Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35
March 15-16, 2025
CITIZENS OF HEAVEN
I love to travel. This is an old passport of mine issued in 1991. The identif cation picture shows a man with far fewer wrinkles and a lot more hair than now. The remaining pages in it and other passports I’ve accumulate show evidence of my wanderlust. On them you’ll find immigration stamps for trips to Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Japan, Austria, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Hong Kong, Lichtenstein, Italy, China, Costa Rico, Macao, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, (sing!) and Aruba — Jamaica — “ooh I wanna take ya!” (Love those Beach Boys!) Over 60 countries and counting. Fortunately, I’m married to a terrific woman who shares my wanderlust.
Traveling in foreign lands isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s downright frightening.
As Joyce and I crossed the border from Macao to China in 1991, we were confronted by Communist Chinese soldiers with automatic weapons — and very dour faces — and sternly instructed to never take pictures of any military personnel or installations under threat of losing our cameras — if not our freedom. It was thus very alarming when a government official ordered us to hand over our passports because it made us wonder if we’d ever get them back. After all, our American citizenship was our only protection — our only proof of citizenship — our ticket home. Our relief was palpable when our passports were returned and our worries about getting home again were allayed.
I recall thinking at the time that — as a citizen of the United States travelling in a foreign country whose people are sometimes suspicious of westerners — I’d better behave like a citizen from a law-abiding democracy. I was an American, after all, and I needed to act like one! There was even some comfort in that thought.
I wonder — what’s in your “spiritual” passport? What does it say about your citizenship?
Citizenship is about more than just where you live. It’s also about the values, commitments, loyalties, and allegiances that make you who you are.
When you cross some international border and hand the customs officer your passport — you are revealing where you make your home — where you have come from — and to where you shall return. Our citizenship determines who we are — how we will act — and react to situations in foreign lands.
So, in what land is your spiritual citizenship?
To be a Christian means that — although you may rightfully be loyal to the government of your earthly land — you know that your true home — your true ruler — is elsewhere. To be Christian is knowing that Jesus is your Lord — and Caesar is not — the President is not — your political party is not — your financial advisor is not. And that makes all the difference in how you act — and react — to situations in this earthly land — this land that is not really your land.
Paul, therefore, makes a contrast in those verses we read today from his letter to the Philippians. He contrasts those who “live as enemies to the cross of Christ” — those whose minds are set “on earthly things” — with those who remember that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:30). It is Paul’s way of saying our citizenship in heaven ought to have dramatic earthly significance.
I don’t know about you, but I hear increasing numbers of American Christians saying that something is not right in our land — that there is a split between our loyalties to this North American, capitalist culture — and our Christian commitment. This world wants — more and more — to turn us into “consumers.” Jesus wants to make us his disciples. This culture floods the airwaves with images of success, power, and fulfillment — with voices encouraging us to bow down to the gods of money, sex, and prestige — ideas that are at odds with the images of crosses and sacrifice we receive here on Sunday mornings.
There are other even more disturbing voices — voices calling us to look with suspicion
at people of races — religions — or sexual identities — that are not White, Christian, or straight — voice calling us to subjugate or even to kill those who are not like us — because “those” people are a threat to our White, superior culture. Those voices stoke fear. They even try to justify the despicable evil of the racist killings in that have taken place in: Christchurch, New Zealand; Charlottesville, Virginia; Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston; Highland Park, Illinois; and all too many other places. They try to convince us to help bring about a cultural shift in which White people retain power by taking it away from others.
Yet, here we gather — in a season called Lent — to congregate around a very different, countercultural image of what true life is all about — namely, a cross. That cross in front of us is a constant reminder that we are citizens of another realm — that we are made permanently uneasy in our relationship with some of the glittering baubles of this world. The cross reminds us that our true citizenship is in heaven. But what does that mean for the way we live?
I’ll wager that — if you talk to your kids or grandkids long enough — you’ll hear about the tremendous conflict they have concerning their loyalties to Jesus Christ — over against loyalties to their friends or their own perceived wellbeing. Ask if they would turn in a classmate who was cheating on an exam — then listen as they speak about their fears that turning in a fellow student would be tantamount to committing social suicide — being outcast, discriminated against, left without friends, perhaps even beaten up. It’s not that they don’t love Jesus or want to follow him — but there is tremendous peer pressure to not “squeal” on others. Consequently, loyalty to peers often outweighs loyalty to honesty, integrity — and even to Jesus whose cross calls us to a new way of living — a new ethic. Taken to the extreme, this misplaced loyalty has resulted in too many tragedies where peer pressure stood in the way of telling on a fellow student who was talking about killing classmates — and then did.
It’s not that we adults have any easier time with where to put our loyalty — for we also engage in conduct that is contrary to our heavenly citizenship. For instance, do you know anyone for whom gossip is the national pastime? It’s tremendously attractive to join in on such talk — especially when others are already tearing the other person down. While our kids sometimes don’t talk when they should — we enjoy talking when we shouldn’t — gleefully wagging our tongues about the faults and problems of others? I daresay we all do it. I confess I succumb to the temptation. How about you? (Raise hand) Yep, I figured there’d be plenty of competition! But just as kids not talking when they should can have deadly consequences, gossip taken to the extreme can have deadly consequences, too
Paul would say: “Put down your hands and close your mouths! You are citizens of heaven! You and I are to speak a different language — the heavenly language of mercy, forgiveness, understanding and upbuilding.”
I hope you can see that, as quick as Paul is to point out that we are saved by grace through faith —that we are saved not by what we do but rather as a gift by what God in Christ has done for us — Paul also makes it very clear that those of us who profess such faith are to embody God’s grace through concrete, ethical actions.
Today’s gospel depicts Jesus weeping over the fate of his beloved Jerusalem. Jesus weeps because he sees how his city has erred in its allegiances. And its religious and political leaders — because of their wayward allegiances —would soon put Jesus to death. In what realm did their spiritual citizenship lie? And where is ours? Would we crucify Jesus again?
History reminds us that in Nazi Germany — religious leaders of the German church were all too willing to “serve the world” rather than Jesus. They capitulated before Hitler and acted as if they were incapable of withstanding the temptation to save their own religious necks. Yet there were some — people like Lutheran pastor and professor, Deitrich Bonhoeffer — who, although they did not always know what was to be done — at least retained the vision to say what was true. They spoke out against Hitler and the Nazi regime even at risk of beatings, arrest, and death — all of which happened to Bonhoeffer. These were people who — although they were German — still remembered they were citizens of another nation — called “the kingdom of heaven.”
Where did they get the power to do that? Paul says it comes from the One who has “power that…enables him to make all things subject to himself.”
Paul is asking: Who is our ruler? Is it Herod — that fox who murdered his own people for the fun of it — or any other king, president or emperor of this world? Is it our friends, who pressure us to lie on their behalf? Is it our tongues — that put others down in order to puff ourselves up? Or is it Christ Jesus — who brought the gift of life to all people in the giving of his own life?
All things, says Paul, are subject to Jesus through the power of his resurrection — his defeat of death — the implication being that — if Jesus can conquer death — then he is the One who truly is in charge of life — and he gives life to you freely — simply because he loves you, now and forever! That is the gospel — the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, says Paul, “stand fi rm in the Lord!” Trust in his power to protect you — let him rule over your life — be citizens of his kingdom.
What one thing would you have to change in your life in order for others to know who your ruler truly is — in what kingdom you actually live? Here are a couple things to consider: If young people would trust Jesus enough to open their mouths in faith that he will love and care for them no matter what — or we older folks would close our mouths and stand firm in the Lord and his mercy — those around us would say, “It’s a miracle! There must be a God!”
It is powerful freedom to know where your true home lies — where you are destined to be when it’s all said and done. In the midst of life’s challenges and moral dilemmas, it is good to reach for your passport (hold up yours) — and to know your citizenship is in
heaven. Being a citizen of that realm — says Paul — makes all the difference for how you live in this one.