I've been reading "Upsidedown Kingdom" by Don Kraybill recently. In it he talks about the social world of Jesus time being like a checker board. People placed themselves in boxes of Pharisee, Wealthy, Jew, Gentile, Samaritan, Man, Woman, etc. These boxes were important. You only associated with those in boxes like your own. But Jesus comes and begins stepping all over the boxes. He associates with the lowly despised Samaritan woman at the well, the greedy manipulative tax collector and the uneducated fishermen. Today our society is based on similar boxes. Those that are college educated or trade school. Those that have money and those that don't. Those that are like us and those that aren't.
As we get close to Christmas and hear the same Christmas story read again, it occurs to me that Jesus started stepping across boxes from the very beginning. A teen, unmarried mother, dirty shepherds, foreign Gentile wisemen. From the beginning Jesus is reaching out and doing things in a way that are upside down.
So what am I doing this Christmas to celebrate in way that is upside down, that reflects the first Christmas. How am I showing love, hope, peace and joy to the world around me and specifically to those whose boxes are farthest from my own? How will I be like Jesus and step out of my comfortable box and into one less comfortable? How will I live an upside down Christmas?
