A City Set On a Hill … (July 2021 Update)
In March of 1630, John Winthrop delivered a message to the new arrivals who had come to settle what is today Boston. Preaching to them from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Winthrop warned his fellow colonists that the “eyes of all people are upon us.” He explained that their “experiment” on American soil would make them like a “city set on a hill” for all the world to see. And that their success or failure in this experiment depended upon their willingness to uphold their covenant with God and with each other. Even as America celebrates another year of its independence, the world is still watching. And many are wondering if that experiment will continue to shine for all the world to see.
But Jesus was not speaking about a political experiment in Matthew 5. He was speaking to his disciples about the testimony of the church to the world. In verses 14-16, Jesus outlines his plan for the witness of his church. Let’s take a look at it and remember its importance even for us today.
First, Jesus begins by reminding his disciples about the priority of their individual witness. In verse 14, he says, “You are the light of the world.” Any real witness of the church begins with a personal witness. Unfortunately today, many churches think that the church can provide a witness by having a big building or great programs that attract people. But the witness of a church is no greater than the witness of its individual members. The biggest buildings and the best programs do not witness – individual believers do. You are the light of the world – not your church and not your programs! We often focus on the next line in the Sermon: ”A City on a hill cannot be hidden.” And while that is true, a city is made up of many individual lights that shine brighter together than separately. This is why Jesus quickly follows up in verse 15 reminding his disciples about the priority of their personal witness: “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” It is the individual witness that makes the light of the city powerful and not the other way around. You cannot build a great church thinking that, if ”we build it, they will come.” The city light is dependent on the individual light. Individual witness is primary over the corporate witness and forms the foundation for any corporate witness.
Second, Jesus reminded his disciples that people would also look at their corporate witness (vs.14). You might be able to hid a single light but it is impossible to hid an entire city! Just as there is often a tendency to focus only on the corporate witness and ignore the priority of the individual witness, there is sometimes a tendency today to “go it alone – just Jesus and me.” This is also not a true Biblical witness. A major part of the testimony of the gospel is the corporate witness. In John 13:34-35, after he washed their feet, Jesus told his disciples about importance of loving one another as a major aspect of their testimony to the world. He said, “by this will all men know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The church bears witness to the transforming power of the gospel by demonstrating their love for one another. The church shows His kind of love by being a melting pot of people who have been saved and brought together from different lifestyles, backgrounds and races. Even the critics of the early church marveled at this as they put Christians to death: “My, how they love one another.” To be a city set on the hill, we must have the priority of personal testimony. But we must also be bound together with an unexplainable love that shows the truth of our transformation. We need an individual witness but we also need a corporate witness.
Finally, our individual and corporate witness must be more than just words – it must be supported with actions. There must be an active witness also. In verse 16, Jesus said: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Our testimony should not be only in words, but also in actions. Believers must demonstrate God’s love to one another as well as to non-believers so that they can “see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” We need to be individual witnesses. We need to be part of a corporate body that demonstrates His love and transformation in a way that cannot be hidden (a city on a hill). But we also need to show His love to non-believers by our actions, our words, and our attitudes. When we have this three-fold witness, then we will truly be a “city set on a hill.”
Teaching Ministry ….
I have finally finished up grading papers from our Spring class in Research and Writing. And now I will be starting to work on fall classes. Since we did a lot of extra preparation last year to put together online versions, I might be able to take a 1 month break before we get started with classes again at the end of August. This will be the beginning of my 26th year Teaching at Kyiv Theological Seminary!
Health Issues …,.
Probably the biggest news for us continues to be my health issues. Before we left for the states at the end of April, I was having BP and stomach issues about once a month. Once we were in the states, these issues began to increase to weekly. By mid June, I was having problems and low-grade fevers nearly every day so we decided to see about removing my gallbladder. We found that my gallbladder had become blocked and severely infected. I had gallbladder surgery to remove it on Friday, June 25th. They removed the gallbladder and also did a liver biopsy. They had to do a second surgery on Saturday morning by endoscope to remove the stones in my bile duct that they could not reach with the laparoscopic surgery. My liver biopsy showed infection from my gallbladder had spread into my liver and into my colon so they put me on 10 days of strong antibiotics to hopefully kill the infection. The doctor said I never would have made it back to Ukraine with my gallbladder in this condition.
It has been 2 weeks now since those surgeries and I’m still extremely weak (sleeping almost all day) and in a lot of pain. But the follow-up visits show some improvement. They expect the liver and colon to recover from the infections. Another complication occurred when it was time to remove the drainage tube from the gallbladder surgery. Normally, it is a simple “pull it out.” But it would not come out. Three different nurses and the doctor all tried but all that happened was that the tube was stretching instead of coming out. And the pain was excruciating! I would rate it as a 15 out of 10! They thought maybe the drainage tube had gotten attached to something so they sent me for a CT scan to see. While there might be some appendage, the CT showed that the tube was free enough to remove. So they sent me back to the doctor and they prepped me for removal under anesthesia in the office. The nurse explained that they would give me an injection in the IV and then I would get drowsy and fall asleep before they would do the procedure. After a few minutes, the nurse came back into the room and I said that maybe they needed to give me more anesthesia because I still didn’t feel even drowsy. She laughed and said, “We already removed the tube!” I was just waking up from the anesthesia. That was by far the best experience I have had in these two weeks of surgery!!!
This was also my first time to use my Medicare since it cannot be used outside of the US. When I was being admitted for the first surgery, I asked if they could tell me what this would cost. They said, not exactly because Medicare can take a couple months to process, but approximately $1047 if there were no complications or additional surgeries or hospital stays. And she reminded me, that does not include the doctors bills for the surgery which would come separately. When I asked how much of those hospital expenses Medicare would pay, she laughed and said, “No, $1027 is your co-pay AFTER Medicare has paid.” In Ukraine, the surgery and the doctors fees would have been about $600 total! So we will have to wait and see the total damage, after the additional surgeries, procedures and doctors. It looks like this could run over $3000 out of pocket. But I’m glad we got it out and now I’m trying to recover enough to make the trip back home.
I am recovering very slowly and so we are considering delaying returning to Ukraine by 1 more week to give more time to heal and to be sure there are no more complications before we travel. Be praying that we can made flight changes, preferably without change fees. But the rest time is so important that we would probably pay the fees rather than have some complications during the travel.
Family Time ….
Even though I have been in bed these last two weeks, Katya and the girls have still be able to get to the pool nearly every day and even had a wonderful trip to the Botanical Gardens with Haven and Harlie. These four have been like sisters the last 3 months and the hardest part about returning to Ukraine will be missing them. It will be another year and a half to two years before we can come back again. 😦
Pray for Ukraine ….
Do continue to pray for Ukraine. Right now (except for the daily war in the East that has been ongoing since 2014, things are fairly quiet now. But continue to pray for peace in Ukraine and especially for Russia to stop its aggression against Ukraine. Pray too for our many students serving in those areas or working with refugees from those areas.
We are continuing to pray for America as well. I am shocked by so many changes since our last visit here three years ago. I have never seen so many closed businesses – malls look like ghost towns! Every type of business seems desperate to find anyone who will work and the level of service has gone down everywhere. But most of all, we are concerned about Americans spiritual moorings. Though America has not always acted in accordance with being the “city set on a hill,” it has always tried to be a shining example for nations around the world. We are praying for spiritual renewal that will bring back the passion for America to be a “city set on a hill” again.
Thank you for praying for us and for your unwavering support. Due to our travel limitations and the unexpected surgery, we did not get to see many people we usually get to see on our trips. We are hopeful that our next trip in, we will be able to visit more with many of you!
By His Grace,
Jim, Katya, Kristina, and Nadia
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