Upside Down
Excerpt from Psalm 7
"The desert tribes will bow before [God] and his enemies will lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores will bring tribute to [God]; the kings of Sheba and Seba will present [God] gifts. All kings will bow down to[God] and all nations will serve [God]."
Reflection by Quinn G. Caldwell
If you have a true love, better spring for 12 drummers drumming, because tonight is the last night of Christmas. Tomorrow begins Epiphany, the season of revelations. The first revelation will come tomorrow, when Matthew says that wise men will bow before the baby. You might have heard that they were kings, which Matthew never mentions. If you have, it's probably because of this Psalm. Many years after the time of Jesus, commentators conflated the kings mentioned in it with the wise men from the Gospel. Then somebody wrote that song, and the rest is history.
Twelfth Night traditions vary from place to place, but many of them share a common theme: inversion. Remembering the kings bowing down before a peasant child instead of King Herod, English sovereigns used to play the part of the fool on this evening, and someone else would take the throne.
So throw a Twelfth Night party tonight. We don't have a king, but there are still plenty of powers to knock down: Refuse to worship the media gods: turn off the TV and the computer and spend a whole night talking to somebody you share your house with. Refuse to bow down before the God of busy-ness: cancel an evening meeting and go have a drink with friends. Smash the god of respectability: stop being so darn well-behaved and do something scandalous (or at least silly).
Tonight, take whatever powers usually rule your life, make them play the fool instead, and let the God of Love rule. After all, nobody worships Caesar any more, but plenty of us worship a kid in a feedbox.
Prayer
God, in Jesus you turned the world upside down. Tonight, grant that we might do the same, and do it for you. Amen.
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