Sunday October 5th 2008

“Right Side Up in an Upside Down World”

MESSAGE GIVEN BY THE REV. PAUL MULLEN

    Last week we heard an earlier passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians in which he quoted a hymn of the early church. The hymn speaks of how Jesus was different than Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor.

    Augustus was the absolute dictator of a huge empire. His military might and efficiency enabled a type of peace which was really economic stability. As John Dominic Crossan teaches, this stability allowed the empire to do what empires do – extract wealth from the many and funnel it into the pockets of the few.

    Augustus was one born a human but by his own striving and conquest had himself declared a god. Augustus was not so much a name but a title meaning “the one to be worshipped.” He considered himself, and was considered by all in power, to be not just a god but saviour of the world and prince of peace, commanding, because of his military power and political greatness, that every knee should bow and declare him king of kings and lord of lords. He had this carved in stone and erected at various strategic points throughout his vast empire.

    The short hymn that Paul quotes, however, shows the opposite track for Jesus. It speaks of how originally Jesus was one with God but willingly let go of that oneness to become human like us. Not just human but fully human and not just fully human but one who died a disgraceful death on a cross – an instrument of torture and death that said to all who viewed it, “Don’t mess with the system! Don’t mess with the Empire!” And yet because of this very downward path, God has made Jesus, not Augustus, king of kings and lord of lords and deserving of everyone’s profound respect.

    In other words, in the downward mobility of Jesus we see the futility of the upwardly mobile way of greed and power so capably demonstrated by Augustus. We see that the way of becoming truly and fully alive is not by escaping from but by truly and fully entering into the experience of being human with gratitude and compassion. Put another way, Jesus shows us that the world is upside down and he came to teach us how to live right side up!

    Examining the financial difficulties the United States has been facing over the past few years, and in particular over the last few weeks, we have seen how damaging it can be when we trust in the standards of the world to lead us to lasting security and peace. People’s lives have been turned upside down as they have been moved from security to insecurity, from power to helplessness, from wealth to poverty.

    In today’s reading from Philippians we have the Apostle Paul’s account of how his encounter with the living Christ turned Paul’s upside-down world right side up. I have taken the liberty of re-writing his words to make his meaning more clear in our time and place.

Philippians 3:4b-14 (revisited)

If anyone has become a success by community and religious standards, I have even more so.

I am an English speaking Canadian of Anglo-European extraction, born and raised in the church, an office holder in the church and critic of all enemies of the church. I was a strict keeper of all the rules of civilized and religious behaviour, I believed all the right things, did all the prescribed things and did not do anything forbidden. No one can say I ever did anything wrong.

    Yet whatever success this brought to me I now see as nothing because of Christ.

    In fact, even though it may seem that I have lost everything because of my relationship with Christ Jesus, I now see that all the status, power, wealth, honour, respect, glory, reputation, security and influence I lost was, by comparison, one big cow pie [Gk. skoobalon].

    Instead I have gained so much more, although not by my own efforts, not by doing the right thing. I have gained all by living in profound trust in the way of Christ, not trusting corporate, political or financial power.

    I want to know Christ and the power he has over failure and death even if it means coming to the same fate he did, so that I might become fully alive.

    This is not something that God has finished in me, I am not there yet, but I want nothing more than to embrace Christ as lovingly as Christ has embraced me.

    Beloved friends, in no way do I have it all together, nor will get it all together on my own. All I can do is forget all that I used to have and work in response to the call of God in Christ Jesus into a future of love fulfilled.

    Keeping the first commandment, not to have any other gods before God, gives us this upside down perspective. If we were somehow able to keep this one commandment we would not only love God but all God’s creation and all God’s creatures. We would also keep all the other nine commandments plus Jesus’ great commandment to love God, neighbour and self. If we could do it . . .

    Reality says that we are not very good at doing what God asks of us. The fact that there are nine more commandments shows us why. They spell out what it means to keep the first. Having no gods before God means not just resting for a day or going to church on Sunday but allowing all creation to rest for a day a week.

    Think about what that would do for the earth. We could reduce our carbon footprint by 1/7, that’s 14%! Just by resting! For just one day a week! Or, if you can’t just shut your factory down, 1 month in seven, or one year in seven. They knew this several thousand years ago!

    You know I could go on but we are about to enter into communion, to remember what God asks of us, to remember that God invites us into the world in all our relations. So rather than elaborate more I will end with this quick summary of the commandments passed on to me by Rev. Susan Bryan of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio:

1.    I am God, the one and only.

2.    Don't try to put anything in my place.

3.    Don't call on me unless you mean it.

4.    Once a week, Rest, enjoy, trust that things are in my hands, be grateful.

5.    You have parents, part of my plan. Honour them.

Then:

6.    Don't take some one's life.

7.    Don't take someone's spouse.

8.    Don't take someone's stuff.

9.    Don't take someone's dignity.

10.    Don't even want to.

    I would add that the last one is there because, as Jesus reminds us, wanting to do these things is the first step in doing them.

    Thank God, then, that God’s realm, God’s kingdom, God’s kin-dom, God’s world, is a realm of forgiving love and it is at hand, it is close enough to touch, close enough to enter into. Don’t be afraid, trust God, enter God’s right side up world and be at peace.