Faith's Homeland

The question of citizenship assumes larger and larger dimensions as Nov 5 approaches. Election day is almost here, and even if you have been living under a rock you are more than aware that the politicians want your vote. You may regret it, but at times like these you feel extremely American. While there is an undeniable element of showbusiness in the whole election phenomenon, and a thick layer of political idolatry, there is also something important about citizenship. Our task this morning is to hear Scripture's testimony to our status as impermanent citizens. We have here no continuing city, but we seek the city that is to come. Our faith loosens our grip on the earthly city, and lowers our confidence in politics and politicians. These things may have some profit, but they cannot save us. Our author addresses in our text this morning the historical reality of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's status as strangers and sojourners living in a foreign land. He connects this status to their faith, and in ch. 13 explicitly to ours as well. He tells us that, just like the patriarchs, we need to die in faith and to live by faith. That will require us to train our desires toward heaven and distance ourselves from our earthly homeland. Our motivation and encouragement is that God has prepared heaven for us as our true homeland. We need to live and die by faith, holding our earthly homeland loosely, because God has given us citizenship in His city and that is our true homeland.