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Let’s all act like we are in High School again and talk about Citizenship. I have no idea whether “Government” or “Civics” is covered in the High School curriculum anymore. If not, it would explain a lot. But I’ll spare the rant and cut to the chase. The IRCC (Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada formerly known as the CIC or Citizenship and Immigration Canada) basically defines citizenship as being entitled to certain rights and freedoms and having certain responsibilities while living within the borders of Canada. The rights are to justice, equality, and mobility and the freedoms are of speech, thought, religion, and assembly. Some of our responsibilities are to obey the law, express our opinions and respect the right of others to do so, to help others in the community, to care for and protect Canadian heritage and the environment, and to eliminate discrimination and injustice.
Those rights, freedoms, and responsibilities actually pertain to anyone living in Canada legally even if you’re not a citizen. Citizenship then adds the additional rights of applying for a passport so that you can leave and re-enter the nation at will as well as voting and holding office, and one should emphasize actually voting. Thus, in Canada citizenship boils down to being a legal resident entitlement to certain rights, freedoms, and responsibilities within the boundaries of the nation especially the rights and freedoms to leave and enter that country (i.e., the passport), to vote in elections, and to hold office; and the particular responsibility of voting.
Moreover, the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities that citizenship entails vary from nation to nation. Thus, when talking about citizenship one must not only say what it entails but also in what land. In our passage, when Paul speaks of “Citizenship in the Heavenlies”, “citizenship” does not mean what it means in Canada or any other nation. So, we need to define citizenship and Heaven as they would have been understood by Paul and let’s start with heaven.
Let me say something briefly about heaven. The Greek word for heaven is actually plural and would be better translated as “the Heavenlies”. Paul did not think of the heavenlies as the place where immortal souls go after death to a pearly, golden city where they are given angel’s wings and a harp to spend eternity lounging on a cloud strumming away. That’s Medieval fiction. Paul was a Jew and they believed the dead went to a place called Sheol and it was under the earth and what went there wasn’t an immortal soul. That’s what Greeks believed. It was everything a person is except for the dead body. What we ought to mean by going to Heaven when we die is what Paul described early in Philippians as going to be with Jesus wherever he is in the heavenlies without this physical body that died because of Sin and there we await the resurrection of the body. If the Book of Revelation is peek into that world, worship will be primarily what we will be doing along with the angels, the whole creation, and the saints of all times and places.
The heavenlies were actually a part of the creation. Paul likely believed that the part of Creation we know was like a big bubble within the heavenlies. If you go stand somewhere where you can see all around, it looks like we’re in a bubble. The heavenlies were behind the dome formed by the sky. They believed the heavenlies to be the home of God where the will of God is done unhindered by Sin and from the heavenlies God rules the earth. It is from there that salvation was begun and the Lordship of Jesus Christ is being extended to earth.
In the Heavenlies was a Temple from which God ruled. To the Old Testament Jews, the Jerusalem Temple was a/the place where the Heavenlies and earth were open to each other. The Jerusalem Temple was like a shadow of the Temple in the Heavenlies and thus God could come and dwell in the Jerusalem Temple provided Sin was dealt with in the way God prescribed – the sacrifices. And, it was at the Temple that Israel’s/humanity’s relationship with God was maintained by worship and sacrifice. God’s will being done on Earth flowed forth from the Temple like a River of Living Water.
To say that our citizenship is in the Heavenlies is to say that we have rights in the land where God lives, where his will is done, and from where his rule and salvation are extended to earth, a room in the mansion so to speak. When a Christian congregation gathers for worship, we are the new temple, a replica of the temple in the heavenlies like the Jerusalem Temple was. This one will blow your mind…we, right now, are presently occupying time and space in the heavenlies here on earth. Don’t think of the Heavenlies as simply being somewhere up there. Think of the Heavenlies as the kingdom of God, the loving reign of God, breaking forth or opening up right here, right now as the Holy Spirit is in our midst. Indeed, God is in our midst.
We are in the Heavenlies right now gathered around God’s throne with angels, the Creation, and the saints from all times and places worshipping. It might be like looking through a mirror dimly but here as we are gathered together by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ to worship God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, here is heaven on earth. God is here so therefore let his will be done on earth as it is in the Heavenlies. So, let’s talk about citizenship in the Heavenlies.
The Greek word for citizenship is politeuma which gets its root from the word polis meaning city. A polis was a fortified settlement. The city walls and military presence provided a sense of security and freedom which allowed for the development of arts, education, trades, and a middle class. In Paul’s day, cities were also sacred places. There was a god whom everyone believed had decreed the law upon which the city was established and who was the ultimate protector of the city and therefore everyone worshipped that god not only out of devotion but out of civic duty. So, citizenship in a city was a very religious matter. Citizenship in a particular city usually involved being protected in a privileged way by the god, laws, and government of that city even beyond the bounds of the city.
Now, for our citizenship to be in the Heavenlies means very much that we have the Father’s favour upon us because of Christ Jesus’ faithfulness on our behalf, God’s presence with us as the Holy Spirit indwelling us and our fellowship, and God’s acting for our benefit as Paul says to transform us, to transform our bodies of humiliation to conform to the glorious body of Christ Jesus. Every Christian congregation is in essence a city, the New Jerusalem, a fortified settlement of God among his people, and, moreover, we have God’s grace and protection wherever we are.
Our responsibility as citizens in the Heavenlies is to be fellow imitators of Christ Jesus. Our understanding of what it is to be an imitator is a bit different from what the word means in biblical Greek. We tend to think of the act of imitating as something inauthentic, a copy, not the real thing. Imitation sweetener though sweet is not the same thing as sugar. Quite often, imitation takes the form of mockery. We call that aping.
The biblical idea of imitating is more like the phrase “like father, like son”. Many children try to be just like one of their parents because they share a special relationship and they are blood related. To be an imitator of Jesus means we share a special relationship with him by means of the bond of his blood in the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us and therefore we are becoming like Jesus. We are not just following Jesus’ example by simply imitating him, we are bound to him by his Spirit so that as he is so are we becoming because he lives in us.
So, as citizens of the Heavenlies we are ambassadors called to live in this world the way Jesus lived in it – the Way of the Cross, the way of unconditional and sacrificial love. As we worship God alongside the Creation, we must be careful not to exploit it but rather to give voice to it. We are the one’s through whom God is making obvious what it says in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” For a century and more (169 years) the River of Life has flown forth from the Temple in the Heavenlies through this congregation (Latona) as we have gathered for worship and shared a meal and loved our neighbours. Our citizenship here precedes any claim to citizenship we have elsewhere. Here around this Table national boundaries do not exist, only the loving reign of God. Let it flow. Amen.
