This has been a strange and unusual week. I saw so many things that I never imagined that I would see. I heard so many things that I never imagined that I would hear. And yet, in the midst of all of the various things in the various places, there was one verse of Scripture, a brief statement from our friend Paul, that kept coming to mind. Our citizenship is in heaven.
Our citizenship is in heaven. Paul does not say that we will be citizens of heaven. It is not a word of prophecy. It is a word of reality. He says that our citizenship is in heaven. At this moment, right now, we are citizens of heaven.
How did that happen? How did we, who were born on earth and who live on earth, become citizens of heaven? The Son of the Eternal Father came down from heaven. The Son of God joined the story of earth and he joined the story of the earth to the song of heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven because Christ came from heaven and claimed us as his own.
We were claimed in the waters of our baptism. We were baptized into the death and more importantly into the life of Jesus. We were made a member of his body and we were claimed as a citizen of heaven. Christ Jesus entered into the waters of the Jordan to make the water holy so that in the waters of baptism we would be united to Christ Jesus.
Our citizenship is in heaven. Christ has come from heaven to join us to himself. He claimed us in the waters of our baptism. And in the waters of our baptism, he consecrated each of us to join in his great feast. In the celebration of the Eucharist, all who are baptized are joined to the offering of Christ and we celebrate here and now the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God who lives and reigns forever and ever.
