Right Side Up

(H.Schulz)

Labelling my boxes for aviation rarely means they arrive in my village the right way up. They have usually been turned over a few times along the way, to fit them in the plane, while carried on a shoulder and when squeezed into the canoe. It pays to pack things tightly so that at every angle they are secure. I go through a lot of packing tape and I give thanks for God’s eggshell design and the person who created the egg carton. It amazes me how well my eggs survive their journey!

Cargo though is not actually my theme, but the kingdom of God.

I have heard people refer to God’s kingdom as an upside down kingdom; The last shall be first and the first shall be last. We are saved by grace, not by works. Love your enemy, do good to those who hate you. The thief on the cross was told that ‘today you will be with me in paradise.’ He didn’t deserve that, but God’s ways are not the ways of the world and do not always make sense from our human perspective.

Rather than an upside down kingdom, I believe we have an upside down world. God is right-side-up.

I love looking at reflections in a pond, in a river or in the sea when it is calm. There is beauty in the reflection, even though distorted by ripples and shadows. This is how I see God’s kingdom and the world. We live in the broken reflection, an incomplete idea of the reality. We have got used to life upside down, but God is right side up. Eternity is right side up. Yet in the reflection, we get the sense of who God is, even if we do not always interpret what we see correctly.

(H.Schulz)

One common misinterpretation of our reflected version of reality is the relationship of worship and salvation. Most people naturally default to a position that work and worship will lead to blessing. To put it another way, we believe that if we do the right things and manipulate the powers-that-be in the right ways, we will get what we want. This is not just an animistic practice, it is also the unspoken theory behind facebook ‘likes’ and our plea for ‘at least x people to like this post so that y’ Right-side-up looks different, as first we are blessed and then we worship. First Jesus was born, died and rose again for the forgiveness of our sins. Later we recognised our need for this and responded with worship and the transformation of our lives through the Spirit.

 No part of the world is without the reflection of God, as the Creator’s fingerprints are everywhere (Rom 2:14-16). All people in every place have interpreted this reflection, seeking to worship and know the Reality. Every culture has got something right as well as something wrong (see Acts 17:22-34) . I believe that this reflection is made clear in Jesus, the image of God (2 Cor 4:4, Col 1:15), the Word become flesh (John 1:14). In sharing Jesus we are helping people to understand the ultimate reality. In translating the Bible we are giving access to the source text of our faith and allowing communities to hold a conversation about the questions of their place and time, in the light of the Word.

What the world looks like right-side-up in suburban Australia is going to be different to right-side-up in a PNG swamp. The Word is the light that guides both places, but the form will be different. How can cultural practices in each place glorify God? What aspects of culture lead people astray from God, rather than towards? Which actions or beliefs belong to the distorted reflection rather than to the Image of God? Can these practices be redeemed, so that rather than shining a poorly reflected light, they shine the true light? The same questions need to be asked in every time and place. Indeed, it may be harder to ask these questions in places where Christianity is entrenched.

(H.Schulz)

1 Cor 13:11-12

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”