Sunday, February 28, 2010

Citizens of Heaven

As we continue our Lenten journey, our spring journey to Easter, this second Sunday in Lent has some "interesting" text (that is pastor code for I have no clue why they were put together and I'm really glad these text only come around once every three years." The text are Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18, Philippians 3:17-4:1 and Luke 13:31-35. This sermon focuses mainly on the Philippians text.


Before anyone starts heckling I just wanted to clarify something about my sermon last week. Last week I talked about how the word Lent means spring and spring is a season of hope and how between Ash Wednesday and Easter we will gain 2 hours of daylight a day and the average high temperature will increase by about 15 degrees. Well this last week hasn’t been that spring like. The snow, the cold rain has felt more like winter than anything else. We haven’t really seen the sun at all much less the additional half hour of daylight we are suppose to be having each day. But spring doesn’t happen at once, it is a gradual process that takes a few months. Meteorologically and astronomically speaking, spring last from March 21st through June 20th. Most basic calendars will lump March, April and May together as spring. So why not liturgically, in the view of the church, spring last for these 40 days before Easter.

Because again spring is a gradual process that brings us from the depths of winter’s cold grasps to the warm bright days of summer. And Lent brings us from the despair, the focus on our human sinful selves at Ash Wednesday to the joyous, glory-filled days of Easter. We are in this process now. And this process takes time. We are moving from focusing on ourselves to focusing on God. There will be set backs, times when we turn from focusing outward on God to focusing inward on ourselves, just like during spring there are still cold fronts that blow through. But we have been given the hope and the promise that we will see the Easter glory.

Jesus promised to continue his work in today’s gospel, regardless of what Herod was threatening, regardless of how many warnings he received. Paul reminds us that we are citizens of heaven and that is where we are expecting a Savior who will transform us. But again these things take time and there are different levels.

We became citizens of the United States at our birth or at a naturalization ceremony. But what does being a citizen mean, can there be different levels of citizenship? Does it mean just living in a particular geographical area? In October Bob and I finally became Connecticut residents and therefore citizens when we got our drivers license. Or maybe being a citizen of a town, state or country means having a sense of hometown pride? People have been cheering for the US Olympic team in sports they have never heard of – WooHoo go curling! As a nation we have been cheering for people that we have never heard of and whose names we won’t remember the next day, all because of the flag on their clothing.
Or maybe being a citizen means knowing certain facts about the history of the area and how the government works? That is what we require of anyone who is becoming a naturalized citizen. Maybe being a citizen has to do more with what is going on in our heart. People get emotional listening to the national anthem. And I believe that one of the biggest reasons there is so much partisanship currently in our government has mostly to do with how emotional everyone is about the issues our government is facing, we realize the policies the government sets directly effects us and there is a heighten level of emotion. So maybe it is the fact that people care enough to be emotional about what is going on that makes them a citizen.

So then what makes us a citizen of heaven? We were claimed as daughters and sons of God at our baptism when water was poured out upon us and we were marked with the cross of Christ forever. So is it just baptism that makes us citizens? Maybe being a citizen of heaven means taking residence, having a place to claim. So maybe it means having a church “home” even if you only come once or twice a year to maintain your residency. Or maybe being a citizen of heaven means having a sense of pride in the place. Many of you have a sense of pride in Bethlehem. You are proud of what this little church accomplishes, in this calendar year alone, the Sunday School has raise about $200 to purchase health kits and another $100 plus a few grocery bags full of food were given to Redding Social Services and the people of Bethlehem have donated over a thousand dollars to Lutheran World Relief for Haiti. And the ELCA as a whole has donated over 5.2 million dollars to Haiti. That is something to be proud about. Is this level of pride what makes us a citizen of heaven? And many Christians can easily recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed, a few bible verse, and many of the members of this congregation know various facts and stories about its history. Is it this knowledge make a citizen of heaven?

And how does being a citizen of heaven make us emotional? Where are the heated debates about what is right for heaven? Where do we cheer on team heaven? Where do fight for the church? Maybe that happens when we stop just going to church and start being the church. When we stop making going to church an activity that we do on Sunday mornings and instead become the church which is who we are and not just something that we, it is then that we are truly citizens of heaven. When we stop compartmentalizing our lives into the secular and the sacred which keeps going to church in one little box and instead realize that we ARE the church and everything we do is sacred, we are citizens of heaven. When we just go to church these relationship that we develop with our fellow congregation members and with God are just surface relationships, but when we become the church we take risks as we enter gospel centered relationships and these relationships with other and with God become deep, personal, lasting relationships. When we just go to church we pretend that everything is okay and that we are perfect, but when we become the church we admit that we are human, broken, in need of healing, in need of prayers and we trust that those around us will support us in our weakest hours, just as we have support them.

Being a citizen of heaven takes time. We are constantly growing in our relationship with God, we are constantly learning new things about ourselves, about our fellow citizens, about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. When we are citizens of heaven, when we ARE the church, we are constantly learning more through prayer, through scripture, through worship. And we hear and trust in God’s promise. We trust in the hope of the resurrection, we trust that Jesus will continue his work regardless of threats and warning. We trust that the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ will transform our bodies into his glory.

It is these promises that we hope for this Lent. It is these promises that we look forward to at Easter, at the resurrection. We know that these promises will not happen instantly much like winter does not instantly transform into summer. Sometime these promises will take longer to fulfill then we would hope for, like Abram waiting for a child. Sometimes the work seems to be in vain, like Jesus trying to gather the people of Jerusalem. And sometimes those promises will not be reveled here on earth but in heaven, like the promise of our citizenship in heaven. But we still live in trust and in hope of those promises.

Let us pray:

God of the covenant, be with us this Lent. Transform us. Allow us to live in trust and in hope of your promises. Guide us as we become the church. Remind us that we are citizens of heaven today and each day. In your holy name we pray, Amen.

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