the kingdom of God moves alongside or parallel with human history but it travels upside down…

always defeated, always losing, always beaten, always weak

and then suddenly, it springs up and reverses all things

it becomes the mightiest and every knee bows to its king

on that day the great reversal will also happen

those who are up who are great will be cast down
those who are below who are powerless will be lifted up
the rich will be sent away empty
the hungry will be filled with good things
those who laugh now who enjoy eating steak will be thrown into hell
and those who cry now whose sores are licked by dogs like Lazarus will be sitting beside Abraham in the kingdom

the way up is down
the lower you go living among the poor the higher God will bring you, to stand before kings and billionaires to speak as a prophet of God

the model of God is seen in Genesis and in the second Genesis (John Chapter One)

God speaks into chaos, what is formless void and dark
our lives is chaos and poverty is chaos, our children is chaos
we are to speak into chaos to bring forth beauty order and life

sometimes i do just one, i give my kids the scary look and they scamper and quickly i have peace and silence in the house .. there is order but not beauty and certainly not life

beauty and order and life together

when God spoke again, what came out of his mouth was Jesus and Jesus took on the form of human beings and became the lowest, a servant

he who must be great must be the servant of all

jesus tho he was rich became poor in order to make others rich

the downward mobility according to jean vanier is the way to change the world, from the bottom up from the inside out

by being the servant by being poor

Jesus went to the poorest to challenge the world that even with all these handicaps the kingdom will triumph

it will not triumph because God choose the best the most educated the strongest

but God chose the weak to shame the strong and the stupid to shame the wise

just remember in heaven there will be more poor people so best to make friends with them now or heaven will be quite lonely for you

for it is so hard for a rich man to go to heaven talaga

it is for the same reason we need to learn to read the bible from the bottom up, not like the rich christians or most evangelicals. we must stop reading it with a bias for power and wealth but from the perspective of weakness and poverty

so st paul said, i will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses that the power of christ may rest upon me

for when we are weak then we are strong