Our Citizenship - The Rev. Philip DeVaul

This week’s podcast reflects on how Paul’s relationship to citizenship was complex: Jewish in identity, born in Tarsus in Roman-controlled Cilicia, raised partly in Jerusalem, and able to claim Roman citizenship to demand due process, yet ultimately executed under Nero’s campaign of terror against Christians after the great fire in Rome. It parallels Paul’s death with the killings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican-born man who lived in the U.S. for 35 years while pursuing legal status, and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a documented Colombian immigrant; both were chased by agents in unmarked cars and executed after being mistaken for someone else. It defines “martyr” from Greek martureo (“to witness”) and asks whether these deaths should be recognized as martyrdoms. Rev. Phil argues that Paul’s theology rejects national, cultural, and racial barriers—“Our citizenship is in heaven”—and urges examining citizenship’s role as Church of the Redeemer approaches a borderland pilgrimage.

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