Strangers and Sojourners
one
We are blessed to have the privilege of participating, at least to some degree, in determining our leaders and we must do our part. But to keep things in perspective so that we are not overwhelmed by anxiety anger or despair let us keep in mind – the earth is not our true homeland. We are citizens of Heaven, the New Jerusalem, a country of permanent justice and happiness.
Speaking about the Patriarchs who lived and died with faith Paul writes in Hebrews 11, All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognizing that they were only strangers and sojourners on earth. People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of their real homeland. They can hardly have meant the country they came from, since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact, they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them. And Hebrews 13:14 For there is no permanent city for us in this life but we look for one in the life to come.
two
A Christian is not a permanent citizen of this world, but rather we are to be a pilgrim, one who is on the way and making progress toward our true homeland, Heaven, the New Jerusalem. And let me remind you that Heaven is to be like God as 1 John 3:2 and 2 Peter 1:4 tell us.
A secular person thinks their true homeland is this country, this earth, this life. Subsequently, for them, the election means everything. So right now, the goal of their life and all their happiness hangs in the balance.
This is not the attitude of a Christian. The proper attitude of a Christian is one of hope, that is, a steadfast turning toward the true goal for which God made us, to become like God and a permanent home with Our Father and all our brothers and sisters in Heaven.
How would your outlook on life right now change if you lived in the reality that this is not your homeland, that you are just passing through, you really were a citizen of heaven and you were just a pilgrim making your way home?
three
Tragically, it’s common to hear this striving for Heaven as something which is merely a distraction from making a difference on earth. For example, Marx once famously said that “religion is the drug of the people,” and more recently, Carl Sagan stated, “Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of the astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.” I guess people think that ideas about the next life are simple forms of escapism or wishful thinking that keeps us from doing any good in this world.
Yet actually the contrary is true. Those with their eyes fixed on Heaven are the ones who do the most good for earthly society. C.S. Lewis articulates this very clearly:
"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven.”[1]
The fact is that those who are only interested in conditions down here lack the power to actually affect conditions down here. Hope, the pursuit of God, Heaven, and holiness, is what charges us on towards the perfection of temporal matters. So do you really want to make a difference? Do you really want to change the world? Then start by making sure you’re putting God and your supernatural destiny first.
four
The two virtues or good habits necessary to remain a pilgrim are magnanimity and humility.
Magnanimity is to desire and strive to reach one’s divine potential. For as we have said, as scripture states, we are invited by God to share in His divine nature and become like Him as He is and to be so permanently in Heaven with all the angels and others humans who chose the same thing.
Magnanimity is to recognize this Divine calling, to want it, to strive after it, and to let nothing stand in one’s way or distract us from this noble calling.
Mark Twain captures a magnanimous attitude when he writes:
Let men label you as they may, if you alone of all the nation decide one way, and that way be the right way by your convictions of the truth, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country, hold up your head for you have nothing to be ashamed of.
It doesn’t matter what the press says. It doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. It doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. Republics are founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe in. No matter the odds or consequences.
When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move. Your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth and tell the whole world:
“No, you move.”
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Humility balances Magnanimity. Humility recognizes that while we are called to share in the very life of God and become like Him, we are mere creatures. God created us out of nothing and without God we will go back to being nothing. In fact, sin is to turn back to nothingness.
Humility lives in the reality that while we have a divine calling and divine potential, without God we are nothing and as creatures we have limitations.
But if we accept our limitations peacefully, and surrender them to God, He in fact will fill those limitations with Himself, obliterating our limitations, opening up a limitless horizon, in which we really become like God.
[1] Mere Christianity, San Francisco: Harper Collins, 134.