Skip to main content

Citizenship


But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,         (Philippians 3:20)
          “But I proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free, and I won’t forget the men who died, to give that right to me….” (Lee Greenwood)
          Today’s passage is a little difficult for me. I think I try to live it out in my life, but when I think about it, I struggle a little. One of my ancestors came to the American colonies around 1638 (if I recall correctly). The most recent immigrant arrived about two hundred years later, which was approximately one hundred forty years ago. At least three ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, and I was, for a number of years, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I have voted in every major election since I got back home from college, and almost every primary. I resent it when people abuse the flag or the Constitution, and I consider a vow to “fundamentally transform America” as an act of treason. I even cry my way through patriotic songs and stand for the Star Spangled Banner when it is played in public, and sometimes when I’m alone in my house and it plays on TV. 
          Get the picture? Because I could probably go on for a couple pages regaling you with connections to nation-builders and those who stood against tyrants in England, France, and Rome, in terms of physical heritage. I am a nationalist – not a white nationalist, or a black nationalist, or a native nationalist. I am an American nationalist who believes that French folks should be French nationalists, and English folk should be English nationalists, etc. Internationalism is anathema to me. 
          My spiritual heritage is even more impressive It goes back through the Huguenots (French Calvinists) and other Reformers, through Crusaders, back through the early Church fathers to Jesus Christ, and at the same time, directly to Jesus Christ. 
          What all of this means is for me is that there’s not much room for gray when it comes to patriotism and loyalty, but there’s also a major challenge. For the Christian, the first loyalty is to Christ. One is a citizen exclusively of Heaven, but within that, a citizen of whatever nation rules over you, until or unless doing so requires that you violate God’s law. 
          So when Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven, I both raise my banner high, and I cringe. The former is for obvious reasons, the latter is for two: I don’t really know how to balance the dual loyalty. Christianity is first, I know, but how can I hold a higher loyalty to God without feeling like I violate my loyalty to my nation? At the same time, I think I do so fairly automatically, without realizing it. The other reason for the cringe is my same old, same old – I’m afraid I’ll be an embarrassment to the one (nation) or the One (King) who owns my allegiance. I’m on a little firmer ground when it comes to the nation because there I am one among a multitude of imperfect people. When it comes to citizenship in the Kingdom, those multitudes don’t matter. What matters is the King and His standards. 
          Yes, I know, grace and all that, but that’s not my real point here today. I believe there should be tension in our allegiances to anything other than God. If our citizenship is in Heaven, then it is there first, and foremost, and anything that comes between us and It must step down and step aside. But God has placed us where we are. This country is His gift to me, and His gift to you – and if you’re in another country, that country is His gift to you. It is right that we value it/them – but only that we worship Him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more