Turning the World Upside Down

There’s a simple story in Acts 17 that describes a visit that Paul and Silas made to Thessalonica. Paul, as was his custom, found the synagogue in town and began to preach that everything God had promised to the Jewish people had – stunningly! – been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. What’s more, the promises of God didn’t just impact the Jewish people but the whole world since, by His death and resurrection, Jesus had triumphed over the powers of Sin and Death that had held bound the entire human race. And then comes one of the greatest lines in the New Testament…But before we get to that…

I am by temperament Eeyore. Sure, it might be sunny now but it’s going to rain. I just know it. Optimism, for whatever reason, doesn’t seem to be present in my genes. And yet I am immensely hopeful. Not in human nature. Not in the can-do American spirit. Not in “progress.” And certainly not in my own capacity for, well, much of anything.

In God!

To look at the situation in our country, and closer to home in many of our own local communities, it’s easy to get discouraged. As has often been said, we have left Christendom behind and entered a new post-Christian era, one that is no longer formed or shaped by a Christian worldview. Not only is Christendom “dead,” as Fulton Sheen wrote decades ago, but the attacks against disciples of Jesus in this country seem to be on the increase. It’s becoming almost ordinary to daily read of protests interrupting the celebration of Mass, statues of the Blessed Mother being defaced, or Churches vandalized. The recent attack in The Atlantic on the rosary, of all things, is but the latest example of this.

This past Sunday the 1st Reading at Mass was from the conclusion of the Book of Isaiah. The second half of Isaiah is often referred to as the “book of comfort.” Chapters 40-66 are some of the most extraordinary, beautiful and hopeful passages in the entire Old Testament. This is God’s revelation to His people, that is to say, to us – not just to those who were living hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth. It’s important to remember the context of these chapters.

The Jewish people were in captivity when the Lord delivered these words of comfort. They were surrounded by pagans who taunted them regularly, mocking them for their belief in a God who did not protect them and did not keep them safe. They were away from the Temple in Jerusalem and surrounded by idols and false gods everywhere they turned. It seemed like everything had turned out irreversibly bad.

But God in this situation starts to taunt the pagan gods, who are in fact, no gods at all. Though in captivity, He promises that He has not abandoned His bride, has not forgotten her, has not suddenly run into a world power that is stronger than He. No, there is one Lord, and He is that Lord. And sure enough, He delivers His people and brings them back to their own land.

All of this, of course, is a foreshadowing of what was going to take place in and through Jesus. In the eternal Son of God become flesh, God visited His people and went to battle against the real enemy – Satan and his “first born,” Death. And, by His own death and resurrection, Jesus rescued not just the Jewish people but our entire race from these powers that had held us bound since that bad day in Eden so long ago.

Perhaps it’s a stretch, but a comparison could be made between the situation of the Jews in Babylon and our situation here in our country. We can easily feel defeated, taunted by the idols of this age, on the wrong side of history, made to feel as though our God is weak and has met His match and we are on the way out. This is simply not true.

Are we in a battle? Yes. But the battle is not against flesh and blood, not against another political party, not against “those people.” It’s against principalities and powers. It’s against the foe that Jesus has already defeated. And that enemy knows it. Yes, he’s still “prowling like a roaring lion,” but roaring lions are mortally wounded animals. They’re on their last legs. They’re on their way out.

God has not abandoned this world which He loves. The country is not in anyone else’s hands than His. The Church is not in anyone else’s hands but His. Our communities are not in anyone else’s hands but His. Might it get harder in the days ahead to be a disciple of Jesus? It looks that way. So what? Jesus is Lord and nothing is outside of His control. 

 Which brings me back to Acts 17. Paul and Silas are probably to be numbered among a few hundred Christians in the whole world. Yet they are on mission. They know Jesus and what He’s done to the powers of Sin and Death and hell. They know He is the only real King, of heaven and of earth. They enter Thessalonica with this knowledge and are eager to rescue anyone and everyone from the nightmare that is life apart from God and the grip of the enemy of our race. They know the gospel is power, and so they preach it with the love of Jesus in their hearts. And things start to happen. Idols start to collapse. The gods of this world start to tremble. People find freedom and hope where before there was only fear and anxiety and anger.

Those who witnessed all of this were stunned. “These men,” they said, “have turned the world upside down” (17:6).

Go and do likewise.