Upside down

A homily for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 23, 2025

1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, Luke 6:27-38

A few days ago, 80 people miraculously survived a plane crash in Toronto. As the jetliner was landing, it suddenly tipped over onto its right side, snapped off its wing, and rolled onto its roof, skidding down the runway.

CNN reported:

After the aircraft came to a standstill, “we were upside down hanging like bats,” passenger Peter Koukov said. He was able to unbuckle himself and stand upright on the ceiling of the plane, but some people needed help getting down from their seats.

Their world had turned upside down.

Which, by the way, was the title of the song the British army reportedly played at Yorktown when General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington, forever changing the direction of American history.

“The World Turn’d Upside Down.”

Inversions have the power to remake people’s lives, individually or as a society. Perhaps even our entire human race.

And those inversions upset people, sometimes even terrify them.

Just look at what happened when Jesus flipped the script.

His pronouncements, as we hear in Luke’s Gospel, had a bigger impact than his flipping of the temple’s money-changers’ tables. And those tables crash-landed with a bang.

Until this point in their history, the Israelites guided their lives by God’s Ten Commandments, carved in stone and carried down from Mount Sinai by Moses. Moses and the leaders of the people clarified them, then tacked on dietary rules and prohibited tattoos. In fact, they added a whole raft of rules, and enforced them with some pretty harsh punishments for wrongdoers.

How ’bout those stonings, hmm?

Over time, though, the Mosaic Law got a little ragged around the edges. The spirit of the law was vastly overshadowed by enforcement of the letter of the law.

The prime example was “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” probably one of the most misunderstood phrases ever. People of every nation and religious tradition have come to believe that this rule demands that people must avenge wrongs done against them, when in reality it’s a restriction.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” says that if you seek payback — and that’s a big if, not a must — if you seek payback for some crime committed against you, the payback cannot be any worse than the original crime. Do nothing more, and, actually, doing less is OK.

Jesus knew this.

Jesus knew the spirit of the Commandments, the spirit of the laws and rules for good living. He preached the reasons that underpin the laws. He preached the “why” for God’s laws, spoke of God’s boundless love that led to the laws, and in doing so, Jesus showed God’s people the way toward a more mature relationship with the Almighty and with each other.

And in turning their world upside down, Jesus scared them. He scared the Chosen People as much as the passengers in Toronto hanging upside down like bats were scared.

No one had ever spoken like this. This wandering carpenter must be crazy, and all his buddies too.

Turn the other cheek? Love your enemies? Wait, what? They’re my enemies!

Even today, these words of Jesus can give us a bit of uneasy vertigo.

Following the letter of the law, following the rules to the letter, can be far easier than incorporating the spirit of a Christlike lifestyle. Nonetheless, robotically following the law is an immature lifestyle. It doesn’t take much deep thought or critical analysis.

Following the letter of the law won’t make our brains hurt. It won’t turn our worlds upside down. We don’t need to overthink the letter of the law.

Here’s the box; stay in it. Stay in the middle if you can.

Color between the lines.

Flowers are red and leaves are green.

Stay away from those people.

Remember the rules.

Do just enough to follow the rules.

And also remember that doing just enough doesn’t cost that much in time, talent or treasure.

But turning the world on its head — otherwise known as the mission and ministry of our Messiah — turning the world upside down meant — and still means — going beyond, far beyond “just enough.”

Jesus the Christ is not a “just enough” kind of savior. His Passion, Death and Resurrection testify to that.

Jesus put his money — actually, his entire body and blood — where his mouth was.

Turn the other cheek? He did that.

Share what he had, even if he wound up with less himself? Did that, too.

In our passage from Luke’s Gospel, every finger-wagging “Don’t” that Jesus mentions is followed by a “Please do” and his explanation of all the good it will bring. Both for the giver and the recipient.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is challenging us to act charitably first, which we can do simply and quickly whenever a need arises, and then to press ahead to achieve justice in the world. To use our intellects and God-given talents and skills and energy to identify and fix the systems that condemn and oppress.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us concrete examples on how to follow the Law of Love: to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.

To bring about God’s right-side up.