Radically Subversive, Counter Cultural, Upside Down, Alternate Reality: chaos on Wall Street

Chaos is rising on Wall Street, Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. because the keepers of the status quo feel the blooming threat of the radically subversive, counter cultural, upside down alternate reality that Jesus preaches (and trade unions demand).

Blessed are those who are without the dominant social values because blessing flows into emptiness. This is the radically subversive, counter cultural, upside down alternate reality that Jesus preaches (see full text below) and we see rising from the swirling dust of status quo keepers mortifying themselves.

People who are content, satisfied, cunning, fulfilled, ruthless, scheming or admired are not blessed. They are exceedingly busy, scheming to secure their power, privilege and position. Socially and politically speaking, these are the fortunate, prosperous, undefeated people. They are not interested in leaving their homes or offices to hear Jesus’ message. Believing they have it all, they seek nothing more.

Preaching his most famous sermon from a mountain top, Jesus is addressing seekers. Seekers have left their homes and work to listen to Jesus because they are seeking something which by definition means they have a sense of something missing. There is something more they long for. It is this longing for something more that is the seed of blessing. Longing is a felt experience of emptiness, emptiness into which blessing flows.

Folks who do not have the means to eat or care for their family, long for food and shelter. They long for something more, they long for blessing. When brokenhearted, people ache and cry in anguish for what is lost, they long for something more, they long for blessing. When people have everything they need; power, privilege and esteem, yet still feel empty and unfulfilled, they too long for something more, they long for blessing.

Here is the thing. Blessing does not flow into fullness. Blessing flows into emptiness. This is the radically subversive, counter cultural, upside down alternate reality that Jesus preaches.

When we are poor in spirit, we are empty, we hunger for blessing. When we mourn, we are desolate, we weep for blessing. When we are meek, we are yielding, we submit to blessing. When we are righteous we are civil, we are obedient to blessing. When we are merciful we are humane, we allow blessing to flow through us. When we are pure in heart, we are transparent, we act with integrity and extend blessing. When we are peacemakers we nurture relationships among people, multiplying blessing and telling a new story of blessing for all. And when we do all of these things the forces of evil explode to persecute and annihilate us because the keepers of the status quo do not want the radically subversive, counter cultural, alternate reality of the kingdom of blessing to prevail on earth.

I believe this is why Jesus concludes the first part of his famous mountaintop sermon with such a perplexing proclamation, “”Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad…” The people who revile and persecute the disciples, and any of us who act to secure and tell the new story of blessing for all, are the protectors of the status quo, folks who are full of themselves and bent on cementing existing conditions.

As longing for something more multiplies among people and blessing flows into emptiness, it is inevitable that defenders of the status quo attack, condemn and do whatever it takes to threaten, thwart and undermine the alternate reality of blessing for all. Chaos erupts. The common ways of self-satisfaction and adulation, pride and pretension, disrespect and disobedience, cruelty and greed, deceit and dishonor, agitation and corruption trip all over one another in a Danse Macabre, the Dance of Death. The protectors of the old way are undone by their own fragility and the specious nature of their superficial lives. With flailing arms and fumbling legs they escalate their dance because they sense they are dying.

Yes, chaos is rising on Wall Street, Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue because the keepers of the status quo feel the blooming threat of the radically subversive, counter cultural, upside down alternate reality that Jesus preaches (and trade unions demand).

Blessed are the poor, the mourners and the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure of heart and the peacemakers because in their emptiness and longing for something more they receive and reveal the radically subversive, counter cultural, alternate reality of blessing for all right here, right now in the midst of every kind of evil acting out.

So, rejoice and be glad! Do not be afraid to change the story and shout it from every rooftop. The kingdom of blessing is blooming right now, rising from the dust of the status quo keepers mortifying themselves.

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Learn more about me at https://www.debraasis.org/ All words are generated by grace and the grit of a real human being. Debra Asis

Matthew 5:1–12 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”