Heavenly citizenship: living as Christ’s ambassadors in a divided world

“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

(Lightstock)

…Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of you doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority, whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a coverup for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”

1 Peter 2:9, 11–17

We live in a time of increased polarization and hostility, with our use of social media and other forms of communication frequently serving merely to fan the flames.

True dialogue—or actually listening—seems to be in short supply as we lobby for our point of view, often unaware of the “flavour of Kool-Aid” we ourselves are consuming. COVID, as our first pandemic, placed the church andourselves as believers under the lens. And in many cases, we were sadly found wanting.

To get even more personal, perhaps uncomfortable, I’ve sat in some of our own Conference Council sessions andheard unkind words or outright attacks over the issue of female leadership as both sides threw darts at each other. So, let’s not pretend that the problem doesn’t touch us.

As pessimistic as this may sound, a good question for us as believers today is: what is our core identity—the identity that shapes our beliefs, values and practices?

Is it possible for us as Christians to engage political issues and still love each other well? Can we hold to a both/and way of engaging deeply while loving widely—have political convictions, but treat people who disagree with respect? To quote Francis Schaeffer, “How then shall we live?”

Given the volatility of our cultural moment, being perceptive and peaceable might well be the most vilified option by people inside or outside of the church. But the Bible guides us to ground our ethics in the character of Christ. Hisvalues must guide how we conduct ourselves in conversation and on social media as we engage with the politicalprocess.

For a long time in the U.S., the perceived overlap between U.S. values and kingdom of God values beguiled theminto thinking they were a Christian nation. Some even believe that, with the right candidates in office, the U.S. could become some sort of Christian utopia, a morally upright nation. Maybe some of us are also dreaming of that for Canada.

You might be party to the idea of trying to bring Christendom back. But I think the evidence strongly suggests thatthis won’t stave off moral bankruptcy. The end does not justify the means. It’s not the Jesus way; character matters.

It’s far more important that we honour Jesus by embodying his values than that we win an election or an argument.Our society desperately needs to know that there is truth for their life: not angry truth, not arrogant truth, not condescending truth, but humble truth.

Paul and Peter tell us to think of ourselves as citizens of another realm, the kingdom of God in Christ. We’re an outpost of heaven wherever we live, representing heaven’s King, inviting others into the kingdom of heaven by making disciples. The fact that Christians are exiles and foreigners wherever we live, means that our beliefs, values, and practices must be shaped more by the kingdom of God than by our culture. It reminds us that God’s kingdom receives our deepest allegiance, and his honour must be our highest concern—far above our national identity or our political leanings. The way in which we carry ourselves must not be according to the flesh, but in line with the character of Christ. And our core mission is to be Jesus’ ambassadors, living as citizens of heaven strategically placed in our particular corner of the world.

We dare not trade our call to be the people of God for some lesser agenda or allegiance. And when our “brand ofKool-Aid,” whichever side we’re on, overtakes our kingdom calling, we lose our voice of truth and our prophetic critique.

I remember when Miguel Obando y Bravo became a cardinal in Nicaragua. He could have stood in the gap between the Contras and the Sandinistas, but he sold out to one side. And so, when that problem became huge, there was no mediator.

We’re not discipling people to be Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. That’s not to say that there's a moral equivalence between the two political platforms. It is to say that the goal of Christian discipleship is far deeper and more nuanced than point-by-point alignment with a political party. When we believe in Jesus just somewhere in the back of our minds, but we feel our politics in our bones, we’re going to disciple people to be lesscitizens of Jesus’ kingdom and more zealots of a partisan platform.

You know you’re becoming more of a zealot of the right or the left than a citizen of King Jesus when you become one hand clapping. You start seeing that one political party is always wrong, and the people on that side as worthy of nothing but contempt.

Unity in diversity is not political and cultural uniformity, but a grace-based posture amid political and cultural diversity. If we can figure out how to love each other well, amid cultural tensions and political disagreements, then we can show a wounded world the way forward. This is of far greater importance than criticizing culture for all its shortcomings and sins.

Christian hopefulness keeps on trusting God and practicing its convictions regardless of who is in power (By the way, the passage above from 1 Peter was written in the first century which included the reign of Nero). When it comes to following Jesus in a politically divided world, we must never forget that our hope is in Jesus and his kingdom. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we look for a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We live out our identity as salt and light by shining forth our good works, as Matthew 5 says, in such a way thatpeople glorify our Father in heaven. What a difference it would make if we became genuinely good human beings who embody the character of Christ by grace and by the Holy Spirit.

When Christians engage in angry attacks on their political enemies, or when they give themselves over to fear andanxiety about their future, they demonstrate that their hope is misplaced. Our hope is King Jesus and nowhere else. Our core mission is to make disciples and to embody the values of Jesus’ kingdom. And we place our expectations for safety, security, and flourishing, not in the kingdoms of humanity, but in the kingdom of Jesus.

He alone is the true hope of the world, and we get the honour of telling others—and retelling ourselves—the best possible news: Jesus is King. Amen.