Christian Citizen
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Every now and again, the charge of being too political is raised against our parish or the diocese; this Church has become way too political! This can be a fair and accurate charge against any denomination or Church where party politics and the accompanying ideological demagoguery are proclaimed with more verve, verbosity, and passion than Christ and his Gospel. More often than not, the person levying the charge is just as political as those being accused of being too political; they just don't like or agree with the politics they're hearing: so they go and find a church with a prevailing social politic that makes them feel better about themselves.
Then again, I hear the opposite critique: You're preaching, and this parish isn't political enough! We need to get out the vote for [fill in the blank], curse and condemn our political enemies, counter-the attacks of counter-culture being waged all around this nation!... from the pulpit. For some, it's easy to confuse the Government and the Church. So, to be clear, the Government isn't the Church, and the President isn't the Country's Bishop.
As Aristotle rightly observed, "Man by his very nature is a political animal." Now what we hear is something different than what the philosopher meant. We hear "political animal," and the face of the worst partisan ideologue you can imagine comes to mind. That guy or that lady who argues and fights over fiscal, social, and moral law as it pertains to their right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.
Or it's your friend or cousin who only talks or complains about politics! Or, in a more productive sense, the person who serves every cycle at the polling station or volunteers to support a local or national candidate by knocking on doors, handing out yard signs, and the like. All of these are a part of the political landscape in which we exist.
Aristotle, however, is thinking about first principles. Man, meaning everyone born and lives on the earth, is a political animal, meaning humans live within communities (in the Greek polis). Men and women organize their lives within the polis, and humans do this naturally because our nature, as given by the Trinitarian God, is communal: life is lived in the community (whether it is a good or bad community is an entirely different matter), man is made for the polis, and therefore, man lives and moves and has is being within organized city-states. That's what Aristotle means by defining us as political animals (or creatures).
If man's nature is political (in the Aristotelian sense), then his political life was envisioned and given to men by God; He made us to be political (again, living in the polis). Which is why the first polis is the family. Then in history, we see the emergence of the clan, the tribe, a people, and nations. And as you track the story of human organization in the Old Testament and history at large, you'll find it organic and natural. Before the advent of 'the citizen,' a person would have thought of him or herself as a member of a people, of the ethne, the nation in which one was born and raised, or if an alien to the ethne, entered into by formal means, like marriage, as Ruth the Moabite was received into the people of Israel through marrying Boaz.
The concept of citizenship came very late to civilization, around 2,500 years ago, in 7th century Greece. The first form of citizenship was based on the way people lived in ancient Greek times within small-scale organic communities of the polis. "Citizens" were those who had a legal right (based on codified and governing law) to participate in the affairs of the state (this is the pure understanding of politics). But by no means was everyone a citizen: slaves, peasants, women, and resident foreigners were subjects of the polis but did not bear the rights and responsibilities of civic life. Nations in time would become much more defined by the geographical border, sovereignty of rule, and laws governing all who lived within the nation-state, regardless of origin or ethnicity.
I've outlined this rough and brief historical sketch of nation-states and citizenship to arrive at my first point: you and I are citizens of the United States (assuming you were either born here or were legally naturalized). This means you have legal status with rights, privileges, and duties to defend, preserve, and fulfill as civic members of this polis called the United States: you are a political animal of a certain stripe; you are an American.
My second point is this: If you have professed faith in Jesus Christ and been baptized with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, then you are a Christian Citizen. You see, your Christianity doesn't cancel your citizenship. In fact, as a Christian, you have dual citizenship, just like St. Paul, who was a citizen of the Kingdom of God and a citizen of Rome. Today is a good opportunity to remember our dual citizenship and, more importantly, not neglect, conflate, or confuse the two.
I want to say unequivocally that we are called by God to fully embrace our citizenship in heaven and on earth and fully participate in both. Its time for Christians to embrace and not be ashamed of being Citizens of this great Country of ours, kick apathy to the curb, and participate in the polis as Christians because your first and primary identity is as a son and daughter of God, the brother or sister of the Lord Jesus Christ, members incorporated into Christ's body on earth, his Church. Your first allegiance is to the Lord Jesus Christ, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness."
But we also have secondary identities, which carry secondary yet important responsibilities: 'husband' is a second identity category, as does a U.S. citizen. And as I said, secondary doesn't correspond with unimportant; would you consider raising children to be God-fearing and virtuous citizens of society unimportant? Of course not! But also remember the primary devotion and allegiance that our Lord Jesus demands: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (Lk 14:26). Primary things must remain primary and secondary things can never become primary.
The founders of this great nation and the bishops of the protestant episcopal Church had far less separation, tension, and existential angst when it came to Christianity and nationalism. Consider what we're doing right now? We are observing a Prayer Book feast day celebrating the Independence of the United States of America and the birth of this incredible nation. Listen to the rubrics attending to the form of Prayer and Thanksgiving for our Country as proposed for the very first American Prayer Book of 1786, Prayers and Thanksgivings: For the inestimable Blessings of Religious and Civil Liberty, to be used yearly Fourth Day of July unless it happens to be on Sunday, and then on following. The changes made in the 1928 Prayer Book included adding a proper Collect, Epistle, and Gospel reading to celebrate independence with the Order of Holy Communion (as we are doing today).
In the Daily Office, we pray for our Government leaders, our Country, our shared civic life, and all the peoples of this land. Once again, we pray for those who govern us in the Prayers for the Whole State of the Church, that all Christian rulers may truly and impartially administer justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion and virtue. As Anglicans, our dual citizenship is exercised simultaneously, yet never confused, mixed, or conflated. We pray (to God) for our nation (the polis). In doing so, you are a political animal, but more than that, you are a Christian political animal.
Meaning your citizenship is much more difficult to carry out because you are born again, a citizen of heaven, and your political life on earth by necessity must be exercised in the name by which you are called, the name by which you were marked, the name above all names: Jesus Christ, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. In all its various aspects and forms, Christian citizenship should look like Jesus. For example, submission to authority. St. Paul exhorts Christians to submit to governmental authority because civil authority is God's institution and will punish wrongdoers and praise those who do good (13:1-5). We submit to the authority over us as Jesus submitted to the Father.
Taxes are another good example. Paul, sounding a lot like Jesus, exhorted the Roman Christians to pay taxes as well, writing, "Therefore one must be in subjection [to governing authorities], not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. Because of this, you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed" (Rom 13:5-7). Obedience to the governing law of this nation and respectful submission to those in authority is commanded by God and a means of sanctification; nation-states (good or bad) are gracious gifts given by God to sanctify the Church.
I'm interested in Christian Nationalism, not National Christian ism, meaning one word is supposed to modify the other, not the other way around. Our love of the nation and civic participation at the local, state and national levels must be Christian. Again, as Christians, the bar of political life is set much higher for us because we are called to carry out the civic law according to the greater law of loving God and loving our neighbor. In our day, the American idea is suffering greatly. It's not as clearly discerned as it once may have been; it's obfuscated far too much by unhealthy partisanship, secular orthodoxy, apathy, and anger; societal and civic diseases corroding and chipping away at the Divine idea for our national life as it is expressed through our political activities and social institutions. We have forgotten the most important ingredient, the one thing which binds any union, let alone a nation: and that is the virtue of charity. Within our national life, brother is sadly the enemy. And how will we live up to the Divine ideal if brother is against brother and sister against sister? Will our differences and oppositions finally break the bond we share as citizens? Do our faith and the word of God allow for such finality of separation? Surely not.
Christian nationalism, our civic and political life honors God by doing all things in love, especially when we love our enemies whose political, ideological, ethical, and moral crusades neither align with our societal interests nor, more importantly, the faith we hold as revealed in Holy Scripture. Our Lord says to us this evening, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." But let me be clear, "love your enemies" isn't synonymous with abdicating your civic responsibility to uphold, defend, and preserve every good, true, and beautiful thing we enjoy in this Country.
Far too many Christians have confused love with resigning to be nice, to be civil, to disengage from political life, but political life is societal life, and societal life is the natural, God-given polis in which we, our children, and grandchildren will live out the days of their lives. As members of the polis, we are given the duty and responsibility of stewarding our national life for the better! Like marriages and friendships: good things can vanish if not protected and fought for.
Friends, let us take this occasion to heed the Psalmist's words and lift our eyes to the God who is our helper. And looking to him, let us humbly repent of our sins and the sins of our fathers, for our collective national sins, both past and present. Because without the help of the Lord, we don't stand a chance. Beloved, as Christian citizens of this United States of America, let us declare this both a day of dependence and a day of independence.
Without God's grace, we will not maintain these liberties in righteousness and peace but squander them through wickedness and discord. And we would do well to remember that this beautiful and bountiful Country where we enjoy such sweet liberty and unparalleled freedoms is a providential gift from the God of Heaven. The rocks and rills, woods and templed hills; spacious skies and amber waves of grain; the purple mountain majesties who tower above-fruited plains… all a gift from God's gracious hand. Amen+
