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.