Where?

 Lent, the time of the Church year we began on Ash Wednesday and will observe from then until Easter-a period of 40 days (not including the Sundays), is to be a time of self-reflection. This time is not to be one in which we look at ourselves and think we are God's greatest gift to humankind, nor is it a time in which we sit there and condemn ourselves wishing we weren't alive because our lives are so sinful. It is a time in which we examine our lives, both our individual lives, and our lives together as the Church, and reflect on whether our lives are in line with how God calls us to live. Last Sunday, on the first Sunday of Lent, we reflected on the question: "Who?" We considered that often we suffer from Spiritual Alzheimer's, forgetting who we are and who we are supposed to be. We considered Satan's temptation of Jesus trying to cause Jesus to forget who He was by tempting him to, 1) To use his divine powers to serve himself; 2) To bow down and worship someone or something other than God, and 3) To doubt who God had declared Him to be and test God. Satan tempts us to forget who we are as well, tempting us to serve ourselves, put other things or other persons ahead of God, and to doubt who God has said that we are. We are often tempted to forget who we are as disciples, as followers of Christ who are called to be Christ's presence here on earth. When those temptations come, we have to remember-remember we are those created in the Image of God, remember we are those whom God has claimed and called His sons and daughters, and remember the grace that God gives us to remain faithful to who He calls us to be. This morning we turn from the question "Who?" to the question "Where?" We move from asking "who are we" to asking "where does our citizenship lie?" Paul, as he writes to the Philippians, addresses the location of our citizenship. We have to remember that Satan not only tempts us to forget who and whose we are causing us to fail to trust in God, but we also find ourselves tempted to forget where our citizenship is found. Citizenship and immigration have been one of the top issues in the last several Presidential elections here in the United States. We have folks that want to tighten immigration restrictions, close the borders, and keep everyone out, while others that want to loosen the restrictions and just welcome anyone. There is debate about what it takes to become a citizen of this nation that we are blessed to live in-who is eligible and how it is to be achieved. There are requirements for citizenship. For instance, for those who want to become citizens of the United States, certain criteria must be met. Among those requirements: be at least 18 years of age; a green card holder for five years; physically live in the US for 30 months out of those five years; be able to read, write, and speak English; have a working knowledge of US history and government and be able to pass a test on that knowledge; be a person of good moral character; and swear that you believe in the principles of the US Constitution and you will be loyal to the US. Many of us might have trouble answering the questions that people desiring US citizenship have to answer, such as, "What is the supreme law of the land?" (The Constitution); "Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?" (Thomas Jefferson). How many amendments does the constitution have? (27); How many senators does each state have? (2); The Nations first motto was "E Pulribus Unum." What does that mean? (We all become one). To be quite honest, I took two practice tests, one I passed with ease; the second, I passed, but only narrowly. Can you imagine being an "outsider" who desperately desires to be a legal citizen of another country? Possibly a country in which you may be "illegally" living in? Most of us cannot imagine that, but we ought to, for once we were illegals. No, I'm not talking about when many of our ancestors came and just settled anywhere they wanted, at times forcing or tricking those already living here to give up their land, simply because our ancestors wanted freedom from persecution and a better life for their families and themselves. I'm going much further back than that, I am going back to Biblical times, when we Gentiles could not be part of God's people. When it came to the Hebrew People, my brothers and sisters, there were citizenship requirements for living as a citizen of God's people. Among the requirements for being a citizen of Israel were being a circumcised male; 13 years of age; know the Torah; live according to all the laws found in the Torah; and, usually, born of Jewish heritage. As the people sought to live as citizens of that Kingdom, they found it extremely difficult, and circumcision was not the biggest difficulty. The most difficult part was living according to the laws of God's Word. God's people, while wanting to claim citizenship as God's people, often found themselves living like citizens of the nations surrounding them, worshipping their false gods and participating in many of their pagan rituals. Then Jesus comes into the picture. Jesus came and did what none of the Jewish people had been able to do. Jesus was able to live completely and wholly for God, fulfilling the law, and showing the people of Israel what it meant to truly live as a citizen of God's Kingdom. More than that, God, through the actions of Jesus, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the work of Paul, opened citizenship in His Kingdom to Jew and Gentile alike. The thing is, though, on our own, no matter how much we might study or how hard we might try, we could never attain that citizenship. We could never earn the right to be called citizens of the Kingdom of God. Christ paid the price for our citizenship and the Grace of God connected us to that payment, enabling our citizenship. For the immigrant becoming a US citizen, their citizenship is the marked by the taking of the oath of allegiance. For the Jewish male, citizenship is marked by circumcision. How is our citizenship marked? By the waters of our baptism. When we pass under those waters, whether through immersion, pouring, or sprinkling, we become citizens. Looking back on the requirements for US citizenship, one of them was "reading, writing, and being able to speak English." Along with that, we have the attitude of many Americans, with regard to immigrants, that if they are going to live here, they need learn how to do things the way we do here. The attitude is that, "if you want to be a citizen of this country, then you need to live like you are in this country," not like you're still in whatever country you left. Would y'all agree that that is the sentiment of many Americans? If it is, then they are not a lot different from Paul. Too often we forget that living in the Kingdom of God is not about how we are going to be living when we die, but how we are supposed to be living now-which is why we pray, "Your Kingdom come. Your Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." Paul spends a good bit of many of his letters reminding the folks in the churches that they are now supposed to be living different. He puts it in terms of our citizenship and where we are living. For Paul, there are too many folks that claim to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, but are living as citizens of the world. Those who are living as citizens of this world, Paul suggests, are marked by the fact that they worship themselves, "...their god is their belly; and their glory is in their shame, their minds are set on earthly things." What does it mean for someone to have their belly as their God? The most obvious is the glutton who gorge themselves on rich food, tossing plates of untouched food in the trash, without regard for the hungry right outside their doors. Yet it goes beyond mere food, to those who hoard their money, their time, their energy, spending it on none but themselves. Before we get to high and mighty thinking we can name a whole lot of folks like that, how many of us fill our closets with more clothes than we could possibly wear in a good week or two, while some in the community have nothing warm to wear. How many of us have our calendars so full that we have no time to commit to bible study, worship, or service? Then there are those whose glory is in their shame. Who would be like that? Paul offered an example in the church in Corinth where a man was openly having relations with his stepmother-excited that the grace of God could cover any sin so they didn't have to change the way they were leaving. In our society today we encounter that in so many places, from those who take pride in living in sexual relationships outside God's definition of marriage. We see it in those who look down or attack those whose skin color or language is different from their own. We see it in places where the lives of those living in the womb or on death row are not protected. Our list could go on and on. My friends, where do we want to live? Where are we going to claim our citizenship? We cannot intentionally live as dual citizens of both the world and the Kingdom of God. Our allegiance has to be to one or the other. Throughout our history, the people of God have been confronted with this decision. Joshua confronted the Israelites on that matter when he said to them, "'Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.'"i Jesus puts it best when he says, "No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despite the other."ii If we want to choose to live as citizens of God's Kingdom, we need to learn to live as citizens of the kingdom. What does it mean to live in the Kingdom of Heaven as opposed to the kingdom of this world? It means letting our lives be transformed by Christ. It means living our lives in ways that reflect the fact that Jesus has made a difference in our lives. It means living in a Kingdom where generosity tops greed, where compassion replaces self-interest, where humility unseats pride, where forgiveness supplants vengeance, where sacrifice rules over self-preservation. Brothers and sisters, as we continue to reflect during this season of Lent, let us consider while we live on this earth, whether we are we living as citizens of this world, or as aliens in this land because we are truly citizens of heaven. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. i Joshua 24:14-15 ii Luke 16:13 --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ 2 Where? Philippians 3:17-4:1