Is your Christian life too private, too indoorsy?
“You are the light of the world,” our Lord declares. “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). Some of us, it seems, mean to test that claim.
We can yell about Jesus as loudly as we want in our homes and church buildings — but we must keep it behind those walls. Public life is off-limits. The good of society requires it, you see. How can a multicultural, multireligious community flourish with the Christians insisting that all other gods are false and that Jesus is the only way to heaven? What about the atheists? Muslims? Jews? Our lofty ideals tell us to leave all the high places intact.
Thoughtheheavenscannotcontainhim,thoughearthishisfootstool,dowe—hisgrasshoppersleapinguponhislawn—trytocagethelivingGodinchurchbuildingsandarounddinnertables?Theysayheistoowildandtransgressivetobeunleashedintothecommunity.Theyarenotwrong.Hecametobringdivision:lightfromdark,thetruthfromthelie,hissonsfromSatan’s.OurGodholdsuphisSon;hisSonholdsouthisringforallothergodsandmentokiss.Refuse,andhiswrathisquicklykindled.Blessingisonlyforthosewhotake
