A City Set on a Hill

For the Puritans, the American Dream was directly related to the Great Commission. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mt 5:14). The American Dream was that the world would see who God is by seeing him at work in the lives of a nation that honored him. We could argue about how well that has been done, but the vision was right.

In Haggai, the Jews were supposed to be rebuilding the temple. In 539 B.C. the Persians gave the Jews permission to rebuild. Almost 20 years later the job still wasn’t done. Haggai was written to motivate the People of God to get on with the Work of God. In Matthew 28 Jesus gave us the Great Commission to make disciples. Over 2000 years later the work still isn’t done and we, the People of God, are more interested in the 21^st century American Dream of personal peace and affluence than in that of our founding fathers. We, as the church, are a city set on a hill. We have the Good News of Life. As we celebrate liberty, let us proclaim the liberty of Jesus Christ.