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| The Price of Citizenship |
by Rev. Andrew JJ Paton |
"Mind you getting what you pay for
can be a good rule of thumb."
Citizenship has rights and duties. Do you know about these?
One of the rights of a citizen is the privilege of a passport that allows you to travel. If you have one take a long look at your picture in it. Anyone who looks like the portrait in their passport needs a vacation!
Unflattering as that photo may be, the passport document is your country's way of saying "we back this person's right to travel."
There are 2 legal ways that most of us can obtain U. S. citizenship.
The first is being confined to a dark, warm place for about 9 months. Suddenly you experience unbelievable pressures and just when you think your head will burst, you get pushed onto American soil. Someone grabs you by the ankles, turns you upside down and beats you for some unknown crime. So you start your sojourn in this country naked, wet and crying. One wag suggested that life is all downhill from there.
If you think that's painful you most likely don't want to know about the other way to become a citizen. There's an inscription on the Statue of Liberty:
"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore (not a very promising way to build a nation!) Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
"Give me your tired, your poor". You can be neither of those if you want to legally obtain US citizenship. You better not be too tired to stand in long lines in Newark from 4am to10am. You better also have plenty of money to afford the registration fees, the medical exams, the finger printing and the many trips to Newark. Expect grilling interrogations.
Mind you getting what you pay for can be a good rule of thumb.
Citizenship affords you great privileges. Freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom to keep & bear arms, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and protection for those accused of crimes.
Those are huge, but there's more: you have rights to privacy, freedom of movement, of marriage, of owning property, of rest & leisure, freedom from slavery & torture and freedom to pursue education.
There's more yet. Life isn't about demanding your rights, but at the same time its prudent to know what those rights are.
Paul, one of the apostles, was going to be flogged for bearing witness to Jesus. As he was about to be beaten he asked a question that struck fear into the hearts of his captors: "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty." Punishment without trial of a Roman citizen was a very serious offence in the empire. When this was relayed to the commander he worriedly inquired about Paul's status.
The commander said: "I had to pay a big price for my citizenship."
Paul replied "But I was born one."
Nothing's changed - even in those days there were the two methods of obtaining the prized goal.
I got to thinking about the 2 ways to become a citizen of heaven. You can either purchase it (if you have enough assets) or you can be born into it.
Oh, the purchase price is exceptionally steep. It will cost you death on a cross. Painful as that is, it's not enough.
To be able to buy the rights to heaven you also have to be completely sinless before they put you on the cross. So far that method has been limited to only one Person ever.
Even then He didn't purchase heaven for Himself. He died there to extend second birth opportunities for all who want to be born again into God's kingdom.
America still offers new citizens the chance to change their name just before taking the oath of allegiance. Being born into God's kingdom is no less radical a change than that.
America offers some people the privilege of dual citizenship.
God doesn't.
The choice is allegiance to this world's or heaven's ways. How you live is what you chose.