Righting the Church and the world

They walked the north eastern shore of the Lake and went on the way to Capernaum. And when the Sabbath came Jesus went into the Synagogue and he taught – as was his custom.  The people noticed that he was not like the other teachers. He was different from the scribes because he taught as one who had authority. Jesus did not rely on his latest book and he was worried about who had taught him the past that made him acceptable to the religious establishment.  He concentrated on teaching what the Scriptures taught and revealing the presence of the Kingdom of God to those around him. And he showed us that we live a upside-down world. Think  I am kidding – try this on for size!

“The Upside down Mice” by Roald Dahl and sort of written out and illustrated by Antony Maitland

Once upon a time there lived an old man of 87 whose name was Labon. All his life he had been a quiet and peaceful person. He was very poor and very happy.

When Labon discovered that he had mice in his house, he did not at first bother himself greatly about it. But the mice multiplied. They kept right on multiplying and finally there came a time when he could stand it no longer.

"This is too much," he said. "This really is going a bit too far." He hobbled out of the house and down the road to a shop where he bought himself some mousetraps, a piece of cheese and some glue.

When he got home, he put the glue on the underneath of the mousetraps and stuck them to the ceiling. Then he baited them carefully with pieces of cheese and set them to go off.

That night when the mice came out of their holes and saw the mousetraps on the ceiling, they thought it a tremendous joke. They walked around on the floor, nudging each other and pointing up with their front paws and roaring with laughter. After all it was pretty silly, mousetraps on the ceiling.

When Labon came down the next morning and saw that there were no mice caught in the traps, he smiled but said nothing.

He took a chair and put glue on the bottom of its' legs and stuck it upside down to the ceiling, near the mousetraps. He did the same with the table, the television set and the lamp. He took everything that was on the floor and stuck it upside down on the ceiling. He even put a little carpet up there.

The next night when the mice came out of their holes they were still joking and laughing about what they had seen the night before. But now, when they looked up at the ceiling, they stopped laughing very suddenly.

"Good gracious me!" cried one. "Look up there! There's the floor!"

"Heavens above!" shouted another. "We must be standing on the ceiling."

"I'm beginning to feel a little giddy," said another.

"All the blood's going to my head," said another.

"This is terrible!" said a very senior mouse with long whiskers. "This is really terrible! We must do something about it at once."

"I shall faint if I have to stand on my head any longer!" shouted a young mouse.

"Me too!" ---- "I can't stand it!" ---- "Save us! Do something somebody, quick!"

"I know what we'll do," said the very senior mouse. "We'll all stand on our heads, then anyway we'll be the right way up."

Obediently, they all stood on their heads, and after a long time, one by one, they fainted from a rush of blood to their brains.

When Labon came down the next morning the floor was littered with mice. Quickly he gathered them up and popped them all in a basket.

So the thing to remember is this: Whenever the world seems to be terribly upside down, make sure you keep your feet firmly on the ground.

Keep in mind that Jesus has come to show us not only that our world is upside down and to put it right again, he has come that we might move with him through death and the grave, that we would live in freedom and in service in the life that is to come.