Philippians 3:17 – 21
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
Reflection
When the Church becomes too close to the realms and regimes, ideas and ideologies of the State, corruption sets in.
In Henry VIII’s England, Parliament declared him “Head of the Church” and went on to regulate worship and seize Church land against resistance that ultimately came to little. In 1930s Germany the “German Christians” won power in church elections and sought to accommodate Christianity with Nazism. Those who tried to stay faithful to the Gospel adopted the Barmann Declaration which proclaimed the Church’s freedom in Jesus Christ who is Lord of every area of life. As God’s Word, Jesus determines the Church’s order, ministry, and relationship to the state; the Church was not to be a mere State agency. It was heady stuff but allowed faithful Christians to organise and avoid Nazi corruption. This declaration inspired contemporary Orthodox theologians to condemn the “Russian World” teaching prevalent in some sections of Russian Orthodoxy. This teaching includes ideas such as the nations of Ukraine and Belarus are not legitimate (and should be seen as extensions of Russia), that the Church is the soul of the nation and so intimately bound up with it, and subordinates Christian faith to national interests.
Attempts to blur the boundaries between our earthly and heavenly citizenship always end badly – whether that’s the upheaval of the Reformation era, Nazi attempts to subjugate the Church, or Russian attempts to baptise imperial ideology. Paul reminds us, in an age where Roman citizenship was prized and valuable, that the only citizenship we should care about is that of Heaven.
Henry Tudor is mere dust in his grand grave, the German Christians did not succeed in their demonic despotism and, one day, Kirill and his perversion of Orthodoxy will stand condemned as will all attempts to make the Church a useful idiot. Above it all stands Christ, the Lord who calls us to follow him rejecting all that corrupts the Gospel and offering us hope and guidance in difficult times.
Prayer
God our Guide,
remind us always of our true heavenly citizenship,
that the values of Your coming Kingdom,
will help us be better citizens of our earthly realms,
and more faithful disciples. Amen.