It is All Upside Down or How We Change

¹⁸Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.

1 Corinthians 3:18, 19

Upside Down or Things are Not What They Seem

Don’t you love it how the best spiritual writing turns things on it head? You have Jesus’ “the first will be last, and the last will be first,” or his equally upside down, “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” And now Paul, “If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise.” In this topsy turvy world things are not as they seem and what one might count on – having it all together – is no refuge at all. Even what you think is wise, is only a shell game, an illusion slapped over Reality. It is better to become as a fool, surprised by life’s turns. What is going on here? A simple faith based on what we know, in this light, is foolishness. Far better to lose our minds.

That’s it, all upside down: maybe it is a good thing to lose our minds, our maps of how the world is put together, our notions of reward and punishment, what is good and what is bad, our ordering and categorizing our environment in the illusion that if we understand it, we can control it. This is a common human tendency – try to make sense and control – but when we examine this tendency very closely we ask along with Dr. Phil, “Is that working out for you?”Remember the maps of the “ancient” mariners (at least those before 1492)? These antique maps stopped at what was known, assuming peril on the outskirts, “there be dragons” beyond the known world. We are reminded that maps are not the territory, our conceptions of the God, the world, our lives based on what we know will by necessity always fall short – we do not know what we do not know. Wisdom based on what we know is foolishness, foolishness that admits what we don’t know is wise and open for the unknown.. So Paul says it, straight out, “you should become fools so that you may become wise.”

This means, of course, you never know with God. In Second Corinthians Paul points out that our faith is not in what we see and comprehend, in what we know. Our faith is rather in that which we cannot see, for in the unseen and unknowable mystery (Christ, God, Life, Rebirth, Resurrection, Love, etc...).lies eternity – that in which we can place our trust and find hope. Once again, the teaching is upside down. Usually, we look at the visible – what can be seen, understood, manipulated and controlled. Here Paul says look at the invisible, the unknown and trust God to carry you.

Transformation

This brings us back to our lives, our growth in life and spirit. Usually we believe that change and transformation can come by adding things – knowledge, skills, etc…. A Christ-centered transformation comes rather in losing things – our ideas, our conceptions by which we hold on to the world, find our bearings. We lose our reliance on these things as we grow in trust of the unknown and eternal. When Jesus speaks of “the realm (kingdom) of God” he is pointing us in this direction. You may remember his saying about the “Lilies and the Birds.” Of the birds he says, “they neither sow nor reap, yet God takes care of them.” Of the Lilies he points out that they neither “toil nor spin” and God takes care of them. How might this be? God cares for them just as they are. Simply being what they are they are provided for. So, for us: our call is not to add anything, but to acknowledge ourselves as the Beloved – loved, honored and blessed by God. Figuring it out won’t help, saying the right words won’t help. Fixing what we imagine is wrong with us won’t help. It is in just being who we are that we find eternity. Before we learned anything, before we adopted the notion that we can plan our lives out and be happy, we were already loved, cared for, blessed. Jesus put it like this, “But if God so clothes the grass of the field which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in the oven, will God not much more clothe you – you of little faith?” Our place in this is to let go and trust in that which we cannot see, which ultimately cannot be known. Jesus put it like this, “seek first the Kingdom of God” and, now I paraphrase, you will be fine.

Transforming Community

The First Congregational United Church of Christ, like all churches, is a living inquiry, an experiment, if you will. In our life together as a community and as individuals our desire is for that which will open us to who we are: the Beloved. When we find the realm of God, God’s unfathomable love, at the center of our life together we are able to let go, trusting ourselves in God, one a part of the other As our individual hearts open to the grace of God we find ourselves, as the Shakers put it, “in the place just right,” finding ourselves in the ”land of Love and Delight.” In this we find the transformation of our lives as we begin to acknowledge our true nature as it is revealed to us in the eternal now.

Blessings,

David