As most of you know, I am a Permanent Resident here
in Canada. My citizenship is
American. When the topic comes up in
conversation especially since the last election down there people ask me if I
am going to try to become a Canadian citizen.
I answer that I have every intent to do so. But, intentions are intentions and carrying
through is another matter. Nevertheless,
I need to do it. I was raised with the
value of being a good citizen; a bit of a Boy Scout in that respect. I can act like a good citizen in the
community where I live – obey the law, be a good neighbour, pay taxes, try to
make my community a better place to live in.
I can act like a good citizen without actually becoming a citizen of
Canada. But, that’s not enough. Voting is crucial to citizenship.
To be a citizen is to be a participant in a democracy. As a Permanent Resident without the right to
exercise the power to vote and hold office I am nothing more than a guest here,
a voiceless guest who is a respectful consumer of most of the rights and
privileges that Canadian citizens have. I
am here by the grace of the Crown and enjoy the privileges of that grace. I have equality under the law. I can have a job, get an education, and
receive medical care. I can travel
within Canada and abroad. I can be
deported should I abuse these privileges.
I am simply a guest here with now real voice to bear on the way things
are. My children are Canadian. I have an obligation here.
Now with this being Canada Day weekend and the
Sesquicentennial year I would hope that we each would be not only celebrating
and giving thanks for the privileges we enjoy dans cette grande nation but also that we would be reflecting on
how good of a citizen we each are. Authors
John McKnight and Peter Block in their book The Abundant Community:
Awakening the Power of Families and Neighbourhoods make the bold and I
think very accurate claim that we have sacrificed our citizenship to be
consumers. They say that North America
has become a consumer society that holds as its basic belief that satisfaction
can be purchased, “that most of what is fulfilling or needed in life can be
bought—from happiness to healing, from love to laughter, from rearing a child
to caring for someone at the end of life.”
We have ceased to be citizens—active participants in the making of our
communities—and have become consumers who pay for the services we once did for
ourselves as families, neighbours, and communities and found fulfilling (pg.
9).
Our consumer way of life comes with two notable
costs: the family has lost its function and we have become disconnected from
our neighbours and isolated from our communities. What does this look like in day-to-day life? “We
expect schools, coaches, agencies, and sitters to raise our children. We expect doctors to keep us healthy. We believe in better living through
chemistry. We want social workers and
institutions to take care of our vulnerable.” (pg. 10) We have decimated the relational aspects of
human community with the power of credit on demand purchasing of “stuff” we
believe we need for whatever reason.
Buying stuff is ultimately what we live for.
This consumer way of life has affected church
communities as well. Without leaning too
heavily towards being nostalgic, the church used to be a valuable component in
community life, particularly in smaller communities. But in 1965 everything changed. All the “Big Steeple” denominations started a
decline in membership that became very noticeable in the 80’s at which time
churches began to talk about being “Attractional”. We asked what we could do to make our
congregations more attractive so that people will come. Consumerism crept into the church at this
point. Worship style and programming
became services that people bought according to personal preference to help
them in their efforts to grow in faith.
Instead of citizens of heaven, we became consumers of “feel good” faith
programming. The “Attractional” model
falls apart when we realize that somebody actually has to do the work to
provide those programs when the people who have been doing it burn out. Just as a nation needs citizens and not just
residents to thrive, so does the church.
For me to go from being a Permanent Resident to a
Citizen of Canada, I have to demonstrate by means of passing an exam that I
understand “Canada” and I must pledge my allegiance to Canada by taking the
oath of citizenship. Citizenship is a
covenant. It is by the grace of the
crown that would I enjoy that rights and privileges extended to Canadians under
the constitution of this land, therefore I must give my word that I will live
as a faithful citizen.
But my American citizenship and hoped for future
Canadian citizenship are both secondary to the fact that as a disciple of Jesus
Christ my primary allegiance is to him and my primary citizenship is in his
kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. This is
true for all of us. Our primary
citizenship as disciples of Jesus Christ is in his kingdom…not Canada, not the
U.S., not Britain, etc. We serve the Lord
Jesus above any other national or earthly commitment.
In our Philippians passage, Paul talks about how he
was a distinguished servant of God a very devout and faithful Pharisee and
“citizen” of Israel, but he left it all behind considering it to be dung (our
English equivalent to the Greek word skubala
here would likely be shit) in comparison to what he gained in Christ. One day on the way to Damascus on a mission
to arrest Christians in a blinding light Paul met the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God and Jesus claimed Paul as his own and made Paul a participant in his
kingdom, a citizen of heaven yet living as a “landed immigrant” here until Jesus
returns.
So also, Jesus claims us each as his own. As Citizens of heaven we have extended the
grace to know him personally and so must faithfully strive to deepen our
relationship with him. We participate in
his reign in that we personally know the power of his resurrection, the new
life giving transforming power of the unconditional love of God poured upon us with
the Holy Spirit. Striving to know Jesus
and his way of the cross is how we express of our oath of allegiance to
him. We discover his Lordship, his reign
in our lives as we share in his sufferings by laying down our lives to love and
serve one another, our neighbours, and ourselves as he did to the extent of
dying on a cross.
Friends, the grace extended to us as citizens of
heaven is knowing personally the Lord of Heaven and Earth…and that changes
us. We are representatives of him to our
friends, families, and neighbours. By
the power of the Holy Spirit he is at work in us now making us to be more like
what we will be when he brings his kingdom in its fullness. Live as citizens of heaven. Be fruitful participants in what Jesus is
doing in the lives of everyone you know.
Amen.
