16 Jun Serving Christ by Serving Our Country
It seems hard to believe, but where I live, we are in our 14th week of Coronavirus quarantine. Like other states, we are systematically beginning to reopen our economy and social structure, and are praying for the best as we do.
We’ve been through another unsettling week. News about the Coronavirus – one of the stories of the century – has been eclipsed by news of riots, political upheaval in major cities, and further polarization of progressives and conservatives in political discourse. No issue is so innocent but what it can be used to attack and malign and advance the chaos around us.
While it can be unsettling for Christians to witness this disconcerting spectacle, we have several truths we can call on for balance.
- First is that many of us have witnessed deeply unsettling national crises before.
These are things that we weathered as a nation. We remember the riots in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention where students and police clashed violently as the whole world watched.
There were other massive riots protesting the Vietnam War. Then, there was the Kent State shootings, in which 13 unarmed Kent State University students in Kent, Ohio, were shot by the Ohio National Guard during a peace rally against expanding involvement in the Vietnam War.
In 1965, there were the Watts riots, a series of violent confrontations between Los Angeles police and residents of Watts and other predominantly African-American neighborhoods of South-Central Los Angeles. The immediate cause of the disturbance was the arrest of an African-American man by white California Highway Patrol officer on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Some witnesses felt that excessive force was used to subdue him.
The riots resulted in the deaths of 34 people, while more than 1000 were injured. Television cameras rolled as hundreds of buildings and whole city blocks were burned to the ground. Firefighters were unable to work, because police could not protect them from the rioters.
All of these were deeply unsettling, but we found a way, as a nation, to get back on our feet and start moving forward again. Things are different now. We are even more deeply divided as a country now than we were then. But we are a resilient people, and we have an impressive history of recovery from social discord. We can pray fervently that, by God’s grace and blessing, we will be able to recover from this discord.
- Second, Christians have another citizenship… a heavenly citizenship.
That does not mean that we don’t care about our earthly citizenship, we do! And it doesn’t mean that we don’t work hard to make this as great a country as it can be, we do! But it also means that, at the same time we may love and work for our earthly country, we also have a heavenly country that is perfect.
One day we will graduate to that kingdom, a truth from which we can take strength and encouragement and hope. In that kingdom, all will be well forever. So, now, if we cannot affect the degree of change we wish we could in this country, all our hope is not on earth. We serve our earthly country, but put our final hope in our heavenly country.
- Finally, it can move us to use our heavenly citizenship to serve our earthly country well.
We do this, not only because that will make our earthly country a better place, but also because we can use our service to this country to introduce others to our heavenly country.
As John Stonestreet wrote in a recent Breakpoint Commentary:
Christians, according to Paul, are reconciled in order to become reconcilers (2 Corinthians 5). Though we know the brokenness in the world and in the human heart will not be fully overcome until the day every knee bows to Christ as Lord, we also model today what that restored world will look like, even if only on a small level.
In every age and era of history, there are examples of reconciliation and restoration in the midst of brokenness. Including right now.
In communities across the country, including Grand Rapids, Michigan and Atlanta, Georgia, volunteers and churches are cleaning up their communities after riots. One Christian from Atlanta described the work this way, “We feel like it’s our duty as Christ followers to not only stand up for justice but to also stand up for our city. One of the ways we get to express that is by helping to clean up and rebuilding.”
Another remarkable scene in several cities across America is police and protesters crossing lines to communicate, pray, and even march together. An especially powerful example took place at a protest in Ft. Worth which seemed to be on the verge of violence. Police Chief Ed Krause and Assistant Chief Julie Swearingin made their way through the crowd, met with protestors, knelt, and joined them in prayer. A protestor who tried to disrupt the prayers was shut down by other protestors.
Francis of Assisi famously prayed “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love . . . Where there is discord, let me bring union.” Repairing damage, cleaning up debris, praying, partnering, intentionally creating lines of communication and building bridges across divides are all ways to become instruments of peace. (https://www.breakpoint.org/becoming-instruments-of-peace-in-times-of-hatred-go-and-do-likewise/)
Conclusion
As C. S. Lewis once wrote, “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world are just the ones that thought the most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so in effective in this. Aim at Heaven and you’ll get the earth “thrown in”; aim at earth and you’ll get neither.”
So, as we witness the upheaval shaking our country, we need not witness it as those who have no hope. We have our unshakable hope in Christ and His eternal kingdom to which we belong.
And, we have hope that by reflecting Him to the world around us, serving our fellow citizens however God may lead, we can make our world a better place, as well as point others to Him.
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