Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Citizenship

 

It was as I was leaving the Navy

that I realised that my passport

was about to expire.

 

Needless to say the Crown

felt disinclined to spend any money

on its renewal

and ever since

I have never quite

got round to it either.

 

So for the time being

I still hold my old blue Passport.

 

Something I am not sorry about.

 

For unlike those

rather politically correct European ones,

the British laisie faire

left its reader in do doubt

about their responsibilities towards its holder.

 

Indeed, I can imagine myself

in some far flung corner

of the globe

faced with unspeakable desperados

bent on some ghastly indignity.  

Intentions however

that evaporate

on reading my passports cover that proclaims that

Her Britannic Majesty

requests and requires

the bearer to pass freely

and without hindrance.

 

For, by hoakey,

that very whiff

of our nation’s muskets and battleships

would put the wind up

any malcontent.

 

And it was this very leverage

of powerful Citizenship

that Paul knew all about.

 

Indeed he used it

to great effect

for his work for Christ.

 

Let’s now hear how Acts reports it

 

Our first lesson is read by………… (Acts 22.23-29)

 

Anthem

 

 

I don’t know if you read it,

but recently the current owners of the board game Monopoly are looking to make an edition based on another British city other than London.  

 

So I suppose if Dundee won

we could expect

the Occidental, Broughty

to be as famous

as the Angel, Islington.

 

But Monopoly’s most famous gift to the English language

is the phrase –

get out of Jail free card.

However, Paul did not just regard his

native born Roman Citizenship as purely to spring him

from jail,

he saw it as carrying

distinct responsibilities as well.

 

And that brings us

to one of

the most contentious passages in the Bible –

not from a theological point

of view

but from a political one.

 

For despite

the undoubted brutality

of the Slave owning,

crucifying and oppressing Roman Empire,

Paul still counselled

the support of its institutions.

 

Because to him,

at its most basic level, his nationality was

a barrier to chaos,

lawlessness and tribalism.

 

Yet even as citizens

of a liberal democracy,

that text still asks

huge questions

as to our sense of citizenship today.

 

Let us then hear these

Historically difficult words

as they are read to us

by….. (Romans 13.1-5)

HYMN……………….

 

 

Now between the times

that Paul wrote

such sage advice

to the Early Christians of Rome and the Edict

that declared Christianity

the religion of the Empire, there were many

great persecutions.

 

Initially these were

rather ad hoc pogroms

but in due course

they became both

state driven

and highly effective

at killing our forebears in faith.

 

Times then indeed,

when the words of Paul

must have seemed hollow, mocking

and worthy of a through ignoring.

 

Yet eventually

some 300 years later, Christianity did triumph

over paganism

and immediately

many who had fought

the good fight said

that the whole thing

had become too easy.

 

As a result,

some went out into wild places and took to

the simple and prayerful life.

 

And of these early monks

my favourites

where the stylites.

 

These were saints

like Simeon

who spend years

on top of pillars in the desert;

a life literally secluded

from

a contaminating world below.

 

 

Yet whilst

I have a sneaking regard

for those

who follow the monastic life

of separateness,

ultimately I believe

we are called

as Christians

to a much more demanding environment.

 

And that is to be

faithful advocates for Christ

in this sometimes

bonny and other times

tacky and corrupt

and pain-filled world.

 

For this is the sphere,

so full of temptations, distractions and dichotomies, that we as authentic believers need to be

fully participating citizens.

 

Because how else then

can we be its salt and its light; its rememberers of the past and conscience of the present; indeed, gatekeepers

to its integrity

and the shapers of its future.  

 

 

It was one cold day

in old Glasgow town

that as

a newly demobbed student,

I broke the rule –

I put my hands

in my jacket pockets.

 

In an instant

the programming of 16 years

of military life vanished.

 

Because the greatest sin

in the Royal Navy

was to walk around

with your hands

in your pockets.

 

And you know –

it felt good,

it felt like a statement

and it felt

as if I had left a bit

of the past behind.

 

But recently

I have noted

my other small breaks

with previous taboos;

not least

to make no political statements at all.

 

Now at the moment

these are no more than appending my name

to petitions

for things like

African poverty

and modern slavery.

 

But maybe one day,

I’ll email

our political representatives upon some issue

of national concern.

 

Yet for now

I am savouring

the thought that I can.

 

Indeed, pondering

on the thought

that I should.

 

Because today’s study

of the Books of Acts

and Romans

reminds us that interaction

with

our nation’s political processes is not just a luxury

for the Christian

but a right and duty.

 

An entitlement incidentally

that was fought

for 63 years ago this week

at places called Juno,

Sword, Omaha and Utah.

 

Therefore as Christian citizens of our nation,

we do have responsibilities

to ensure

that our country’s intuitions

are fit for purpose

in a moral, impartial

and wise way;

that our politicians

too are aware of our admonishment

when they move away

from sound principles

and receive our encouragement when they take courageous stances

for wholesome policies.

 

Not only that,

but we need to be vigilant

that our nation’s businesses are honestly run

without exploitation

of any party.

 

And we can only fulfil

that duty

by entering

the public arena

and making our voices heard.

 

 Yet our study also

I believe

makes another point clear.

 

And it is that

our exercising responsible citizenship

and our thoughtful involvement in the political process

call for a response

from the intuitions

of our nation.

 

For they too have

a responsibility

to hear the Church’s voice,

to acknowledge God

as finer arbiter

of right or wrong

than any humanistic manifesto or balance sheet

and to accept

that divine policies

have stood the test of time rather better

than any political party,  economic demand

or –ism of the day!

 

 

All of what I have said so far

is summed up

by Adrian Hastings who wrote:

 

A religion of pure spirituality

is no religion at all.

 

For God is God of everything.

 

And without such a God

and without humans

making  his will conscious,

there can be

no absolute critique  

of evil government

and corrupt politics;

no tradition of prophesy.

 

 

If then true Citizenship

is prophet

without over due regard

for personal loss,

how do we express it?

 

I really couldn’t believe my ears but it was a woman

telling her story on the radio.

 

Apparently she thought

her husband was a CIA agent.

 

And so she fell for

all his explanations

about other wives,

trouble with the police

and even watches

that sent him messages

as cover.

 

Needless to say

she found out it

was a tissue of lies.

 

But then the exercise

of wisdom

particularly loving wisdom

is such hard work.

 

However it that

very labour

that active Christian Citizenship requires of us.

 

Because, often,

the apparently

most obvious solution

no matter how worthy

to a problem

is the wrong one.

 

Take the dramatic situation

at the start

of the First World War.

 

For if Britain

had not mobilised

then that ghastly conflict

would not have happened.

 

Yet a few decades later

a forthright stand

against Nazi Germany

instead of appeasement

would have prevented

another appalling holocaust.

 

 

Therefore today

we also face the need

for just such profound wisdom; to find the truly great decision in place of  the showy

and one-dimensional

and inane one;

the need

in fact

for the tortuously effort

of Church and nation re-engagement.

 

Because we are facing

very difficult choices

in national defence;

almost insurmountable challenges

with the environment

and very real conflicts

between individual freedoms and the protection

of law abiding citizens.

 

 

These then do demand

our consistent mental struggle followed by resolute

and wise advocacy.

 

Moreover, these issues

require prayer;

the prayer of the psalmist

for wisdom;

the prayer for the gifts

of spirit’s guidance;

the prayer to be

as our lord told us

to be as shrewd as snakes

and as innocent as doves.

 

Certainly this was the sort

of wisdom

Paul that was recorded

as exercising

in the book of acts.

 

For be in no doubt that

he faced that day torture

that could easily

have proved fatal.

 

Yet although he was willing

to die for Christ

when it was the right moment, until then

he used his citizenship wisely

to continue

to work in Christian obedience for the ultimate betterment

of his nation’s institutions

and their

more moral impact

upon the world.  

 

For in his preaching the gospel he was no mans fool

but a fool only to his Lord.

 

Let then also

our modern Citizenship aspire to be like Paul

and James the sixth –

to being the wisest fools

in Christendom.

 

President Bartlett

in the American political series – west wing

complained to his wife

about a church homily

he had just heard.

 

Yet the nature of his grouse

is relevant for us

in our study today.

 

For he wasn’t offended

by the sermon’s content instead

it was that the preacher

had an audience

and he didn’t know

what to do with it.

 

Well, the church today

still has an audience

but there is a danger of

not thinking what to do with it.

 

For the sacrifice of many

who have gone before

have given us

the means of entering

the democratic debate.

 

However, we,

like modern day stylises

sit aloof,

separate and unengaged.

 

But this was never Paul intention

for his newly Christian audience.

 

Because he saw the nation

as offering the way

to a fairer

and more moral relationship between individuals;

he saw its institutions

as the rough hewn

tools of justice

and citizenship as a golden opportunity

to turn naked power

towards the will of God.  

 

For that reason Willie Barclay once wrote

of our passage

from Romans like this:

 

Paul saw the state

as the instrument in the hands of God;

the state preserving

the world from chaos;

those who administer

whether they know it or not are doing God’s work.  

 

And it is the Christians duty

to help and not hinder.

 

And that is my final point –

for our role as Christian citizens is not just to prod

however wisely

the national powerbases

but rather to formulate

a complete plan

for how God

could further use our nation,

its institutions

and our fellow citizens.  

 

It is then to express

his comprehensive agenda

with force, candour

and resolution.

 

It is to provide outspokenly

An all-embracing  compass

for our state

which is often

all at sea

in a maelstrom of views, opinions and dogmas.

 

Indeed, it is to ever expound

in every forum

the divine’s manifesto

for the ethical, spiritual

and deeply sensible.  

 

For then we

as the body of Christ

will be part of

the body of the nation;

for then

we are working for Christ

to be the core of the nation;

for then

we risk like Paul

that all three –

Christ, citizens and nation - becoming one!

 

I was amused last week

by a cartoon

pinned up in St Mary’s vestry.  

 

It shows a stock Scotsman

in kilt

sticking his head out of

a polling booth

and saying –

I’ve have a new

west Lothian question –

how in heavens name

do you vote.

 

Well, let not the shambles

of our last election

put us off.

 

Rather may we be inspired

by Acts

to answer

the difficult national questions of today.

 

The question of making Christian citizenship a reality.

 

The question of making

Christ’s wisdom heard

in the political debates

of our nation.

 

And the question

of guarding jealously

our right to express

a distinctly Christian view

even when

it is not in phase

with a passing fad.

 

For that was

Paul’s vision of citizenship;  

the vision

of John F Kennedy

when he said

the wave of the future

is in the liberation

of free nations

and free men

and the vision

of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer

which asks for

a realm godly

and peacefully governed.  

 

Because these are indeed

the political and spiritual answers towards our nation,

without let or hindrance,

without fear or favour,

being the very instrument of God.

 

Amen

 

Offering

 

HYMN……..

 

Citizenship