spirit is moving Jesus says this announcement, these glad tidings, require a response. “Repent!” He says.
The word repent means literally a change of mind, or perhaps better put a change of heart. Because Jesus isn’t calling us to change simply how we think, change our ideas, he’s asking us to change our wills and our desires. He’s asking us to make a shift in the core of who we are. A shift away from life as we know it, to life in the Gospel. That is what it means to repent. To resolve to love as God loves. To resolve to be merciful as God is merciful. To resolve to see this world in a whole new way. To resolve to see the world turned upside down.
I don’t think I’m talking out of turn when I say things aren’t going well. Wars, plague, crisis. People without food, people without shelter, people gunned down. This world is not working. Perhaps it needs to be turned upside down. And that begins by recognizing what it is God has already done.
This Lent I’m going to focus on the cross. What is it that God has done? What is the strange way that God has turned the world upside down? What is the strange new world into which we are called? What does it mean to follow the way of the cross?