A City on a Hill not a Person on a Hill

John Winthrop, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, gave a sermon to his congregation of settlers aboard the ship Arbella in AD 1630 from the shores of England. His “City on a Hill” sermon has been quoted by Presidential candidates and called the greatest sermon of the past 1,000 years. In that sermon Winthrop spoke a great deal about the need for a fervent application of brotherly love. He said things like this:

“That which most in their churches maintain as truth in profession only, we must bring into familiar and constant practice; as in this duty of love, we must love brotherly without dissimulation, we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another burdens. We must not look only on our own things, but also on the things of our brethren”.

He spoke of avoiding shipwreck by following the council of Micah “to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God…to be knit together as one man…to delight in each other”.

On and on Winthrop went with the call to brotherly love, self-denial, making other’s conditions our own conditions. This was perhaps the most needed message for these settlers because they were about to spend 3 months together on a ship in terribly claustrophobic conditions. No showers. No private suites. No cry rooms. Probably only a personal bucket for a bathroom which they would then toss overboard and store away for later. If they made it through this claustrophobic journey alive they would live together 24/7- helping one another build homes, clear the land, hunt for game, plant crops, fight off Indians, birth babies, bury dead and in every way worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

It goes without saying that if the church in this context would not put their faith fully into practice by loving their neighbors completely as they love themselves, their community would have dissolved into discord. And many such communities did.

Brotherly love for this Massachusetts Bay Colony, and many others like it, was not just a nice thing to have…it was an essential ingredient to survival. Without it the whole experiment would have been shipwrecked. Brotherly love would also be the very element necessary to make their colony a “city on a hill” to the rest of the world and certainly the reason Winthrop emphasized it so.

When we read Matthew 5:14-16 today I fear we read it differently than Jesus intended it. When I have read it in the past I imagined Jesus saying, "Shaun you are a light to the world." "Shaun you are a city on a hill." "Shaun you are a candle on a stick that people put up high to give light to others." Although there is a sense in which Jesus' words apply to me individually, the fact is Jesus' words are best understood communally.

The church is supposed to be a "city on a hill" not a person on a hill. A city on a hill is made up of individuals for sure, but if I am on that hill alone by myself I am no light to the world. If we are all up there together fervently applying brotherly love, however, then we shall shine!

I extend my appreciation again to the Brunswick Church of Christ for being the best "city on a hill" I have ever been a part of. Praise God. I will continue to challenge us to become so more and more.