- Jan 5, 2024
- 3 min read
“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). If you are going to be the light, then go out and do it. Don’t water down what Jesus has to offer. Don’t give a tainted Good News that is filled with Baylonian creep. Is what I am offering the world the light of God? What type of Kingdom am I showing the world?
It is Good News. So, why are folks constantly acting like salvation is scary? Because Christians make the Good News, the Kingdom, and our witness into something unattractive. When I left my worldly ways of being a total mess, I was not looking for something to make me feel worse. I was already feeling bad enough before I became part of His Kingdom. And I think all too often Christians are sending mixed signals about how good the Good News actually is. The Good News means God has taken care of everything. I just need to accept His Kingdom. And accepting that Kingdom involves me following His example by, “ . . . let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). And a lot of Christian tradition is not about denying ourselves and doing things the way Jesus did. A lot of Christian tradition is contaminated with Babylonian creep.
What are you talking about with this Babylonian creep? Well, the original verse up there is tainted with the way the world can take something from The Bible and add its own worldly spin. Folks probably know that Ronald Reagan used the metaphor of the “city on the hill” after JFK used the same metaphor BUT rarely is that “city on the hill” taken back to its originator, Jesus. And I know that Jesus has a totally different “city on the hill” idea than either of those two men. So Christians really have to be careful about what we mean when we take up Bible verses that are now part of the worldly conversation. Is the “city on the hill” a representation of military power and economic prosperity? Is the “city on the hill” a place where the poor and hurt and alienated and broken can come to be made whole? These are two distinctly and diametrically opposed metaphors and Christians need to be concerned about what interpretation we take. Are we letting Babylon’s definitions of the “city on the hill” to taint the Good News of Jesus The Christ?
Too often we don’t examine our beliefs. There are a lot of folks carrying around ideas and philosophies that lead them to holding schizophrenic ways of dealing with the world when Jesus lays out His Kingdom for us. He is totally clear about what type of “city on the hill” His light should illuminate. His teaching is really clear. BUT sometimes the ideas of Babylon slowly creep into our tradition and make our relationship into a tradition and a religion. And I don’t want another religion or a tradition, I want a relationship with Him. And relationships are difficult. Religion and traditions are easy. So, maybe it is a good idea for all of us to examine what Jesus said and where we are getting Him wrong. Examine where we are allowing religion and tradition and the world to shade our relationship with Jesus. And hopefully looking at what He says in the next verses will help shine a light on what type of city we need to embody.