Christian Citizenship

I am writing the "Pastor's Pen" column for the Ada Herald this month. Here is this week's article:

Barak Obama made a surprise stop at a Lima church this past Sunday. The pastor didn’t receive final confirmation of Obama’s visit until 8:00 that morning. The press and others around Lima didn’t get wind of his stop until they saw police barricades around the church. Everyone was caught off guard at his coming.

The thing that surprised me about his stop wasn’t so much that he came but the way the worship service went on without much fanfare. The pastor said that he resisted the urge to alter his sermon to preach at Obama. The candidate himself didn’t address the congregation from the pulpit. He simply sat under the preaching of God’s word and worshipped.

Far too often we see churches becoming platforms for political candidates, either right or left. Pastors take to the pulpit to say their candidate is God’s man for the job. The candidate delivers a message—half sermon, half pep talk—to people who you never would have imagined came together in the first place to worship Jesus Christ.

This disturbing trend makes the fact that Sunday’s worship in Lima managed to stay a worship service both remarkable and commendable. The bible reminds Christians that “our citizenship is in heaven.” (Phil 3:20) Yes we are Americans, but Christians are citizens of God’s kingdom first and foremost, and as the Apostle Paul continues in that passage, “we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is tempting, in an election year, for Christians in both political parties to forget that their hopes ultimately rest in a king whom they cannot see. With political conventions dominating the airwaves, candidates from both parties making astounding promises, and the media giving round the clock coverage, it is easy to get swept up in the tide of enthusiasm for politics itself as a kind of national savior.

The Psalmist reminds us that “God is king of all the earth,” and in scripture we see God raising up kings with one hand and deposing kings with the other. It is the Lord God and his son Jesus Christ who, in the power of the Holy Spirit, hold out the promise of salvation. It is right to gather and worship this great God, keeping politics in proper perspective—subservient to God, who alone “reigns over the nations.” (Psalm 47:8)