Citizenship

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, October 2, 2011

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963, in his famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial, near the end of that speech, said this, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
What Dr. King so eloquently put is this, “It’s more important what is inside a person that what they look like on the outside. It is the content of the character that truly tells you who a person is, who they are at the core of their being.”

So we, as followers and believers in Jesus Christ, want to have the same heart, the same mind, the same character as that of Jesus Christ.

For the past five weeks, we’ve looked at the different qualities of what it is to have an impeccable character. We’ve picked up those qualities as they’ve been captured by the pillars of Character Counts. Each one of them we saw the qualities embodied in Jesus Himself, have recognized the importance that is for us and also have thought that if we could reflect those qualities to those around us, we could have an impact on our community.

This week, we come to the final quality, that of citizenship. This one, to me, seems a little bit different than the others. It’s not like trustworthiness or respect or fairness. It has a different nuance to it but yet, I still believe we can see that quality in the life of Jesus. I certainly believe it’s important and, this one maybe more than all the rest, we can have an impact in our community.

In the quality of citizenship, though, the interesting thing I find there is what I believe are some of the other qualities with a little bit different nuance, what really makes up citizenship, namely respect and responsibility.

The respect is respect for government and respect for those in authority around us. You see, Jesus caused quite a stir when they tried to trap Him, I’ll give you that, but yet His answer had to shock all the people who were there. They’re trying to nail Him down whether they should pay taxes or not. So He says, “Well, let me see the coin.” They said, “Well, it has Caesar’s insignia on it.” He says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” In other words, go ahead and pay your taxes. No self-respecting Jew would have given that answer at that time because Rome was not looked at favorably in anyone’s eyes. You wouldn’t want to support it in any kind of fashion. You would pay your taxes only because you were forced to do so, not do it voluntarily. You see, Rome was the oppressive tyrant who was keeping the Jews under their thumb. Yes, they could practice their religion but only under the watchful eye of Rome. Therefore, Rome was not to be respected. Rome was to be despised.

What I worry about, though, is that I see some of that same attitude in our society today, our attitude about the government, our attitude about those who are in authority over us. How often have you heard or maybe you have even said, “Politicians. They’re all crooks. They’re all spin doctors. All they’re doing from the moment they get elected is working to get elected again so they can finally retire on a fat pension someday.” “Cops? Cops are just out to get their quota for the day. Once they get their quota, they can sit around eating donuts and sipping coffee.” “Community projects. Community projects are only headed by the people who will benefit from them.” “City ordinances. Nobody’s going to tell me where I can park my boat and where I can’t park my boat.” “Paying taxes? You bet I pad the numbers. They’ve been squeezing every nickel out of me and they can’t manage it too well, so if I can just slip in a little bit, if I can fudge just a little bit over here, you know I’m going to do it because they’re not going to get one more dime out of me.” What is our attitude towards the government and those who are in authority over us?

It may not be that we despise them but, at the very least, we are cynical. It is not the attitude that Jesus had about those in authority, even though He was the supreme authority. If you will, you can go all the way back to His birth. Mary and Joseph could not have been thrilled to be packing up and going down to Bethlehem. They certainly didn’t want to pay the extra tax. They obeyed the laws of the land and the decree from Caesar and they went down to Bethlehem and they registered and paid their taxes.

Jesus. He understands that they’re trying to trap Him, but that doesn’t take away from His words or the truthfulness of that. “Pay taxes to Rome? Oppressive Rome?” “Yeah. They’re the authority at hand. They’re the government that’s over you. Pay your taxes.”

Other parts of Scripture are even more clear than that. If we look at 1 Peter 2, it says, “Submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men, whether to the king as the supreme authority or the governors who are sent by him.” Or how about Romans 13:1, “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.” Now listen to this verse, “Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted.” He who rebels against the authority is rebelling against the authority that God has instituted.

God has put them in place. Part of citizenship is having an honest respect for the government and for the authorities. It doesn’t mean that we have to like the people who are in office. It doesn’t mean that we have to agree with the people who are in office, but we respect the office itself and we respect the laws of the land and we follow the laws of the land with only one exception. If ever there is a law that is passed that asks us or tells us to do something contrary to the Word of God, then, at that point, we follow God and not the laws of the land. Part of citizenship, part of what we see in Scripture is a respect for authority and respect for government.

The second quality that I see in here is that of responsibility, different nuance here. The quality that we looked at, responsibility, was taking personal responsibility for your actions. Here, let’s take responsibility for the place that we live. Let’s take responsibility for the community that we’re a part of. How often is it that when we see a homeless person, our first thought is, “You know, the city ought to do something about that.” When we read about the poor and we say, “Isn’t there some state agency that’s supposed to take care of that?” We have an issue in our neighborhood and our first reaction is to pick up the phone and call City Hall, “You better come over and take care of this.” We’re so quick to complain about what’s happening in our community, our state and our nation but when do we stand up and say, “I’m going to do something about it. I want to be part of the solution.” Part of citizenship, part of living in this world is caring for our fellow man. It’s seeing a need and meeting it, seeing a situation or a problem and seeking to fix it.

If we go back to the early church, we see that the early church wasn’t looking for somebody else to come in and take care of their issues, but they took care of their own. Let’s go to Acts 4, talking about the believers. It says, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claims any possession was his own.” Then in Verse 34, “There were no needy persons among them.” There were no needy persons among them. They saw a need and they met it. They saw a problem and they sought a solution.

To me, this harkens back to Jesus at the end of the gospel of Matthew when He talks about His second coming and He talks about separating the righteous from the unrighteous. And He says to the righteous, “When I was sick, you came and visited me. When I didn’t have any clothes, you clothed me. When I was in prison, you came and visited me.” And they replied this way, “Lord, when did we see you hungry? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in? When did we see you needing clothes and clothed you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” And the king replied, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers, you did for me.”

When we reach out with love, we reach out with God’s grace, we meet a need. Jesus says it’s as if you did it for me. Part of citizenship is taking responsibility for the community and the world we live in, seeing a need and meeting it.

Underlying all of this is an attitude. It is an attitude of servant hood, not entitlement. It’s an attitude of what can I do for you, not what will you do for me. This servant heart obviously we see in Jesus Himself, most dramatically for me is Matthew 20:28 and Jesus says this, “Whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Jesus, the eternal Son of God, took on flesh and blood and lived among us but He didn’t come here to be served, but He came to serve. Jesus had a servant heart and that’s really what’s underlying all of the qualities we see of an impeccable character. It begins with the sole attitude of servant hood, of asking not what can you do for me but what can I do for you. We see our Lord, the Son of God Himself, saying, “I haven’t come to be served but I’ve come to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.” We take on the responsibility of our community when we have a servant heart.

Even though this quality is different than the other five qualities we’ve looked at, I think there are some things that are of supreme importance inherent in this quality. The two that I picked out are this: First of all, it’s important because I believe we need to recognize the blessings we have in this country. We are so quick to complain about things that are happening in our nation, but the very fact that we can complain is a freedom we enjoy.

The very fact that we can gather here openly for worship of the one true God is a freedom that we enjoy. I don’t know if you’ve been watching the news or not. In Iran, there’s a Christian pastor who could be executed because of his faith. In Iran, it’s not illegal to be a Christian if you’re born into a Christian family. You don’t have all the rights and privileges of every other citizen, but they won’t execute you. But if you’re born into a Muslim family and you convert to Christianity, the law books say you have three opportunities to recant that faith. If you do not, you can be executed. The man was born in a Muslim family and, in his teens, he came to faith. God captured his heart. He believes in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He became the pastor of a small Christian congregation. The government has found out. Three times now, he refused to recant his faith. Do you remember? If the government tells you to do something which is against God, that’s the one time you don’t. This is where the rubber hits the road. Unless there is enough world pressure put on Iran, he will be executed for believing in Jesus.

Perhaps we should appreciate the freedom that God has blessed us with here. Perhaps we should offer up a prayer of gratitude and thanks that we live. Perhaps we should support our leaders a little bit more diligently and maybe we shouldn’t take our faith so lightly or take it for granted. Recognize the blessings that God has given us in this country.

The second thing that’s important to me is the whole idea of a servant’s attitude. I know that I quote Matthew 20:28 a lot. I’m aware of that. Because that verse blows me away. No matter how many times I read the words of Jesus, it just stymies me. It’s beyond my comprehension, first of all, that an eternal God who was there at creation, who watched mankind being formed would take on flesh and blood and become one of us, but Jesus did that and He lived among us. But it’s quite another thing when He makes the statement and says, “I have not come to be served but to serve.” Are you kidding me? If the Son of God appears before me, I’m flat on my face bowing down to Him saying, “Anything you want me to do, I’m going to do.” And Jesus says, “I haven’t come to be served. I’ve come to serve.”

And then He goes on to say, “to give my life as a ransom for many.” In other words, the punishment that’s due me, Jesus is going to take. The penalty that should be yours, Jesus is going to pay it. The only kind of analogy I can come up with, and it pales in comparison, would be if the President of the United States said, “I’m going to serve out the term of a convicted criminal, not just write a pardon,” because that doesn’t cost him anything, but if he says, “No, no, instead of him going to prison, I’m going to go to prison. I’ll serve out his sentence instead of him.” That pales in comparison because Jesus took the death penalty. He made the supreme sacrifice, the ultimate servant so that I could be forgiven. That blows me away.

That kind of love, that kind of a servant heart, how can we be captured by that? How can your heart be captured by the love and the servant hood of Jesus, so much so that you have a changed life, that you have a different attitude, a different perspective, that you take on that same servant heart?

The only way that I believe we’re going to have an impeccable character where there’s trustworthiness, where there’s respect, responsibility, caring, fairness, at the heart of the matter, is having a servant heart. And if we can have a servant heart, that’s when we can have an impact. That’s when I believe we make a difference in our world. That’s when we make a difference in our community.

From the very beginning of this series, I said, “Christians need to lead the way.” People need to look at us and say, “They’re different from the rest of the world. There’s something set apart about them. They’ve got something else going for them.”

If we go back to the early church, Acts 2, it talks about how they met together, they studied the apostle’s teachings, they worshipped together and it says this, “Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” Enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. They were of such impeccable character that even those who didn’t agree with them, even those who didn’t believe in Jesus, they enjoyed the favor of all the people and people were attracted to them and God used that because it says, “And God added to their numbers daily those who were being saved.”

What could happen if we as Christians were known as people of the highest character, of impeccable character? What would happen if we as Christians hit the streets? We’re part of our community. We met needs. We solved problems. We linked arms one in one. We were known as people who cared. We were known as people who would show respect and yet stand firm in our beliefs, if we were known for our fairness, if we were known for taking personal responsibility, if we were seen as people of impeccable character, if we enjoyed the favor of all the people? I believe we’d have a voice. I believe we’d have a voice to our community. We’d have a voice in our society.

I’m not convinced right now that we have a voice. People look with distain upon Christians. They have a wrong impression of us, so what would happen if we could show them, if we could reflect the love of Christ in our lives and if they could see that character in us so that we would have a voice, so we could speak out on some of the most important issues facing our society, if we could be bold and if they would hear when we say there is a sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, when we talk about the sanctity of life, of all of life and instead of them closing their ears, if we could enjoy the favor of the people that they open their ears and their hearts and they can hear us?

And more importantly, if they could open their ears and their hearts and they could hear of the love that Christ has for them. How incredible would it be if we enjoyed the favor of all the people and God added to our numbers? I’m talking Christianity, not Gloria Dei. Added to our numbers daily. Those who are being saved, those who will be with us in heaven one day. I believe that God empowers us to do that.

Throughout this whole series, I’ve intended to be a call to action. I have purposely not given a challenge to do something specific each week because I believe what God is calling to us is a way of life. It’s a way of thinking. That can’t be boiled down to a single decision or a single action. It’s God calling us to a new life, a changed life, God calling us to a servant heart. And I believe that each one of us then can make a difference, but I believe it comes back down to the power of one. It is the one true God using one person with one kind act, one caring word, one moment of respect that makes a difference in someone else’s life.

But it comes down to us, to me, to you acting upon the faith that God has given us and no matter how small it may seem, I believe the ripple effects are pretty great.

I’m going to try a small demonstration. You know at the end of every message I invite you all to stand up. I’m going to have you stand up, too, but here’s the deal today. You can’t stand up until somebody reaches out their hand to you. I’m the only one standing so it has to start with me. You can’t stand up until somebody reaches out, which means if there is anyone left seated, that means somebody wasn’t willing to walk across the aisle or reach out their hand to them. But one simple act of just coming down and offering the hand and if you offer your hand to someone else and if you offer your hand to someone else, stand up.

You have to be willing to walk across the aisle. God’s calling us to action. Just by offering my hand, you can stand up. There we go. [Cheers.] Just a couple of things I want to point out. What did it take? Sixty seconds, ninety seconds? And we touched I don’t know, 130, 145 people? I saw smiles on people’s faces. First of all, it was, “What?” I got that. That’s what happens when God uses you and God’s called us to a new life. He’s called us to a great life and it’s worth sharing.

And I do believe it starts with us and I do believe we can build a community of character. Amen.