Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:06] Hey, everybody. Pastor Chuck Allen here with another weekday podcast. And here's some good news, friends.
[00:00:11] Your true citizenship isn't red, blue, or purple.
[00:00:17] Think about that. The Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3:20, we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.
[00:00:27] Did you hear that? Your very first passport is from the kingdom of God, signed in blood, sealed in resurrection, and stamped with grace.
[00:00:38] That means no political party gets your soul, no platform owns your heart, no commentator defines you and your neighbor. You know what does, though?
[00:00:50] The cross of Jesus, where he died and the empty tomb where from which he rose from the dead. And when heaven is our first allegiance, we're finally free to think critically, speak courageously, and then the most challenging part, to love indiscriminately.
[00:01:10] Sociologists have this term. It's called effective polarization.
[00:01:15] It's not just when we disagree, when somebody else is on the other side of our ideas, our votes, or our. Our ideologies.
[00:01:25] It is despising their very existence. It is saying, not only are you wrong, you are less than, because you don't agree with me.
[00:01:34] But Jesus never looked at anybody that way. The Samaritan woman, the tax collector, the zealot, the Pharisee, all saw the same eyes of mercy. I mean, Anne Lamott puts it this way. She says, you can safely assume that you've created God in your own image.
[00:01:53] When it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. Yikes. That one stings.
[00:02:00] If that stunned, maybe it's holy.
[00:02:04] Because the moment we realize we've been worshiping a mirror instead of the Messiah, well, maybe that's the moment that real transformation can begin.
[00:02:14] So today ask yourself this. What is defining your identity?
[00:02:20] Is it your political tribe?
[00:02:23] Maybe it's your candidate of choice.
[00:02:26] Maybe it's your cause.
[00:02:28] Or maybe we ought to rethink it. And it might be the carpenter who built a bridge for us from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven.
[00:02:40] Because, friend, we are not called to shout across the river.
[00:02:44] We're called to carry the wood of the cross until there's a way for love to walk across.
[00:02:49] I've never known anybody to be screamed out into the kingdom of God.
[00:02:55] But I know a lot of people, including myself, that were loved into the kingdom of God.
[00:03:02] Friends, we're called to build bridges and hostile places. We're called to be a people of justice, of mercy, of humility, and a people that join Jesus in practicing the very ancient and sacred art of reconciliation to God. But, friend, hear me.
[00:03:22] We're called to be a people that love one another without any ID badges, without any brands, without any assumptions. Just love. Black, white, brown, purple, green, fat, hairy, tall, short.
[00:03:38] You name it.
[00:03:40] We're called to people. By the way, even those that didn't vote like us. Huh? How about that? We're just called to love. God bless you, friend. Thanks so much for joining me on today's weekday podcast.
