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Last week I explained why Covenant, and our Be In Christ Church of Canada family, are comfortable with applying for a grant through the Canada Summer Jobs program this year even though other Christian voices are convinced that we should not. In that Covenant Weekly I brought up the question, "If our government began to make changes that radically impacted how we have operated (e.g. removing church's charitable status and removing access to government funding), how should we respond?"

For the sake of guidance, let's consider how the church has related to governments historically. For the first 300 years of church history, the concept of having any kind of government privilege was unheard of. Christianity was an illegal religion and many Christians were executed by the ruling power. That changed with Constantine making Christianity legal in 313 AD and eventually making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and eventually taking over controlling interest in the church. From that event until the Protestant Reformation, Christians really didn't have much freedom to consider how the church and the state would relate. They were, by and large, one and the same. In places where they were separate, the state was controlled by the church. If anyone would dare to speak against this relationship, they would face death at the hands of the ruling church!

Then, with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation, a second option began to emerge. This second option held to a separation of church and state, but that both were ways in which God exercised his rule in the world. The left-hand of God used the state and law and the sword to accomplish God's purposes. The right hand of God used the church and sacraments and gospel and grace as means of God's work in the world. It makes sense that this view would emerge with Luther because the only reason Lutheranism was able to grow was through the protection and sponsorship of German princes.

But not everyone in the Reformation affirmed this option. Calvin strayed from it slightly in his thinking. He saw the church and state separate, however, he felt that the government was obligated to rule in line with God's ways. If they sought to rule in a different manner that opposed God, they would lose their divinely privileged place and should be removed from that role. In this way, although the entities of church and state were seen as separate, the church maintained a subversive control of the government. The city of Geneva was this kind of community for Calvin. This way of thinking has matured into a variety of forms which seek to see ethical principles of Christianity brought to bear within all human institutions.

But in the midst of the Reformation, a third understanding emerged and it emerged among the Anabaptist. While the Roman Catholic Church had power, Lutherans had state protection, and Calvin (and others) had city-states where they held influence - Anabaptists were running for their lives. They had communities, but not cities. They had the Bible, but not universities and seminaries. They had the power of the Spirit, but not the power of the sword. And in their context, they began to reread the Bible in a way that it had not been read since before Constantine. Anabaptists read, "My kingdom is not of this world" and observed a great disconnect between Jesus' words and the what the different churches lived out. Anabaptists read the sermon on the mount and saw that this way of living went against all things earthly kingdoms were expected to do. When faced with the choice of following Jesus or pursuing power and influence, they chose Jesus. They eschewed political power and places within governments. While a government might, at times, be not hostile to the kingdom of Jesus, they were (and always would be) radically distinct entities. The Anabaptist experience led them to expect that governments (even ones which claimed to be Christian) would, by necessity, eventually find themselves in opposition to the kingdom of Jesus. That was Jesus' experience. That was the experience of the entire early church. That was the experience that both Paul and Peter told Christians to expect. With that mindset, early Anabaptists sought to live out the radical teachings of Jesus in ways that echoed the response of the early church . . . with much the same result - many people were killed for their faith while many others came to faith in Jesus.

Through their/our history Anabaptist have certainly sought to be law abiding and beneficial citizens of their earthy communities, but always with a conviction that our citizenship is in the Jesus kingdom. He is our only hope.

As one observes people's response to various government decisions today echoes of these perspectives can still be seen. Some Christians are angered by any ruler who does live or reflect what they perceive to be a Christian way of being and want to depose them. They affirm that God uses governments for his purposes, but only if the government looks and acts rightly.

Others could care less whether or not the leader looks Christian, as long as they get the decisions they want. Many people with this mindset will affirm someone who lives and acts in direct opposition to the Jesus way as long as they perceive that Christians maintain a level of influence.

Then there are others, a growing minority in recent years, who hold to the Anabaptist tradition of seeking first the kingdom of God - the Jesus kingdom. Some have been raised in this tradition. But many others are joining it because they've watched billions of dollars and billions of hours invested into trying to get earthly kingdoms to somehow look like Jesus. And they've seen all of those efforts fail. In the meantime, they have also watched the church of Jesus Christ, in many contexts, begin to look more like governments and business than the family of Jesus. This struggle has led them to rediscover the posture of the early church and the posture of the Reformation era Anabaptists.

Be In Christ Church of Canada and Covenant is a part of that strain of Christianity which identifies with the Jesus kingdom alone. So back to the big question. "If our government began to make changes that radically impacted how we have operated (e.g. removing church's charitable status and removing access to government funding), how should we respond?" We'll have to wrestle with details of our responses when we get there, but by learning from our Anabaptist ancestors I suggest four things should be true for us.

  1. We won't be surprised. Earthly governments have a different mandate than the kingdom of Jesus and we should expect that at some point those mandates will collide.
  2. We won't dishonour our government. So far the things that are making waves in our world are not persecution. They are a loss of privilege. We are grateful for the privilege that we have enjoyed, but the loss of it does not mean God is not at work. It does not prevent us from living the way Jesus has called us to. But even if we are persecuted, Jesus' clear teaching in the Sermon on the Mount calls on us to respond with love and prayer. We will seek to live in a way that looks more like ancient Jewish exiles in Babylon who were told, in the midst of a radically hostile community, to "seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you . . . Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
  3. We won't lose hope. When God's messenger came to Mary to tell her Jesus would be coming, he said that Jesus' kingdom would never end. And it won't. It's bigger than any earthly kingdom. Sure, there might be some struggles and even desperately hard times, but that has been a part of the reality for Jesus' kingdom people for 2,000 years.
  4. We won't stop following Jesus. We will continue to love like Jesus - even our enemies. Serve like Jesus - even washing the feet of the one who will betray us. Honour others like Jesus - even (especially) the weak and marginalized.

I recognize that not everyone who is a part of our congregation is rooted in this Anabaptist tradition and way of relating to governments. We acknowledge that many who are committed to following Jesus view things differently. But I'd invite you to consider this perspective as a genuinely viable option which honours how Jesus calls us to live. For our extended Be In Christ family and our local congregational family, these will be some of the things we aim to embody as we seek to live the way of Jesus in a world that will not always support our efforts.