“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me . . .” bellows out Lee Greenwood and American patriots.
And appropriately so . . . Yet . . .
“Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded like dust on the scales . . . Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing” (Isaiah 40:15-17).
Challenging words from an eternal angle. Against that awareness, American pride seems trivial. Surely multitudes of nations have existed and exist, probably will exist. In view of the universe’s age, they, we, are indeed drops in the historical bucket. All that national pride . . . yet against eternity, just what is it worth?
Stuck in the finite with a craving awareness for the eternal. Therein lies our rub. I’m an American, cultured in America, and thankful for it, even appropriately proud of it, appropriately thankful for the patriotic sacrifices which have procured it. In light of that, I seek to be a faithful citizen--informed, voting, paying the taxes, keeping the laws . . .
Still, the God who transcends history and time--including the time drop of America, continues to invite all via the sacrifice of His Son, “whose blood purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation,” to an eternal kingdom (Revelation 5:9). The God over eternity, the God behind eternity, entered time and space as specifically as you and I have. Cultured as a Jew in Palestine under the oppressive weight of the Roman empire, however, a patriotic glint (or glare) was not to be found in his eye. To the fury of fellow Jews, Jesus seemed unconcerned with Roman possession and oppression of the Holy Land. Instead, he was passionately concerned with people’s openness to the presence of the eternal kingdom in their midst--Jews or gentiles. He still is.
Unfortunately, His church, his purported kingdom on earth, has at worst, deliberately neglected and at best, ignorantly forgotten His eternal kingdom passion and has instead steeped itself in nationalism and political agendas. Certainly, life in this world is full of necessary even if undesirable entanglements, yet the church has not really found them undesirable. To the contrary, it has found them appealing. Drenched in finite power, it has lost its eternal moorings, and consequently, its efficacy and credibility.
And yet, for those who have discovered His kingdom, their taste and subsequent hunger for more of it has transformed the world, life-to-life, heart-to-heart. The kingdom comes in this manner. Jesus himself, though crowds certainly gathered, actually built relationships with only handful of minimally educated, even troubled, men and women, opening their eyes to an eternal kingdom. He bypassed Caesar, the religious authorities, the local authorities, instead dropping eternity into individual hearts who would share it in love with other individual hearts.
That’s a kingdom paradox: against its eternity, all the nations a drop in the bucket, large political entities and organizations next to nothing, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). Regardless of gender, tribe, locale, nation, or birthright, the kingdom is open. And it is passed in love relationally, never coercively, never manipulatively, never politically.
Nonetheless, a proper engagement in the finite political scene can establish and enhance an environment fit for kingdom engagements: freedom of thought and free exchange of ideas and debate, freedom to worship or not. An appropriate separation of church and state is essential as the church seems to completely forget salvation by grace when it tastes wordly power. Thankfully our country’s founders--Deist or Christian--understood that. They understood that the notion of God is essential to the undergirding of our dignity in rights and freedoms. Without God, then dignity, rights, and valuing freedom are quite simply evolved contrivances and constructs--nice, even essential, yet contrived constructs nonetheless. But they also understood that when finite powers seep into eternal perspectives, those eternal perspectives are trumped by prideful political mandates and dictates.
All the above to say to non-Christians whose non-interest in faith in Christ has a lot to do with the political behavior of Christians, I am very sorry. And I would encourage you to consider the person of Christ, who is the entire point of Christianity. You’ll not only be impressed by his lack of political motive, but you may be impressed how he lived with overt eternal values and expressed them with refreshing, yet disconcerting, ease. In the testimonies of those who encountered him, you’ll find that his kingdom is certainly not of this world but is imperative to this world.
And to politically-motivated Christians of any stripe, it is exciting, even necessary at times, to engage in politics and government, but let’s avoid associating the God of eternity, the God who considers the nations a drop in the bucket, with any political party or agenda or any nation. Our calling is clear: to pass the love that rules in God’s kingdom heart-to-heart, life-to-life. Politics has never gotten that done.
His kingdom is boundary-less, open to all nations, tribes, and races, for He has given His life to redeem them all. And his kingdom is a saving grace from even the tyranny of the American dream.
So I’m proud to be an American, but ultimately my “citizenship is in heaven” by God’s saving grace (Philippians 3:20). May that citizenship always be prime.
