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Over the past month a little red book has played a crucial role in my life. No – not Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book. Nor a book of Daily Devotions, nor even a diary. No – it was this one – my passport! It tells me, and it tells the world, that I, David Webster (see grotty photo attached) am a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It states that, though born and bred in Africa, I am actually British.
It has played a decisive role in my life in recent days - at Mahe airport in the Seychelles it meant that I had to join the long queue, and explain why I had come. It prevented me from joining the short, fast queue for Seychelles citizens. At Birmingham airport on return it meant I joined the long but fast queue, instead of the short, gruelling one for non-citizens.
Yes, I am a British citizen. I belong here, but not there.
Citizenship. St Paul says in our epistle reading (Phil 3:20): “But our citizenship is in heaven”.
You and I, if we are Christians, are first and foremost citizens – not of Britain, not of the EU, not of the world – but citizens of heaven.
I’d like us to consider 2 aspects of citizenship this morning:
1)Belonging
2)Behaving
1) Belonging
My nationality is British. I belong to Britain. Though born and bred in Kenya, because my father was British I am British. I was born British.
It’s nothing I’ve earned or achieved. It’s nothing I’ve worked towards. I haven’t sat any exams to merit it. It is a status, bequeathed to me by my parents. So when Paul says we, as Christians, are “citizens of heaven” what does he mean? How do we become citizens of heaven?
The Bible makes it very clear that it’s not something we earn or deserve, it’s not something we can work for or achieve. No, we are citizens of heaven by birth – or actually by re-birth. Jesus said: “No one can even see the Kingdom of God (let alone belong to it) unless he or she is born again” (Jn3:3) Jesus’ words, not mine! We become citizens of heaven by re-birth.
In this week, when we think of the shame of the slave trade, and the terrible exploitation of slaves – who were stolen from their countries, and rendered stateless, and belonged to nowhere – the Bible reminds us: (Gal 4:4) “God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, in order that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
We are heirs. We are sons and daughters. We are, by rebirth, citizens. We belong.
And it’s not through anything we have done or deserved. It is solely and wholly by the grace and mercy of God. Jesus Christ, on the cross, bought for us, with His blood, the right to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a gift, offered to us by God, if we will just come to Him, - in repentance and humility - in all our unworthiness and accept it from His loving hands.
My heavenly passport is cross-shaped, and it too is red – red with the blood of Christ. When God looks at it He sees, not my sin but the Lamb of God, and He smiles and says in His grace, “You are mine!” Have you received that gift? Do you belong to Him and His Kingdom? Where are you a citizen of?
2) Behaving
The second aspect of citizenship is behaving. As citizens we represent our country. People see the way we behave and judge Britain by it. When football hooligans run riot the world judges Britain by it, and assumes that we are all like that. When drunk yobbos in Marbella sing and behave bawdily in the streets, the world judges Britain by it. When we are polite and friendly, fair and just, caring and compassionate, generous and open-handed, the world judges Britain by that. So, too, with citizens of heaven. What do people see in us, and is it attractive or not? Because by us they will judge Christianity.
What are the rules of behaviour of citizens of heaven? They are the rules of the King of Heaven.
And they are summed up in one word – “Holiness”.
Now “holiness” has come to have unfortunate connotations – it implies priggishness, self-righteousness, being “holier than thou”. But that is regrettable and a complete distortion.
Holiness is the pure goodness of God, an attribute to which we, as citizens of heaven, all should aspire.
Paul, in our epistle reading, describes the behaviour and character of those who are citizens of the world, as opposed to citizens of heaven. He says: “Their god is their stomach” – in other words, they are self-centred and greedy. “Their glory is their shame” – they not only behave immorally, but are actually proud of it, and revel in it. “Their mind is on earthly things” – they are materialistic and wholly wrapped up in this life. “Their destiny is destruction” – like lemmings, they are heading willy nilly for disaster.
In other words, he says, (and he says it with tears) “they live as enemies of the cross of Christ,”
They have rejected Christ’s offer of something so much better. “BUT” he says – the big but – “But our citizenship is in heaven.” As Christians we are called, here and now, in this life, to live by a wholly different set of standards. We are called to nothing less than holiness.
There is a tendency, in our secular, post-Christian age, even for Christians to look to the world,
to contemporary society, to determine its rules, and standards, and norms of behaviour. We are told that society develops and changes, and our standards must change with it. We must “move with the times”. We must adapt, conform, blend. We must re-interpret Scripture to suit the times. Concepts such as sin and holiness often barely get a mention, unless in ridicule.
St Paul too lived in a society that was, like our own, materialistic and immoral. And he said nothing whatsoever about conforming to it. On the contrary, he says in our reading that Jesus Christ will transform our lowly bodies. Christianity is about transformation, not conformation.
It is about living, in the power of the Spirit, holy lives. It is about being in the world, but not of the world. It is about being salt – salt changes the flavour of the food, food doesn’t change the flavour of the salt! It is about being light – light transforms darkness, darkness doesn’t drown out light!
“Therefore, my brothers,” Paul concludes our reading, “You whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.” “Stand firm in the Lord”
It’s a strong word that word “stand”. It is used of a soldier in battle. Don’t be moulded by the world. Be moulded by God.
What better time than Lent for us to learn something more about holiness, and holy living.
In our Gospel reading we were reminded how Jesus cried over His beloved city of Jerusalem.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers the chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
I suspect that Jesus weeps over His church today, Over our world, our nation, our town. Will it be said that the people were not willing to be gathered into His Kingdom? We live in an increasingly difficult time for the church and for individual Christians. Brothers and sisters, let us stand firm.
We belong, first and foremost, to God’s heavenly Kingdom.
Let us behave,
We are, first and foremost, by His grace, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. What a marvellous privilege!
David Webster
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