God At Work In Your Calling As A Citizen (Romans 13:1-7)
Several years ago when I was in a
former church as an Associate Pastor I came into the sanctuary one Saturday
evening and saw two women knelling down by the altar. I said, “Hey
there, what are you up to.” They
jumped up, turned a little red and then proceeded to tell me that they were
making adjustments to the flags by the altar.
It turns out that the Senior Pastor of the church was a little concerned
with how close the American flag was to the altar. It was about a foot next to the communion
table and thus he wanted to move it a little farther away. Well, long story short, the Senior Pastor
didn’t want to offend anyone so he had asked these two ladies to move it 1-2
inches each week when they came every Saturday night to set up for the Sunday
Morning Worship Service. These two
ladies giggled as they shared this and showed me that they had made it about 40
inches over the last 6 months. You could
actually see the mark on the carpet where it used to be and see how far they
had moved the flag.
Well, this is a fun story to think
about. However, it does bring forth the
question about why the pastor wanted to move the American flag away from the
altar. Why the concern? I came later to find out that the pastor was
concerned that the American flag was overshadowing the communion table, and
from the right side of the church it was actually blocking people’s sight of
the communion table. Furthermore, he
wanted the congregation to understand that the church and the state are
different realms with different functions that serve God.
So, if we can think about the altar as
representing the church and the flag as representing the state, the questions
that now arise are, “To what extent are
church and state supportive of each other and to what extent do they conflict?” We can also ask the question, “Where is a Christian’s allegiance, the
church or the state? How shall the
Christian function in the church and the state?” Our text today and our understanding of
vocation will help us sort this out.
Text: Let every person be subject to the governing
authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist
have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists
what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers
are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one
who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,
for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does
not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who
carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection,
not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because
of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending
to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are
owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor
to whom honor is owed.
As we can see from our text the Apostle Paul is laying
out that we as Christians are to be subject to the governing authorities. This text does not mention Christ at all, and
is referring to what we would understand as government officials. In other words, from this text we see that God
has instituted these governing authorities, authorities that we as Christians
are to submit to. These authorities have
been placed by God for the purpose of punishing wrongdoers so that we might
have order in our society and nation. Just
like God works through the vocations of farmers and ranchers to feed you and
me, God works through judges, police officers, soldiers, presidents,
congressmen, as well as national and state laws to keep order. Now, this is all
for our good because order is good. In
fact I once heard it rightly said that even a dysfunctional dictatorship is
better than complete anarchy because with anarchy everyone turns to their own
desires and chaos breaks out.
As we contemplate this text it becomes very apparent that
God has instituted really two realms, or we could say two kingdoms. He has obviously instituted the church, where
the Gospel is preached and proclaimed.
The church is not a manmade invention, but something that is put
together by God. The church is where the
Word of God and the Sacraments are present and where people are gathered for
that purpose. On the other hand, from
our text we also see that God has instituted governing authorities, authorities
that rule with the sword against injustice to keep order. It makes sense that there are really two
realms, two kingdoms when we consider Jesus’ comments in Matthew 22:21 where he
says, “Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that
are God’s.” Later on Jesus looks to
Pontius Pilate who was ruling the area of Israel at the time of His death and
says, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
For simplicity, both of these two realms can be called
the left and the right hand kingdoms. The
left hand kingdom rules to keep order and rules by Laws and the force of the
Sword. The other kingdom is the right
hand kingdom and that is the church. The
church rules by proclaiming the message of forgiveness of sin and rules not by the
power of the sword but by the Word of the Gospel. Both the right and the left hand kingdoms work
together quite nicely. The left hand
kingdom curbs society and keeps order while the right hand kingdom proclaims
the holy Gospel.
Now, as we look more specifically at these two kingdoms
the question arises about how they relate to each other. First and foremost my friends we cannot mix
them together or combine them. This is
what happened some 500 years ago when the left hand kingdom was absorbed by the
Romans Catholic Church. History has
shown us that when the left hand kingdom gets too close to the right hand
kingdom, typically it is the right hand kingdom of the Gospel that suffers, thus
this is the reason for the original importance of separation of church and
state. The idea of separation of church
and state was originally a good idea, it was meant not to keep the church out of the state, but to keep the state out
of the church. Furthermore, the church
has no business conquering nations by the force of the sword. The church’s power is not raw force, but the
sheer Gospel.
But more specifically, what each and every one of us
wonders is what does this understanding of these two kingdoms mean for us? If you can recall from last week, because of
Christ’s forgiveness we are masterpieces created in Christ Jesus for good works
that have been prepared in advance for us to walk in. God is the source of all good works and they
are prepared for you and me to simply walk in.
And as you can recall we typically walk in these good works through our
vocations, our callings. In addition to
our callings in the family, the church and the workplace—we also have a calling
to be citizens. As citizen we recognize
that we belong to the right hand kingdom of grace and truth but are also called
to obey the laws of our land and be citizens of a community and country. The old church father Augustine said that, it
is kind of like we are citizens of two cities at the same time. Please keep in mind that as Christians we are
not completely removed from the world as some religious groups attempt. As Christians we do not belong to a church
bubble. No, my friends Jesus prays in
his High Priestly prayer that we would not
be taken out of the world, but that we would be protected from the evil one in
the world. As redeemed Christians we are
in the world, yet not of the world, but for the world.
What this means is that as we live our
lives in relationship to the governing authorities and others in society, but
we do so knowing that we have been called to a divine calling of being a
citizen. In this divine calling as a
citizen we walk in the knowledge of the Word of God, we walk in our calling as
citizens knowing that God has prepared good works in advance for us, works that
lift up our fellow citizens. Example of
vocations as citizens in the left hand kingdom are: serving in the armed
forces, pledging allegiance to the flag, serving on a local drug and alcohol
prevention task force, volunteering your time at the health department, working
on the local school board, going to precinct meetings, voting, following speed limits,
following our state/national laws, and paying our taxes.
Now, just because we are called to
these divine callings of being citizens, this does not mean that we should turn
the church into a political action group or that we should confuse the work of
the Gospel with the political realm of the state. Listen carefully, we don’t need: Christian
judges, Christian policemen, Christian congressmen and so forth. Rather we need judges who are Christians,
policemen who are Christian, congressmen who are Christian and so forth. The church is all about the Gospel and the Word. The church is not the left hand kingdom. As Christians we engage our culture and
engage the left hand kingdom underneath our vocations as citizens. As citizens who are Christians, we are called
to work in our cultures to make our country a better place, if only in a small
way. As citizens who are Christians, we
are continually formed by the Word of God in the church so that we might
advocate for what is right and what is true!
Practically speaking, through our
vocations as citizens, we go as informed and redeemed Christians to impact our
culture. We don’t vote merely as
citizens, we vote as citizens that have been impacted and formed by the Word of
God. Furthermore, when the left hand
kingdom violates the Word of God, as citizens we work diligently to correct the
problems through running for office, demonstrating, and debating. When the left hand kingdom enforces laws upon
us as citizens that purposely cause us to violate conscious and violate the
Word of God, with all tactfulness we obey God rather than man and thus oppose
the left hand kingdom.
Practically speaking we have elections
coming forth. As you go to the polls I
want you to realize that as you vote, you are walking in a divine calling as
citizen. As you cast your votes, serve
your neighbors in this community, and pray for our government officials, you
can be assured that this is all good, that you are walking in good works that
have been prepared in advance for you to walk in.
God
is at work in our lives through the governing authorities to keep order. God is also at work calling us to our
vocations as citizens to serve our neighbor.
God is at working calling us into our vocations so that He might care
for and provide for His creation. Praise
God for the high calling of being a citizen.
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