Citizens of Heaven Philippians 3:20 “But We Are Citizens of Heaven,” 3:17-4:1, 8, 9

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Citizens of Heaven Philippians 3:20 “But we are citizens of heaven,” 3:17-4:1, 8, 9

“Where are you coming from?” asked the U.S. border guard. “Brampton, Ontario,” I replied. “Where are you going?” he continued. “Buies Creek, N.C.,” I said in my, then, strong Belfast accent. “Citizenship?” he asked. “British.” “Passports?” My mother passed me the four British passports and I handed them over. As the border guard looked at them, he asked further, “Where were you born?” “Ireland,” I replied. “And you’re British?” “Yes.” “Where do you live?” “Brampton, Ontario,” I said with the strong accent. “Are you Canadian residents?” “Work visa.” I said. “Have you papers for that?” “Yes,” and my mother supplied her Canadian work visa. “Hmmm,” said the guard. “So let me get this straight, you were born in Ireland, you’re travelling on a British passport, you are living in Ontario but are not a permanent resident. You want to go to North Carolina. How long are you going for?” “Five days,” I said. “What will you be doing there?” “Visiting family friends,” I replied. The guard looked at the four of us, paused, and said, “Have a good time.” “Phew,” we thought.

In the ensuing years, we became “landed” and then Canadian citizens which made border questions inherently easier. I remember when I applied for citizenship. I filled out the paperwork and was given a small book to read about Canada. They expected citizens to know something about Canada, its history, geography, and politics.

Then there was an interview. A man sat behind a desk and quizzed me about my background, my knowledge of Canada, and why I wanted to become Canadian.

Somehow, I got through, and one day in 1982, I went to a citizenship court and pledged

Molson Joe, “I am Canadian!”

But as life choices go, I am also something else. In my early 20s, I had an encounter with God. It was life-changing. I read “the book” and found out more and more. I came to believe in Jesus and align my life as best I could with the gospel. In a sense, I became a citizen of heaven. … “Brothers and sisters,” says Paul, there are

“many live as enemies of the cross of Christ … 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 …”

As much as I appreciate being Canadian and living in one of the best places on earth, I think that being a citizen of heaven is something beyond. While Canada is wonderful, it is still part of an earthly realm that is fading away. The citizenship Paul speaks of is of a higher order. He links it in Philippians with resurrection and eternity

(3:10, 11; 1:23). He looks toward the future and thinks not just of the normal three score years and ten. He looks at forever, the kingdom of God, of being with Christ. And

Paul writes out of concern for those who would be citizens of heaven. He worries of individuals and groups and teachings that would lead them astray. He mentions dogs, evil workers, those who mutilate the flesh among other things (3:2). He asks citizens of heaven to stand firm, hold fast, and to strive side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel (4:1; 3:16; 1:27).

He speaks with unusual passion of his own faith and how he presses on to reach the goal (3:7-16). His foremost goal is to gain Christ and be found in him, to know Christ 3 and the power of his resurrection … “if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead (3:8, 9, 11).” And he asks those who follow Christ to do likewise, “Join in imitating me,” he says. … What are we to imitate? That passion? That desire to know Christ and grow more and more in Christ in spite of the fact that you have been walking with him for 27 years? Is it the walk in Christ? What are we to do?

If you watch PBS, you may have seen Sister Wendy Beckett on your television.

Sister Wendy is a Carmelite nun who spends most of each day in prayer and contemplation but for two or three hours each day she allows herself to dabble in art history and interpretation. She began using post cards and pictures that were available to her in books. Over time, Sister Wendy began to correspond with curators and experts in the art field, asking for their opinions on various works. No one of them had ever met her but, because of her correspondence, she became a known name in the art community. In the early ‘90s someone at the BBC came across her and had the idea that sending her on a tour of great art museums, filming her as she encountered original works for the first time might be of interest. It was an intriguing experiment. Sister

Wendy, dressed in full habit and with a frumpy look that many thought would not immediately appeal to television audiences, became a media sensation. Her books about art became best-sellers. The New York Times described her as "a sometime hermit who is fast on her way to becoming the most unlikely and famous art critic in the history of television.”

Sister Wendy lives in a tiny trailer within the Carmelite compound. She devotes eight to ten hours each day to contemplative prayer. Broadcasters were amazed to 4 discover that she did not have a television and read no newspapers. “They would interfere with my prayers,” she explained. She preferred to spend her time focussing on

God, not the outside world. One writer says of her, “I have watched Sister Wendy’s programs and it almost seems that she looks at art, especially religious art, with two different eyes. Her left eye sees the brush strokes on canvas, the stylistic arrangements, the use of colour and design. Her right eye sees further to the aesthetic and spiritual meaning, the hidden intent of the artist. Untold hours of prayer have trained her to look beyond the surface. Angels, characters from the Bible, the Holy Trinity – she knows these subjects intimately, and their depiction in art is a gateway to another reality in which she feels equally at home.”1

When Paul says “But we are citizens of heaven,” he infers that those who follow

Christ will have something of the “stereoscopic vision” that Sister Wendy has. While we may live in this world, we will have a strong familiarity with another. Perhaps we will not all be like Sister Wendy Beckett. It is not easy to spend eight or ten hours a day in prayer and contemplation of God when one must do the laundry, pick up after the children, take the dog out, clean the washroom, go to work, mow the lawn or any one of a host of other things. We do, however, need some familiarity with God and heaven if we are to be true citizens. We will be people who desire time with God, who love to experience God’s presence and read his word.

I wonder if we’ve sometimes made and described Christianity in terms that are far too light and easy and removed from where real faith should be. Listen to Paul.

1 Philip Yancey, Rumours, 231. 5

After 27 years and from a prison cell, he says, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord … I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection … if somehow, I may attain the resurrection from the dead … I press on to make it my own … forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus

(3:8, 10, 12-14).

As this week, we celebrate Canada and our earthly citizenship, let us give a thought to the citizenship that is not of this world. Is it something we desire? For that is our future, our eternity, our joy, and our peace.

Pastoral Prayer God of creation, we praise you for your handiwork in shaping and sustaining the miracle of our lives. We give you thanks for the land that you have placed us in, for the livelihood this country gives us, and for the beauty that stretches across this nation from sea to mountains, prairie to great lakes, hills to sea. And so we come before you on this Sunday before our national Day with thanksgiving asking that you would continue to bless this nation and establish it in your word and truth. We thank you too for the revelation that there is more to life than is initially seen. We thank you for Jesus and the promise of new life and eternal life in him. We thank you for Paul and the commitment he had to you. May each of us have the faith and desire that he expressed to be with Christ always. May we experience Christ now in our hearts and minds. May we live out his purposes as part of the kingdom that has come, and may the eyes of our hearts ever gaze forward to the kingdom that is yet to come to fulfillment, where we will live with Jesus forever, and experience the joys of Your presence.

Our own prayers and concerns:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever, and ever, Amen.