Several years ago I read a book titled The Upside-Down Kingdom, by Donald Kraybill. The author writes about Jesus’ teachings about God’s vision of the world. He points out that Jesus upends our usual ways of thinking. He insists that we should not think vertically, i.e. in terms of power: who is more important, more successful, richer. Instead, he insists that we turn all of that upside-down and concern ourselves with those who are usually considered the lowest, the least significant: the poor, the people on the margins. People who are often overlooked because they aren’t considered important.
Today’s Gospel lesson (Luke15:1-10) is an example of upside-down thinking. When the Pharisees and the scribes grumble that Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them,” Jesus quickly responds with two stories. One about the shepherd with a flock of one hundred sheep who puts great effort to finding one that is lost, rather than simply sighing and saying to himself, ‘Oh well. One sheep is all that important. After all I still have ninety nine.’ The second story focuses on a woman with ten silver coins. When she loses one, she searches high and low for the lost one. Like the shepherd, she could have simply let herself be satisfied with what she still had: nine coins.
Jesus constantly challenges us to turn our thinking upside-down. Not to think in the worldly terms of success, power structures. Instead, to have the broadest kind of thinking. To be always on the lookout for those who are easily neglected or forgotten. And to reach out to them. To honor them, to show them respect, to help them.
Peace,
Deacon Sue
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