Losing Power, Revisited and Expanded
At the beginning of 2018, Executive Director Rick Barry sat down with Bill Henson of Posture Shift Ministries (formerly called Lead Them Home) to discuss losing cultural power, grieving alongside the grieving and whether we should think of the US as a Christian nation.
Those topics have only become more relevant in the three years since the episode aired. So this week, we re-visit those topics with the expanded cut of that 2018 interview. The reflection and prayer from the original episode can be found below.
Reflection From Rick
Okay, that was my interview with Bill Henson of Lead Them Home.
The last point he made is, I think, maybe the most important one for a lot of us to get our heads around, and maybe the point that makes the rest of his points workable:
From the point of view of the kingdom of God, which is already established in the heavens, already has these outposts or embassies or seeds scattered around the world, and which will come in full at the end of all things when we see a new heavens and a new earth because the old heavens and the old earth have passed away—when you’re looking at America from THAT Kingdom, this country is a foreign land. When you’re rooted in THAT Kingdom, EVERY country is a foreign land.
Now, America is a foreign land that has, at various times, had tremendous influence directly exerted upon it by different corners of the church, by different embassies of the Kingdom of God. It even has a history or a legacy of citizens of that Kingdom of God helping to found this foreign land. And for large stretches of our history, some aspects of Christian morality have actually been pretty in vogue for most of the people in this country.
But that should not be confused with actually *being* the Christian kingdom. It shouldn’t be confused with actually being the kingdom whose head of state is Christ.
Christians in the US have dual citizenship. The fact that we are Christians, that we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, should give us a different approach to the powers and privileges and responsibilities and stresses and temptations that come from also being citizens in the US. If our citizenship in heaven is just making us more excited about our politics, if it’s just making us fight the political fight harder than our non-Christian allies, then we probably aren’t taking our citizenship in heaven seriously enough. Our citizenship in heaven shouldn’t just push us deeper into our partisan ranks. It should also be challenging the way we think about our partisan commitments, making us think twice about how we WANT to exercise our earthly citizenship.
Because, as we talked about at the top of this episode, the culture of citizenship, and the culture of political engagement in this country, are changing. And they’re not looking MORE like what it looks like to have deep trust in the Christian promise. They’re on a trend to become angrier, more fearful, more apocalyptic, even more tribalized (if you can believe that!).
And the pressure we feel to behave that way is going to get stronger. And that pressure doesn’t just come from the outside. That temptation is there in us, as well. The culture of our politics doesn’t create it. The culture of our politics just abets it. Enables it. Makes it easier to give in to and harder to resist.
People who believe our earthly citizenship is the only citizenship we have don’t have anywhere near as many reasons to resist that temptation as we do. And people who believe we also have a heavenly citizenship but don’t take that fact seriously don’t have the resources to resist it. But remembering that we have a heavenly citizenship? And that it places all-encompassing demands on our hearts, souls, minds and strengths? And that our heavenly king is the one who sent us into this world and set us up for the responsibilities and privileges and struggles of earthly citizenship? Turning to him, desperately, knowing that and bringing that knowledge to him is the best way I can think of to deal with seasons when acting like a Christian might make it harder to get things done.
Prayer
Good and Gracious King,
We are your subjects, and you have commissioned us to be here, in this place, at this time. That means you’ve entrusted us with a lot of responsibilities, and we’re in awe of that fact. We’re humbled by the challenge of it. But we confess, we aren’t always sure what to do about it. We get really clear or really exciting ideas in our head about what a country or a state or a community that reflects you more clearly might look like, but then the temptation to betray your commands in the pursuit of that goal is so, so tempting. Especially because it can so often feel that behaving like a Christian will probably make it harder to accomplish Christian goals.
But you’ve been very clear about how you want your ambassadors to behave, and we thank you for forgiving us when we failed to act in line with that vision. And we ask you to forgive us for our lack of trust in you, our belief that if we don’t win, the world is doomed. Our tendency to forget that you’ve promised to make all things new.
Thank you for the relief of not needing to reshape the world into our image, and for the joy of getting to live now as examples of what life will be like when your kingdom comes in full. Give us a vision of the kingdom that is to come, instead of fearful desperation to find safety or success in this kingdom, and let that vision empower us to behave differently from our friends, our neighbors, our allies and even our opponents in the public square. We aren’t asking for this for their sake—we do want them all to see you and know you and celebrate your coming when your Son returns, but we aren’t asking you to help us change their hearts. We aren’t asking for the power to change what people believe. We’re asking for your help reflecting you clearly. Your Son’s name is on us. We carry it with us into this world. And it is so worthy that we don’t want to dishonor it.
Thank you for entrusting us with it, and help us conduct ourselves in ways that don’t dishonor it.
In that holy and worthy and honorable name,
Amen.