Chapter Five

A Call to Citizenship

At the outset of this book I said that the
basic question the Church needs to answer today is what it means to be in the
world but not of the world.  In
understanding that the community of Christ has a distinct culture in the
kingdom of heaven I believe we have found an answer.

Jesus calls us out of darkness and into his
light.  He rescues us from the
bondage of sin and our imprisonment in the kingdom of darkness.  Consider that we were all once citizens
in this dark kingdom, but now that citizenship has been negated.  When we choose to follow Jesus we shed
our old home and walk freely out of that spiritual darkness to our new home in
the kingdom of heaven.  We are now
a part of the community of Christ, citizens of his realm.  When we choose this narrow path we are
answering a call to leave one culture for another, opting for the spiritual
culture of Christ’s kingdom and accepting the divine paradigm of God.

I have used the term ‘community of Christ’ a fair amount in this book instead of the word
‘Church’ because we need to
understand that as Christians we belong to a far reaching community of
believers that goes beyond church buildings and denominations.  The Church is a spiritual community
living in one spiritual country and they are the people of God.  If every church building were torn down
and destroyed the Church would remain (and probably be strengthened), for the
be the community of Christ is to be something far more than a religious
institution or system.  The
community of Christ is made up of those who know God and love him.  This identity is not contained in
buildings with programs, but is a spirituality of relationship with Jesus
Christ.  The Christian style of
life is rooted in that spirituality. 
We are a spiritual people who need to understand our spiritual culture.

The spiritual life of the Christian is about
life in the Spirit.  At the core of
Christian spirituality is a relationship with Jesus marked by transformation
and love.  Our spirituality should
lead to the outward expression of these two values, we are the messengers of
transformation and love in the world. 

To be such messengers
requires an ever deepening relationship with God.  The spiritual culture of the kingdom is lived in as we live
out the spirituality of the kingdom. 
It is important to understand that Christians are to follow Christ and
his Way being empowered by the Holy Spirit.  It is he that enables us to overcome the lure of the values
of world culture.  This is good
news for the believer, for we do not attempt to live a Christian style of life
alone, we have the supernatural aid of the presence of Jesus within us.  What we must be willing to do is live
in step with the Spirit, listening to his voice and promptings, allowing his
direction to guide our responses and attitudes.

Christian spirituality is not complicated
thankfully.  While our theology can
become complex, our spirituality remains simple.  We know that we have bee saved by acknowledging Jesus as
Lord.  Salvation begins our journey
with Jesus and his Spirit.  The
rest of our lives are spent being open to the work of transformation he performs
in us making us more and more like himself.  We know that we are forgiven, our sins cleansed and removed
through Christ as we confess them. 
We are freed from the power of sin to destroy us.  More than that we are filled with the
Life of Christ, spiritually regenerated by his power.  We know that we are loved, deeply and unconditionally
loved.  The love of God is like no
other and when we receive his love it is the most powerful means of
transformation known in the universe. 
We are filled with the Holy Spirit.  We live our lives in partnership with him.  It is his presence that enables us to
be like Christ, his work within us that transforms us from what we once were in
the old nature and makes us new. 
We know God.  What an
incredible statement!  Herein is
the amazing culmination of Christian spirituality.  No longer separated from God, we approach him boldly and are
able to enter a real and authentic relationship with him.  That Christians do not cultivate this
relationship is tragic.  It is in
our relationship with Jesus that become his disciples, those living out the
culture of the kingdom and a truly Christian style of life.  It is as we learn who he is and what he
is like that we become his voice, his hands, his feet , his very presence to
those all around us.  Our
spirituality should do nothing less than bring the kingdom on earth as it is in
heaven.  It is as we experience his love that we are able
to love others with the profound love we are called to in the culture of the
kingdom.  We love because he first
loved us.  We come again to the two
commands of Christ in Matthew 22, our cultural center, and find that they are
also the core of our spirituality; Love God with all your being and love your
neighbor as yourself.

Where the Church has rejected the Holy Spirit’s central role in our
lives great error has occurred. 
Where the Church has removed belief and hope for an authentic
relationship with God, great thievery has taken place.  To deny the reality of the Holy Spirit
is to deny God himself, for they are One. 
To have taught Christians to not engage with him has taught them to keep
God himself at arms length.  Where
this system of belief exists church becomes nothing more than a weekly event
with little real spiritual meaning. 
People are left with no connection to their lord and saviour, and if
they begin to experience one they quickly shut it down because that is the
response they have been taught. 
Without relationship with Jesus and his Spirit there is no ground work
for a spiritual life, and thus there can only be the weakest of spiritual
identities, for to deny the Holy Spirit is to deny the seal given us marking us
as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. 
As a result people are left to be tossed about by the power of world
culture.  Jesus calls us to a
spiritual life, to be a spiritual people. 
Our spirituality is vital to being truly Christian and living in the
spiritual culture of the kingdom.

The kingdom of heaven is meant to expand.  It is an open kingdom that offers
citizenship to all who would accept it. 
The Great Commission of Jesus is to go out in the world and bring the
Gospel to all, to go out and spread the culture of the kingdom to all corners
of the earth.  Jesus opened the
gates of the kingdom to everyone and the citizens of the kingdom do not have
the authority to close those gates. 
God’s
will is that none should perish and when we stop people at the gates through
judgment and lack of loving acceptance we find ourselves opposing the will of
God.  There is no requirement for
entrance into the kingdom other than receiving Christ as Lord.  We need to remember that transformation
occurs after that moment of salvation. 
A long standing problem in the community of Christ is that we have
communicated a reverse order to the action of entering the kingdom, “Get yourself in order
first, then we will allow you into the community.” 
This stops people at the threshold of the gates as though to say, “Since you don’t already yet look
like Jesus you may not enter.” 
The reality is the exact opposite. 
It is in the presence of Jesus that we are transformed.  The community of Christ is the presence
of the kingdom and Jesus and thus it is in their midst that people will find
the hope of transformation.  Recall
Paul’s
confrontation with Peter and church at Jerusalem in Acts.  Paul was upset that they would not
associate with Gentile Christians who were uncircumcised.  He had to remind them that such outward
signs no longer had the power to disqualify people from the community.  What is spiritual, what is in the
heart, is what matters.  The
community has no defence for keeping people out of the kingdom based on outward
appearance or brokenness.  We all
came to the gates broken and sinful, and we all found ourselves welcomed in by
Jesus.  Our imperfections do not
offend him, for he is able to transform us through his love and forgiveness,
his power to make us new creations. 
Many come to the gates of the kingdom so broken we wonder if they can
ever be mended.  The resounding
reply form Jesus is always “I can do that.” 
It is the right of every citizen of the kingdom to be received into the
community of Christ, to be loved and to be transformed.  It is this Gospel hope of citizenship
that is offered to all and it is by loving those outside the gates that the
invitation is made.  Kingdom culture places great emphasis on loving
and accepting others so that they may know the love of Jesus.

All citizens in the kingdom are equal.  This equality is a cultural value of
the kingdom of heaven and a distinctive paradigm of its citizens.  All lines of social division and
hierarchy so familiar in world culture are not present in the kingdom.  There are no levels of one over another,
no rich over poor, no master over slave, no ethnicity over another ethnicity,
no race over another race etc… 
There is only the family of God, each a brother or sister of
Christ.  Each is a servant of the
one king Jesus, and he has called us to serve on another.  The same status is bestowed on all
citizens, to be the nobility in the kingdom of
heaven.  This is Christian
community in its purest form, to accept one another as equals and to serve one
another.  As we saw earlier in John
17 it is this unity that acts as one of the most powerful signs to the world
that Jesus is the Son of God and lives today.  The culture of the kingdom challenges our concepts of what
it means to be privileged and powerful, to be significant and great.  It challenges rich and poor alike, for
neither within the kingdom can consider the other in any other light than the
love of God.  Their separation
ceases to exist in the culture of the kingdom, for they become each others
servants. For the rich this is a challenge because they are not accustomed to
thinking in terms of serving those culturally and socially beneath them.  For the poor this is a challenge
because they are likely to resent serving those they are accustomed to being
above them, who have mistreated and neglected them.  The culture of the kingdom does away with this idea of
social strata based on material or genetic status (Gal. 3:26-29).  Everyone is on the same level in the
kingdom, each equal in their full citizenship.