As Christians our citizenship is most fundamentally in the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God. (Christian Discipleship Amidst A Culture of Christian Nationalism, pt. 3)

You are the light of the world… let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven. (Mt 5:16)

Right now, the people who are marching and singing and helping shovel their neighbors driveways and delivering food and (God have mercy) getting shot in the street in Minneapolis are a shining light on a hill. In spite of how flat Minnesota is. And I praise God in heaven for the courage and resilience and compassion and generosity they are demonstrating to the whole world.

Some of those folks are professing Christians. Some are not. They are many faiths and no faith. But all of them are operating with the understanding that Love does not have borders. That our neighbors are not just those who look alike, or have been in this country for generations, or believe the same thing. They are oriented toward Love.

God is love. Love became incarnate in Jesus. Jesus is our center.

When I read the theme for today’s worship, “God’s Kingdom is Unbordered and Unbound,” what I immediately thought about was a concept that Weldon, our speaker last week and my long-time colleague and mentor used to talk about related to church membership. He thought about membership in the church as ‘centered-set.’

At the time I didn’t ask where he got this idea, but I suspect that it was from the work of Paul Hiebert, an anthropologist and missiologist (someone who studies and teaches about mission work and evangelism).

Hiebert’s original writing about set theory – which he borrowed from mathematics – was in relation to the question of missions. When a person who has never heard the Gospel before decides to follow Christ and become a Christian, perhaps based on one or a handful of encounters and knowing only a few of the stories of Jesus, are they Christian? What if they don’t have a church or body of believers to engage with? 

Mark Baker has recently written a book based on Heibert’s work and his own research and interviews with his students and pastors and church members, called The Centered Set Church: Discipleship and Community Without Judgment. Here’s how he talks about a more traditional understanding – especially in the western church – of what it means to be in, to belong, based on Hiebert’s writing about sets.

A Bounded Church has a clear boundary line that is static and distinguishes Christians from non Christians, or true Christians from mediocre Christians. The line generally consists of a list of correct beliefs and certain visible behaviors. A bounded church has tendencies toward a sense of superiority and judgmentalism. It hinders transparency and shames. 

A reaction against those boundaries sometimes results in communities where there’s no structure and no expectations to guide belonging. It becomes what Baker calls a “fuzzy set.” What Baker suggests instead, based on the work of Hiebert, is the centered-set church. Baker describes the centered church this way:

A Centered Church discerns who belongs to the group by observing people’s relationship with the center—Jesus Christ…The group includes all who are oriented toward the center. Their common direction brings unity. There is space to struggle and fail because everyone recognizes that they are in process—moving closer to the center.

Our center is Jesus. Jesus, who became Love incarnate. God is Love. 

Authors Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost illustrated the concept of a centered set by referring to how livestock might be raised in Australia. They say that a bounded set approach would be to build fences to contain your cattle.  That’s how you know where they are and ensure they don’t get lost. (That’s definitely the system that feels familiar to me)

According to Hirsch and Frost, a ranch in Australia might be set up so that rather than fences, a well is places at the center of the field or property, drawing all the animals to the center. The resource of the water will always have the cattle returning to that source. (Who’s With Me!?, Pt. 3: Following Jesus as a Centered Set – Kairos University)

A nation – any nation – needs to be a bounded set. Nations are defined by their boundaries. Having been through the process of becoming a member of this particular bounded set, and of doing the paperwork so that my children can become members of the one to the north, I know: You are a member of the nation when you have gone through a specific process of belonging and vetting. Or when you have been born within the boundaries. 

Christian Nationalism wants to make the border even higher and more rigid. Literally. Christian Nationalism proposes to defend the border by violence and to violently remove anyone who does not belong to the set. Christian Nationalism says that boundaries are better, safer, more secure. Belonging looks like something very specific.

But God’s reign is unbounded and does not have borders. And we are members primarily of God’s reign, not nations.

And God is love. Love that became incarnate in Jesus. Jesus is our center. 

We are oriented toward Christ. Toward love. Love doesn’t say, “You don’t belong here.” Love doesn’t say, “Go back to where you came from.” Love says welcome, we’re glad you came, join us in our journey toward Love.

So what does it look like to operate in a boundaried world from a centered place? What does it mean to be a light, to be salt? It means to visit your neighbor and get to know what they need. It means check in with your local school or foodbank, shop at immigrant-owned shops, get trained in rapid response and know your rights. And sing the light into being. 

Twenty years ago, two Mennonite scholars, June Alliman Yoder and J. Nelson Krabill at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary wrote a pledge of allegiance that aligns with our true citizenship. Our Christ-centered, love-bound, non-violent citizenship in God’s Kingdom. As we close, I invite you to say it with me:

I pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ 

and to God’s kingdom for which he died, 

one spirit-let people the world over, 

indivisible, with love and justice for all.

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