We Aren't Home Yet

I turned left down that familiar, winding road, nearly running on autopilot through the curves as I made my way home. When you know where you’re going it’s easier to notice your surroundings. I’ve driven this road nearly every day for three years. But this year it looks different. More flags. More red and blue coloring the way home. 

One flag hangs boldly from a balcony. The flag is nearly the size of a billboard, alerting every passerby to their political convictions. A truck flies by me, its flags (and its message) whipping in the wind. On a side-street, I notice a large sign that has been torn apart, defaced, half of it left lying in the grass, as a visual declaration of disapproval. It gets put back together only to have it knocked down again the next day.

I think about my homeland for the rest of my drive home. This feels nothing like “home.” This does not feel like safety. This does not give me pride. Are these my people?

FAMILY DRAMA

A 2014 Pew Research study confirmed what we already know: statistically speaking, Democrats and Republicans are more ideologically divided than twenty years prior (1994). And the divide was much more severe in the last ten years than in the previous ten years.

From 2004-2014, a lot has happened, of course. The advent of the iPhone and social media forever changed the way we communicate. We were in the thick of war in the Middle East under President Bush, economic recession and ethical revisions to the law under President Obama, and several Supreme Court justices' transition. All of this is data captured before Donald Trump announcing a run for the Presidency.

Fast forward six years, most of us would likely agree that the ideological divide is even more severe. One insider makes this observation about the nature of the political landscape: "It's us versus them…By and large politics is no longer about people participating in a shared project of societal order. There is very little desire to actually persuade. The strategy nowadays is to acquire enough political power to have your way."

Here's the unique challenge that we face: It's not just we have these disagreements with people on our street, in our neighborhood, at our jobs. We have disagreements over these issues with people in our church body. We do life—spiritual life—with people who do not share our political sentiments. These disagreements aren’t just over whether we should invest big money to fix our infrastructure deficit. Our disagreements are over much more significant issues.  Disagreements that our culture would consider "polarized" from one another. One guy wants to “turn the state blue.” Another guy flies Trump flags from his pick-up truck. 

How can those two Christians get along?

ONCE NOT A PEOPLE, NOW GOD’S PEOPLE

Peter offers us a new vision for politics, one that helps us transcend the ideological fault lines and helps us see the people we, in Christ, were made to be:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:9–12, ESV)

Peter gives us two central truths that we must embrace if we ever hope to make progress. The first central truth is that our spiritual citizenship takes more priority than our national citizenship. As Christians, we have a political assignment that supersedes and far outweighs any loyalty to a Republican, Democratic, or Independent Party. Our allegiance should be pledged first and foremost, not to America, but to a Kingdom. Because God Himself has made it so!

We are a chosen race. In the exercise of His free grace, God has chosen His people to be a part of this nation. You didn't put yourself in this nation. He chose you. He gathered you into the nation He is forming. He has made you a citizen; you didn't earn your spiritual citizenship. None of us, therefore, have any baseline reason to feel superior to one another. We were all “not a people.” But now, by grace, we are “God's people.” We were all people without mercy. But now, by God's grace, we have received His mercy and been welcomed into His Kingdom as fellow citizens.

This citizenship transcends everything. Even national citizenship. In verse 11, Peter calls his readers "sojourners and exiles." While Peter may or may not be referring to literal, physical “exiles," it is the theological reality of spiritual exile that takes precedence here. In the opening words of the letter, Peter is referring to Christians as "elect exiles." By way of analogy, Peter is saying, if we are in Christ, our spirituality supplants nationality. Because our citizenship is now more heavenly than it is earthly will find it difficult to live within this world. Our citizenship is now more spiritual than it is national. Our allegiance to Christ should outweigh and come before any and every other political and national allegiance.

ACTING LIKE CITIZENS

The second truth we must embrace if we hope to make progress is that we bear witness to our spiritual citizenship by our conduct. According to Peter, that involves two separate commitments: "abstaining from the passions of the flesh" and "keeping your conduct among the Gentiles honorable."

When we see "passions of the flesh,” our mind probably jumps to overt bodily sins like sexual immorality or drunkenness. But Peter has more in mind here. If you back up to 1 Peter 2:1, Peter tells us to "put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander." As we think about our own culture, these words nearly define our politics! Many stumble around, intoxicated by a dangerous cocktail of malicious campaign ads, “fake news,” hypocrisy, thirst for power, and spewing slander.

Peter argues that as spiritual citizens of Christ's Kingdom, we are to avoid these fleshly passions. They not only do harm to others but “wage war against your soul.” They are self-inflicting wounds when we give ourselves to these practices, making it harder for us to be healthy, contributing citizens in the Kingdom. And if we don't abstain from them, they will destroy us.

But the second commitment is equally important. We must "keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable." Peter uses “Gentiles” here to describe anyone considered "pagan" or “non-Christian." It is as if he says, "as believers, keep your conduct among unbelievers honorable."

Peter, then, makes an audacious claim, “When they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation." Peter suggests that a life of honorable Christian conduct proves effective. First, it shows unbelievers that their accusation of who we are is ultimately incorrect — that we are not “evildoers” but rather people of “good deeds.” But the sight of these deeds even leads to some who will repent and believe and give God glory. The Holy Spirit powerfully works through our conduct and our good works to not only bring peace to our souls but to bring peace to the hearts of unbelievers!

With our witness, we will either push people away from Christ and His Kingdom or invite people into it. Jesus said that you could discern true followers from false followers by examining the fruit of their lives (Matt 7:15-20).  

AN EVERLASTING BANNER

I sit across the table from a new friend. His lunch is getting cold because he’s not entirely done lamenting the recent Presidential debate and all the “drama” of COVID-19. I know who he voted for. I didn’t have to ask. I know we didn’t vote the same. But I listen with a smile because I knew what brought us there; he wanted to talk about me baptizing him. It’s the strangest thing. When you get to talk through welcoming a brother in Christ into your spiritual community, the politic-talk has a way of fading into insignificance.

Jonathan Leeman and Andy Naselli encourage us in their little book How I can Love Church Members With Different Politics by saying, “Sometimes the best way to critique the present system and to resist the false worship so much of politics demands is simply to talk about something else .”

That is not to say that we should choose blissful ignorance or willful detachment from current events. But it does help us remember where our real loyalties lie.

You may feel politically homeless these days. But in truth, you have a political loyalty to steward well. We stand under an everlasting banner that will never fade or tear. Christ’s Church is a family of heavenly citizens living within a temporary nation here on earth. We are responsible for carrying out our own nation's work in a foreign place. America is not where our primary allegiance lies; Christ's Kingdom is. And that has a significant effect on how we think about our involvement in our nation's political landscape.