Thinking about our role as citizens in terms of ministry makes a big difference in how we approach the challenge of shaping the way our society works. Whether we have legal citizenship or not, we exercise citizenship through the variety of ways in which we engage in the public square.
What does our faith have to do with how we exercise our citizenship?
When we go to Scriptures for guidance, at a broad level it is easy. We are to love our neighbor – and that takes many forms, including caring for basic needs and providing help when needed.
Scripture is also clear in calling us to help care for the creation – to be stewards, not destroyers of what God created and celebrates throughout Scripture.
But there is an additional teaching in Scripture that speaks more specifically to how loving our neighbor relates to the way we shape our communal life. This teaching is a challenge because Scripture speaks to a time when those who governed, the Kings, and those who were governed, the people, were two distinct groups. In the Old Testament, we find prayers for the King, calls for the King to do justice, and calls for subjects to obey the King. And we read about prophets going to the King with a message from God. There are disturbing stories of what happened to people when their leaders did not obey God.
In the New Testament, Jesus comes to a people ruled by an Emperor, who kept control from afar, but let religious/tribal leaders, Pharisees and Sadducees, govern daily life. Jesus, you will recall, has a lot to say about the rules these leaders used to oppress the people.
We have trouble making direct applications from these contexts, because we live in a democracy, something that was not envisioned in Scripture. As citizens in a democracy, we are both governors and the governed. As citizens, we need to listen to Scripture’s message to the King – to do justice – and relate that to our daily life in the public square.
Take the words of one of the prophets, Micah 6:8. What does the Lord require of you? “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” “Do justice” refers not just to the government in Ottawa; it refers to how I exercise my role in our common life together every day, in my citizenship.
Listen to Psalm 72 – put ourselves in the place of the King – we are the governor and this prayer is for us too:
Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness.
He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice.
The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. ….
For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help.
He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.
He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight.
What stands out about this call to do justice? It is focused on others – those who are most vulnerable, who are most likely to suffer injustice. A society will be just when those who are most vulnerable have a place of dignity in the society. And we are called to use whatever influence we have as agents to bring about that kind of justice.
If we look at our exercise of life in community – our citizenship life – as being an agent of justice, then we will find it a powerful tool for ministry, for witness to who we are in Christ. Why is that?
Most people, particularly in today’s society, look at what will benefit themselves when they consider matters of governance. Recall the stories you read in the lead-up to any federal or provincial budget. Am I going to get a tax cut? How will I benefit from this budget?
Political leaders expect self-interest to be the motivation of their constituents. When a political candidate comes knocking on your door or shows up at a local meeting, the team has briefed the candidate on the make-up of your community: what people would like to hear, what is in their interests? If you ask a question that is not about self-interest, but shows a concern for doing justice for others, that has a surprise element to it – and politicians take note. If a group – even a small group – does that consistently, it has the impact of being like yeast in bread, salt in soup, or light in the darkness – the image of the role that the Bible suggests for us in the world.
Citizenship as ministry starts with the questions we ask as we read the morning paper or listen to the radio on the way home from work. It starts by practicing discernment about when government actions live out the calling to do justice, and when they serve other agendas – pursuing power, for example. It is natural to focus on what impacts us directly, but we can also choose to ask different questions. For any particular proposal, we might ask questions like:
Does this action – or, sometimes, decision not to act – promote respect for the rights, responsibilities, and dignity of all people, as image-bearers of God?
Is it sustainable in terms of caring for creation with an eye to future generations? Does it contribute to new opportunities for those who have few?
Does it create space for people to be active participants in society, to have the role that God wants for all of us?
Those are justice questions – the kind of questions we are called to ask as agents of God’s justice.
The Catalyst, summer 2007, Volume 30 / Number 3
