Acts 17:18 Also some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated with [Paul]. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities.” (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.)
What an honour to receive such a critique: to be turning the powers upside down, to be following Jesus and not the empire! Historically, this was the day when the fool was a king and the king a fool, when masked tricksters roved the streets and criticized the government without fear of reproach. On this day there was feasting and celebrating and living into the body—the carne, literally flesh, hence Carnivale—resisting the notion that spirit and body were to be treated as separate entities.
The world is still upside down. We are told that for there to be peace, there must be war; children are forced to labour, people eat food that contains no actual nutrition. The work we are given to do is to stand alongside the Holy Spirit, turning the world right-side up.
MOVING FORWARD: When has Jesus turned your life upside down in order to make things right-side up? Tell this story to someone today,
SSOct12.jpg