Leaving Home to Go Home, Pt. 2
“Tonight I’ll sing my songs again, I’ll play the game and pretend. But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity. Like emptyness and harmony, I need someone to comfort me….homeward bound. I wish I was, homeward bound. Home–where my thoughts are escapin’. Home, where my music’s playin’. Home, where my love lies waiting…silently for me.” – from the Simon and Garfunkel song, Homeward Bound.
Now, the application part of this for the ongoing discussion I’m on about misunderstandings, and critiquing the dialogue that takes place between secular culture and Christian culture. First, understand that Christians are constantly in a position where they are torn between their loyalties. It is not as though there is no emotional, mental, or spiritual attachment to this world. Quite the contrary, in fact, as you know all too well if you’ve ever had to make a move away from a place you loved. On the other hand, we have to strive for living a life that will honor and represent our spiritual homeland. Do you see the difficulty? Christians have dealt with this a variety of ways, but at least some of those ways end up in trying to establish a Christian nation, with Christian ideals, as a way of making it easier to get warmed up for heaven. This concept is clearly not biblical. In John 18:28-40, maybe my favorite passage in Scripture, which will end up here as another entry about truth, (and asking the right questions to get the right answers) Jesus is talking to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor at the time of Jesus trial before the Sanhedrin, or the Jewish ruling body. (Think a cross between the Supreme Court and Congress.) During the course of that conversation, Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king, point blank. Jesus, after asking some related questions, first tacitly acknowledges his kingship, then overtly does so. Check it:
“Jesus said, `My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.’
`You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, `You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’
`What is truth?’ Pilate asked. [then he walks away, ironically enough]
Notice here the definitional differences being discussed here. Jesus says specifically that his kingdom is not of this world. Clearly, Jesus disavows all ties to a physical land for himself or his followers, with the motivation that they not fight to make him a physical king-it is not the physical appearance of the world which concerns him. Clearly, he is more interested in the kingdom of His Father, which is both appropriate to Him mission, and consistent with the message He brings throughout the Gospels. Pilate completely misses this, so pleased with himself to have some kind of a definitive statement from Jesus that he misses the purpose of the statement Jesus had made not seconds before.
Both the Jews and the Romans, to varying extents, saw Jesus as a threat politically, even though Jesus himself acquiesced to the local governments in the tangible ways in which he could (“render unto Caesar,” etc). Clearly, this has much to do with the idea that there is no precedent in their ideologies for a spiritual kingdom outside the physical realm of their existence. Jewish and Roman conceptions of citizenship at that time were deeply rooted to physical land.
I’m beginning to ramble, so I’m going to close this up by saying this: Christianity is not a political philosophy. It is however, rife with political implications based on the fact that Christians are constantly being torn between our loyalties in this world and our loyalties to the God we serve. The pull between the two of those is often painful and difficult, and the reason Christianity is political to the extent it is (rightly or wrongly, and I think wrongly) is because Christians have made attempts to simplify their lives by instating or supporting a governmental system that wouldn’t require them to decide daily to live the Christian life in distinction to the world around them. The foreigners and ambassadors have tried a hostile takeover of a land in which they are only visitors. That tragic lack of focus has made Christianity appear to some as a social agenda based on political power, though that is not really the case biblically. Here is the end of it, and I have a feeling this is going to get me in trouble, but I have to be blunt: the church is far too concerned with politics and far too ambivalent about the duality of their citizenship.