Source: Kraybill, Donald B., The Upside-Down Kingdom, Updated Edition (Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2011), pp 1-139
Review: Donald B. Kraybill, a senior fellow in the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College (2011), received a National Religious Book Award for The Upside-Down Kingdom which first published in 1978 and is now available in a 2018 Anniversary Edition. Kraybill and his family are members of the Church of the Bretheren and he was raised Mennonte. He is considerd an expert in Amish studies and therefore has a thorough grounding in all of the Anabaptist traditions. Across all of the Anabaptist traditions they are known for peacemaking and their belief in a believers baptism as opposed to infant baptism.
The Upside-Down Kingdom is an extraordinary framing of Jesus message on the reign of God that has relevance today. As Young Lee Herting, a prominent Asian-American theologian put it, the book “Not only challenges Christians to resist cultural conformity but also urges people to practice upside-down living rooted in God’s reign.”
As the title implies, Kraybill describes the kingdom of God as an “upside-down kingdom” by framing it in the three temptations of Jesus and Jesus’ inaugural address at the synagogue in Nazareth. Theologically, Kraybill makes a profound case for revisioning the Christian message in harmony with Jesus’ radical message of peace and justice where power is “upended” and a new community of love and relationships is entered. He isn’t suggesting that we change Jesus’ message but rather that we get back to it, that the church has veered away from the core message of God’s reign.
Kraybill carefully guides the reader through an understanding of Jesus’ theology of the reign of God. Kraybill’s vision of community is reasoned directly from the teachings and actions of Jesus by transporting principles of generosity, Jubilee, forgiveness, and compassion to our modern contexts.
Study Guide:
Congregations may wish to consider using Dondald Kraybill’s The Upside-Down Kingdom as a study text for adult classes. The text itself includes great questions for discussion, so I will not add my own here. I would suggest a class studying the text begin with prayer and that the facilitator select a hymn from Community of Christ Sings to help illustrate the points made in the chapter.
Ch. 1. Down Is Up.
Sing or read together: CCS 404.. Canticle of the Turning. (based on Mary’s Magnificat).
Kraybill begins with Luke’s introit of John the Baptist and the Magnificat and their poetic proclamation of a coming “upside-down kingdom” (15-16). Kraybill tells us that Jesus’ central theme, the kingdom of God, “challenges the prevailing social order” yielding an “inverted kingdom” (16). It is a “relational kingdom” and its actions are lived out in the world and not in isolation (17). It is a collectivity and network where “hearts and relationships” yield to God in harmony with Jesus’ teachings and actions (19). It is “upside-down” because “social life has vertical dimensions,” meaning existing societal hierarchy is not flat. The kingdom of God shatters assumptions, encourages questions, and surprises us (20-21).
Kraybill believes the church’s traditional focus on doctrine has distorted Jesus’ message and that it is possible and vitally important to retrieve Jesus’ message (21-22). He describes several “detours” that “bypass the gospel message.” He argues that: 1. Jesus is not lost to history, themes can be found in reliable evidence (22-23). 2. Jesus’ message can still be transported to today by paying careful attention to cultural uniqueness (23-25). 3. Temporal misunderstandings can be explained by the kingdom’s present and future dimensions. And changing power relationships “bigger than our human understandings of time” (25-27). 4. Kraybill reasons that “any gospel without feet isn’t gospel. God’s love for the world produced social action” (27-28). 5. The gospel is not strictly personal but rather introduces the concepts for “the collective life of the kingdom” (29-31).
Ch. 2. Mountain Politics.
Sing or read CCS 241 Nada te turbe. The English translation of St. Teresa of Avila’s ancient words appears in the notes at the bottom of the hymn.
Kraybill introduces the three temptations in the symbols of mountain, temple and bread (33-34). The mountain temptation was a temptation to become “Jesus the Great” in simile to Alexander the Great (34). Kraybill frames Jesus’ desert temptations by providing an insightful historical review of Jewish political hopes stretching from the times of “the madman” Antiochus IV to the Jewish defeat at Masada (36-50). He then contrasts the temptation of the high mountain with the low mountain of the kingdom view. Jesus rejected violence and children and servants as heroes (50-52). He rejects any depiction of Jesus as a violent zealot and instead characterizes Jesus’ compassion and love as the “new Torah” (53-55).
Ch. 3 Temple Piety.
Sing or read CCS 247. My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. Based on Psalm 23.
For Kraybill, the second temptation “invited Jesus to embrace institutionalized religion” (56). Kraybill overviews the temple physically, organizationally, ritually, and in terms of Torah mediation. (57-64). He describes the “party politics” as including Pharisees or “separated ones” who believe in strict ritual purity, Torah interpretation (oral tradition), and in living outside Jerusalem, often appealing to common people (65-66). Conversely, Sadducees “lived primarily in Jerusalem,” accepted Roman control, represented the status quo of the upper class, and often served in the Sanhedrin and as chief priests. Zealots emerged as an identifiable movement after Jesus’ death (66). Essenes lived communally in Qumran and awaited the defeat of the Romans and the end of the world (66). All groups had messianic hopes (67-68). But Jesus, the “upside-down messiah” resisted the temptation of establishment religion and “replaced the machinery of formalized religion with compassion and love” 68-69).
Ch. 4. Wilderness Bread.
Sing or read together CCS 227. Come Now, You Hungry.
Kraybill contends that the bread temptation invited Jesus to become a “welfare king” (71-72). “Plush aristocrats” were enriched by a system of oppressive taxation on the “poor masses” unjustly administered by both a kind of “Roman IRS” and “God’s IRS” (73-79). Jesus was poor but not from among the “poorest of the poor” (79-80). He eschewed violent economic revolution and advocated “a new kingdom that would grapple with poverty in a new way” (80). Jesus was the “living bread” whose messianic identity and body “broken for others” were understood in the breaking of bread (80-82). The temptations of mountain, temple, and bread symbolize Jesus’ rejection of “corrupt politics, empty religion, and unjust economics” (82).
Ch. 5. Free Slaves.
Sing or read CCS 261. We Shall Overcome.
Jesus’ reading of the Isaiah scroll in the Nazareth synagogue summarizes his identity and message by: revealing Jesus’ identity as Messiah; Jesus’ role in bringing “liberating news to the poor, the blind, the slaves, and the oppressed”; and Jesus’ proclamation of the jubilee year (84-85). Kraybill reviews Torah concepts of sabbath and jubilee related to land, slaves, and debts (86-87). Jubilee reveals theological principles of divine ownership and divine liberation (88-90). The “jubilee response” of “forgiving debts, releasing slaves, and redeeming the land” is “the natural and joyful response to the good news of God’s liberation” (90). Jubilee response is motivated by God’s liberation and compassion towards others (90-91). The “Jubilean vision” of “institutionalized grace” weaves “spiritual and social dimensions” (92). In the “redemptive rhythm” of Jubilee a habit of “accepting and granting forgiveness are linked” (94-95). “Jesus’ theological vision has social consequences” (97).
Ch. 6. Luxurious Poverty.
Sing or read CCS 616. Brothers and Sisters of Mine are the Hungry.
“Particularly in Luke’s gospel, he ties the economic conversion to the new kingdom” (99). Kraybill reviews six of Jesus’ teachings about wealth (99-112) in illustration of the “good news to the poor” (112). The story of the rich young ruler exposes a rejection of Jesus’ invitation to follow by selling one’s possessions (112-113) whereas the story of Zacchaeus illustrates faith “driv[ing] the economic agenda” (116). The story of the poor widow illustrates how “upside-down Jubilee occurs when the poor give out of their poverty “bigger gifts” than the rich” (118). Jesus’ new economic vision and rejection of attachment to wealth is not a specific set of policies or programs but rather a vision “that heralds grace rather than greed, compassion rather than competition” (119).
Ch. 7. Right-Side Up Detours.
Sing or read together: CCS 275. Leftover People in Leftover Places.
Kraybill returns to the detour metaphor to describe nine ways Jesus’ economic vision is bypassed (120-129). In so doing he rejects misguided religious justifications of profiteering, the prosperity gospel, economic fatalism, good intentions, stewardship as wealth management, “legalistic” tithing, wealth as a means of affinity, and royal entitlement (120-129). Instead, Kraybill finds new economic ethics for today rooted in Jesus’ teachings. This involves a redefinition of the rich from a global perspective (131-132); an ethic of “downscaling” that rejects consumerism (133-135); the modern version of practicing jubilee (135-137), and “upside-down giving” (138-139).
Ch. 8. Impious Piety.
Sing or read CCS 285. For Everyone Born.
Jesus valued human need above strict adherence to pious practices, ritual and sacred symbols. His bold and visible confrontation with religious authority and practice led to his crucifixion (140). Jesus confronted the oral tradition and instead upheld the Torah, scripture, and their intent (141). While both the Sadducees and Pharisees upheld the written Torah, the Pharisees additionally followed a highly complex oral tradition. Scribes developed a detailed oral law in three stages of Midrash, Mishnah, and eventually Talmud (141). Pharisees followed the oral tradition strictly and “to the letter.” Kraybill describes Pharisees as “sincere progressives” with a vision “to call forth a holy nation, a nation of priests” (142-143).
Jesus openly and irreverently opposed the reigning interpretations of the law. Jesus’ assault on Sabbath traditions was meant to uphold the “principles of the Sabbath” (144). Sabbath principles were undermined by Jesus’ disciples shelling of grain. Jesus is warned of these violations by the Pharisees and they “put him under surveillance (Mark 3:2) to see if they can catch him in a second offense punishable by death.” Despite being warned, Jesus “profanes the Sabbath again, this time by healing.” The Pharisees then plan to destroy Jesus (145). Jesus’ Sabbath violations undercut religious authority, especially that of the Pharisees (146).
Jesus also openly and irreverently violated standards of purity or cleanliness. Jesus skipped ceremonial washing of hands (148). Instead, Jesus reasoned that “perfect cleansing… comes when acts of charity flow from the heart (Luke 11:41)” (149). Further, Jesus shared table fellowship with “unclean persons.” Citing Borg, Kraybill notes that “some scholars contend that Jesus’ table fellowship with sinners and outcasts was the distinguishing mark that set him apart…” (149, 275n).
Jesus also confronted Sadducees through the acts of defiance in the temple that “rebuked the temple hierarchy” (150). Jesus actions opened the temple to Gentiles and indeed briefly shut down the temple operations (151). “This flagrant act cost Jesus his life” (152). Kraybill notes the risk of anti-Semitism by misunderstandings of Jesus’ actions as anti-Jewishh rather than as opposition to piety at the expense of true worship (153). Kraybill reviews several of Jesus’ teachings aimed to expose and condemn excessive piety by religious authorities (153-160).
Building on Jesus’ wineskins metaphor, Kraybill posits several concepts based on distinctions between “kingdom, church, culture, and structure” (160-161). The kingdom points to something greater: “a new vision, a new set of values, and a new openness to yield” to God’s will (161). The “kingdom transcends the church” because it came first and is larger (162). Kraybill notes “the genius of the Gospels is its seed of self-criticism or self-reformation” (163). “Hidden in the excruciating pain of judgment is the germ of renewal. Kingdom values form fresh, elastic skins for the kingdom’s ferment. … the church reforms itself across the generations” (166).
Ch. 9. Lovable Enemies.
Sing or read CCS 367. Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us With Your Love.
Kraybill begins by showing how the parable of the prodigal son “suggests that God is like a foolish father” (167-171). He then shows how the parable of the good Samaritan “flips their expectations upside-down. A Samaritan, not a Jew, pops up as hero” (171). Kraybill shows how the story illustrates kingdom values and shows that agape is: indiscriminate, bold, inconvenient, risky, prolonged, expensive, and jeopardizes social status (174-175).
“The invitation to love our neighbor as ourself collides with selfish individualism” (176). Agape love revises the norm of reciprocity in both its positive and negative forms (177-184). He shows numerous ethical teachings of Jesus that support the concept of love for enemies (183-184). Jesus models forgiveness (184-185) and nonresistance (185-186). Detours around agape include Old Testament warfare, crusades, nationalism, ideas of “just war,” and the notion that we need only love personal enemies (186-188). Kraybill rejects the “myth of redemptive violence” and instead posits a practical “vision of Shalom” that incorporates everything from anti-bullying programs to restorative justice (190-193).
Ch. 10. Inside Outsiders.
Sing or read CCS 603. A Prophet Woman Broke A Jar.
Rather than form affinities based on our “social checkerboards,” Kraybill follows a Jesus who “crosses lines” and “shatters boxes” of ethnic purity (197), Gentile segregation (197-202), Samaritan segregation (202-203), gender segregation (203-209), and social status (210-212). Kraybill then discusses how the modern church can transcend social clusters and cliques to experience “a new unity” (213-217).
Ch. 11. Low Is High.
Sing or read CCS 211. Humble Yourself.
Kraybill is carefully developing a kingdom of God theology that inverts political, religious, and economic power through the application of Jesus’ teachings as proclaimed by John the Baptist and Mary and elucidated in the life and teachings of Jesus. Counterpoint to the temptations of mountain, temple, and bread, along with Jesus’ declaration of liberation and jubilee when carefully examined in the larger context of the gospels provides a basis for this theology of the upside-down kingdom.