I have lately been revisiting the album wonder that is Andrew Peterson's The Far Country, culled from an Inklings convention in Nashville a few years back where Mr. Peterson sat with me (not literally, though that would have been very cool!) in attendance. On this side of having read even more by the authors alluded to throughout the album, my awe has only grown. It is truly, one of the most beautiful and literary albums I've heard in a long time. Its cover features a city, floating on a detached, green hill, in a deep blue sky. Inside, you find, hidden here and there, the two quotes above. While I drink in the fantastical journey of the lyrics, I can't help but feel that at this point in my life, they are so very apropos.

As many of you know, I work for the government. Yes, the Big One. I freely admit that this can be very confusing for me as a Christian from time to time ,and I have to go back to God again and ask for that extra measure of grace where my understanding will never be adequate. While I work for the government - that temporal, earthly one - I am a servant to its people, to its kings. However, I am not a citizen - no matter what my birth certificate tries to prove. Delineating between necessary governance on a temporal level (plus my role in that necessity) and my alien citizenship status is a complex piece of work. Part of the problem is those fuzzy lines that many around me draw between who they are as Christians and who they are as Americans. At face value, there seems to be great effort to claim this kingdom as a kingdom of Christ, maybe even, dare I say it, The Kingdom of Christ. A few years ago I began to notice something. So many Christians in my immediate sphere say "we" meaning "we, the U.S." and yet, the language that follows implies that they are speaking of the church. I frequently hear "we need to turn back to God" etc., or "else God will judge this and that." When they say "our nation," they don't draw any distinction between their nation and the church.  Trouble is, Jesus didn't talk of having multiple kingdoms - he spoke of having One - and it is to that kingdom that we are to look - it is for that kingdom that we are to long. The U.S. is not my church - His people are. Nothing in Scripture indicates to me otherwise.

When I read the book of Revelation and the numerous exhortations there, it is never to a country that God speaks - only to churches within those countries. So are we the United States of America? Or are we merely the church at the United States of America? My inclinations regarding the Nature of God suggest to me that the latter is true. After all, the church at Rome was never chastened for those terrible colloseum fights they were always hosting or, for that matter, for invading and conquering Wales. *ahem*

Now, all things considered, is it wrong for beings who dwell in a foreign land to desire justice, peace, and all those good things while dwelling there? I hope not, because it's natural. However, (and this is fast becoming a post laden with howevers) is it our place to demand it? Better yet, to demand it in the name of Christ or imply that Christ himself demands that? Do we have the right to demand our host adopt our own circumcision? I find such demands from guests to their host to be audacious - and yet, when there is abuse - when others besides myself are made victims of tyrannical rule, tortured, imprisoned, shackled - when Grendel comes to feast upon the powerless - something stirs within me.

So what to do?

What happens when earthly campaigns for certain forms of government or even war roll around? Are we to step away and say "this is not my problem" or are we to partake as guests in helping our neighbor in his plight? I believe God would expect us to help our neighbor. But how? Does He want us holding up banners and picketing establishments? Should we sit in the middle of the street until a government behaves in a more Godly manner? Do we saddle up horses and chariots and take up the sword? Does He who sits atop all the riches of heaven, want us to pitch our tea to the sea until Caesar gives back what is "rightfully" ours?

I don't think there's a fast answer to any of these things. If there is a fast answer, I usually don't trust it. We are aliens. Aliens don't have rights unless their host gives or recognizes those rights. Our God is sovereign, we believe - and yes, even over earthly governments. Our inheritance in our own kingdom cannot be taken from us, not by principalities, not by armies, not by death. To live is Christ, to die is gain. The love of God cannot be separated from me, nor can my citizenship. Only my "earthly" rights can be stripped, and as a guest, ultimately, I must comply. Thankfully, while Ecclesiastes tells us that the earth and its seasons are ever changing, ever shifting, Hebrews tells us that God never does.

While these things are often too big for my understanding to fully comprehend, one thing I do believe I understand better is that if we, as Christians, poured the same passion and effort into altering the face of our communities in the name of Christ rather than a political movement or party - if we held His banner high (and His banner over me is love) - then we would be a force in the earth - salt! on an otherwise bland meal - balm! to a dry and thirsty world - light! in the darkest sea. But as long as we continue to make our tools, and equip ourselves with the armor of the earth, as long as we attempt to change lives forcibly via curtained votes rather than speaking life to living souls face-to-face, we are nothing more than tears in rain.

So where does that leave me? In all honesty, I'm not so sure. I just know that if Joseph found a way to honor God while serving and protecting and submitting to an Egyptian king without protest, then likewise, God still makes room for his people in every format of those earthly requirements for peaceable, temporary cohabitation. Sometimes, even as Joseph said God made him father to Pharoah, we too can influence the fate and future of earthly kings and their people.

Whatever my lot, I look not to this place for fulfillment of God's promises, not to this place or any other on this earth for my soul's satisfaction - rather, I look with longing toward the far country - I look with longing toward home.

Yes, I will keep editing this thing.

My list appears to be growing and growing. This is at least the third time I've added more titleS! And when I told my officemate that I intended to attempt both Dune and Don Quixote in one year, she laughed.  heh

 

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate - Alexander McCall Smith
Island of Dr. Moreau - H. G. Wells
The Divine Conspiracy - Dallas Willard
The Thief - Megan Whelan Turner
Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susannah Clarke
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold - John LeCarre
Book 2 in the Evan Evans series - Rhys Bowen
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
Witch Wood - John Buchan
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling
New Moon - Stephanie Meyer
Julie & Julia - Julie Powell
The Napolean of Notting Hill - G.K. Chesterton
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary  Ann Shaffer
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
Shepherd of the Hills - Harold Bell Wright
Don Quixote - Cervantes
John Adams - David McCullough
Truman - David McCullough
Night Train to Lisbon - Pascal Mercier
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Excellent Woman - Barbara Pym
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski
Three Cups of Tea - ??
The Devil in the White City
The Book of Atrix
The Circle Trilogy - Ted Dekker
I Am Legend - Matheson
The Yiddish Policeman's Union
Howl's Moving Castle
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
Odd and the Frost Giants - Neil Gaiman
The Time Traveler's Wife - Niffeneggar
Manalive - G.K. Chesterton
The Stand - Stephen King
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

 

So far finished: The Sunday Philosophy Club - Alexander McCall Smith
                        I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
                        Tuck Everlasting - Babbit
                        American Gods - Neil Gaiman
                        Marley & Me - John Grogan
                        Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
                        Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
                        Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

 
Reading: The Everlasting Man and.....

Granted, a much more conservative number on my list this year, but I've tried to be more realistic since I know the number of house projects we'll be undertaking. We must get lavender and boxwood into the front beds. And find a proper biscuit tin. And then there are the tomatoes and herbs. London starts school in the fall, and I may (will) be job hunting. Oh, if only January were a wee bit longer. I've never wished for a delayed spring before.

That thing they say about life being short is really very true. *sigh*