The Christian and Citizenship - Philippians 3:20-21
[1st August 2018]
Phil 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
When I became a NZ citizen at a ceremony in Hamilton in June 2016, I swore that: “… I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of New Zealand, her heirs and successors according to law, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of New Zealand and fulfil my duties as a New Zealand citizen. So help me God”.
There was a version for atheists too who didn’t want to ask God’s help for some reason!
Whenever possible this week I have been attending the Huia Come Home class about the early interactions between Maori and the incoming Christian missionaries. I have been listening with interest as I am both a NZ Citizen and a British citizen and a missionary. Being fascinated by history I’ve been reflecting on the British government’s failure to keep the promises made in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. Quite apart from the loss of land, the British failed to uphold their promise to give to Maori the rights and privileges of British subjects, or the modern equivalent, British citizens. The subjects of the kings of England had land rights going back to Magna Carta in 1215. There were laws against land theft even back then. The whole episode is pretty shameful.
But my brief non-religious citizenship ceremony in 2016 caused me to reflect on the very shallow nature of our earthly citizenships. The government only knows me by a number on a tax form, or a passport number or health service number and that is through a computer system.
But I have another citizenship – a heavenly citizenship. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Jesus is my King. And what a King! The 13 or 14 nations represented in this room this morning are all failed states compared to the Kingdom of Heaven, of which we Christian believers are all citizens. Our heavenly citizenship is in some ways invisible. There is no passport with this citizenship. But I have access to the King of Heaven – I meet him every morning. If I bumped into the NZ Prime Minister in the street she wouldn’t know me, still less the Queen. But I know King Jesus and he knows me much better than I know Him. If I get into difficulties King Jesus knows about it before I do and will send help. And the taxes are voluntary!
When I die my British or New Zealand citizenship ceases, but my heavenly citizenship will last forever.
Nationhood and national cultures are part of humanity created by God, as Jay quoted from Acts 17:26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way towards him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us
Although nationhood and national cultures are part of humanity created by God I feel very uncomfortable when Christians assert their earthly patriotism too strongly. I really dislike seeing British battle flags in English parish churches and cathedrals - they have no place there. They are all too often in place because someone else’s nationhood got trashed or someone else’s land got stolen. In this life when I go to church, although I am never going to stop being a very English Englishman, I must leave my flags and sword at the door.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer the German Christian martyr and theologian, first recognised the dangers of Hitlerism when he saw fascist flags beginning to be put in German churches after 1933. Nationalism and religion is a toxic cocktail.
Paul the proud Jew wrestled with this: And Paul was a proud Jew in the same way we might be proud British or French or Canadian or German or Korean or Irish or Scottish or Singaporean citizens. But what does Paul say about it all … If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless and Jesus won through 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him,
I can count 13 nationalities at this college currently which makes the place very cross-cultural and international and I am glad. We are genuinely united in Christ but to maintain our unity we sometimes have leave our prejudices, try to learn another language different to our own, and accept that all cultures are valid – even if they are all fallen. We do this because our real King, King Jesus, emptied himself of all his rights and privileges so we can be united here : 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We are united by our superior heavenly citizenship that transcends our earthly nationalities – so don’t let your earthly nationality or your citizenship interfere with your heavenly citizenship.
What does this mean for us? Hear what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says:
“The sanctuary of God has to be protected from the world and not thrown to the dogs … Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will … When Jesus calls a person, He bids him come and die.”
… And if I might presumptuously add to the words of a great man: not just dying to self but dying to the emotional uplift of the myths, and supposed triumphs, of nationalism …
“If we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the Cross as an everyday ordinary calamity.”