I’ve recently been thinking about the definition of citizenship. More specifically, what it means to be a Christian citizen. And no, I am not talking about Christian Nationalism…which I do not put in the category of Christianity at all. What I am referring to is not the distortion of faith for nationalistic purposes but the embodiment of faith unbound from political categorization.
Let’s start with a basic definition.
Webster’s Dictionary defines citizen as an inhabitant of a city or town especially one entitled to rights and privileges; or a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it. Likewise, citizenship is the quality of an individual’s response to membership in a community.
In other words, these official definitions give us insight into what we should receive as a citizen (rights and privileges) and why we owe allegiance or loyalty to the place we call home.
However, these definitions leave us asking some critical questions.
What does devotion and loyalty look like? And to whom do we give our devotion and loyalty?
If citizenship is the quality of our devotion and loyalty, then who decides how that quality is measured?
For me, the ideas of devotion and loyalty are too general to have any kind of wide ranging consensus…especially in the divided times we find ourselves. And depending on which side of the political, social, or economic spectrum you fall on, you may understand those directives is very different ways.
And frankly, this lack of consensus is becoming a scapegoat for the crucial work that is begging for our time and attention. So let’s consider what it really means to be a citizen through the lens of our faith. But do so means that we can’t start with our nationalistic identities. We have to start with who we say we are as followers of Christ.
What do we learn from Jesus about being a faithful citizen? How might we define devotion and loyalty from Jesus’ perspective?
We might start by naming a faithful interpretation of citizenship as the difference between self-preservation and community restoration.
Let’s look closely for these themes in our Gospel reading from Matthew.
Our Gospel text starts with the words, “Now when Jesus heard this…” As background, what he had just heard was the awful news that his beloved friend, John the Baptist had been killed. Jesus was devastated. And so, he goes away to mourn, to take care of himself, to be alone. In his respite, he notices that crowds of people were following him. He saw they were in need. They were sick and hungry. And we are told he had compassion on them.
But, in order to help them, to live into that compassion, Jesus had to put aside his own needs, his own grief, his own self-interest and enter into the crowds. He had to be surrounded by people desperate for love and care. And Jesus stepped up to the plate (away from self-preservation) and spoke up for their needs (toward community restoration).
Yet, his disciples didn’t want him to get involved. They didn’t want him to take responsibility for these folks. They told him, Jesus, it’s late. Send everyone away. Let them take care of themselves.
But, Jesus refused to turn away. He tells his disciples to give the people something to eat.
No excuses. No hesitation.
It is then that we see the real work of citizenship begin. And what we see is the act of compassion. Compassion that results in taking radical responsibility for one another. Where all are cared for.
That’s community restoration.
Here’s something else that is important to understand about our faithful interpretation of citizenship…when Jesus had compassion on the people, the text conveys a compassion that is not in any way a superficial expression of care. The Greek verb for having compassion expresses a deep, heart wrenching emotion, a visceral reaction that drives Jesus to help. It’s the kind of compassion that changes who we are as human beings and leaves us no other option than to put aside our own needs and desires to make sure others are safe and whole.
As Christian citizens, we can do no less.
That’s the lesson our faith teaches us about the quality of our devotion and loyalty. Jesus could have focused entirely on himself, he could have stayed in that deserted place and ignored what was happening around him. In fact, the disciples encouraged him to do just that; but instead, he turns his attention to his community.
Self-preservation vs. community restoration.
And in Jesus’ embodiment of community restoration there is no litmus test of eligibility. There is no wall keeping people out. There is no lack of resources. There is no discrimination towards who is more worthy of help. Jesus had just said in Matthew 11…“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
That’s the measurement of the quality of our devotion and loyalty. And this is what being a Christian citizen is all about.
In an article in the Christian Century from 2020, Rev. Bailey Pickens, a Presbyterian minister, describes citizenship this way…
“We care, of course—but responsibility is not reducible to care. This is important and easy to miss. Many of us care very much about other people, even and especially the vulnerable and suffering, who are especially dear to God. But the notion that we bear real responsibility for others’…, runs so counter to our culture’s emphasis on individual responsibility for individual outcomes that even recognition of systemic causes often stops short of recognition of shared accountability for systemic effects.”[1]
Rev. Pickens goes on to say, “God has counted every hair on each of our heads, but living is still a group project. Scripture provides little warrant for the comfortable among us to believe that we will not be called to account for the hardship and distress of others. And rare indeed these days is the comfort that does not come at someone else’s cost.”
The point is that our comfort, our inaction, our need to preserve our own self-interest is never an isolated endeavor. We are always bound to one another in the mutuality of creation and as Christians, that mutuality means something very specific in regard to our citizenship.
We will certainly disagree when it comes to the parameters of communal responsibility. We will have different interpretations about what the quality of our devotion and loyalty should look like but in no way does our disagreement opt us out of our Christian commitments.
We can’t opt out.
There are no excuses not to act in a way that supports unconditional community restoration. As John Lewis stated in his final letter to America, “…it is human compassion that lays down the burdens of division.”[2]
I want to leave you with two questions from our Baptismal Covenant in the Book of Common Prayer. And if you are still wondering what Christian citizenship looks like, I hope you will find some direction here.
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
And to each of these questions, we respond…I will, with God’s help.
[1] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/opinion/maybe-really-time-divine-judgment
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html
Such important words, Emily. We cannot opt out. Sometimes I envy those who can. But Jesus never said this life was going to be easy.