Jesus came

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sometimes we say

Jesus came to turn the world upside down

 

perhaps it is better to say

Jesus came to turn the world right-side up

 

it is not as if the world was Eden still

or people image bearers of Sacred Love

 

it is not as if those faith systems

battered and beaten by time

set people free

 

but then Jesus came

announced by angels

born among the poor

 

then Jesus came

nurtured in obscurity

but proclaimed by Cousin John

 

Lamb of God

Lamb of God

 

then Jesus came and called the disciples

out of lives of obscurity and indebtedness

and turned the water into wine

and declared the day of the Lord’s favor

 

then Jesus came and shattered the preconceptions of blessed

and the definition of holy

 

then Jesus gathered around him

the mournful, the poor, the ill, the messed-up, and tuned out

then Jesus challenged the Pharisees and Sadducees

those “chaplains of Empire”*

and the rich and powerful walked away sad

 

“you have heard it said… “

“but I say…”

 

and still, Jesus comes

turning things right-side up

turning our hearts

transforming our lives

 

sometimes it feels as if Jesus turns things upside down

so inculcated are we

to the way of power and accumulation

so enmeshed with Empire

and systems of oppression and injustice

 

but no

Jesus calls us back to ourselves

back to original blessing

back to justice, equity and love

 

come, Lord Jesus

come

 

 

* A phrase coined by Erica William and quoted by Richard Rohr