So I have this goofy little self-important studio that I put together, and I've got now my little camera set up, and I put some railings up above so I can kind of hang my lights up there so I don't trip over the cords. It feels really, really fancy, and everything that's outside what is on camera is a filthy, disgusting mess because I got my gear and my junk everywhere, and it's uh it's pretty embarrassing, but you know, that's the beauty of the power of editing and having everything only happen inside frame. But one of the things that's really tricky about this place is that it has some windows and circulate a little bit of air if it starts to get warm or whatever. And let me tell you, keeping the light under control is very, very tricky. Because even if I pull the shades and I adjust everything so that it all works, this uh the white balance will change if a cloud rolls by or anything. You know what white balance is, right? That's like how blue or how golden or yellow uh an image looks. And so, you know, the camera gets all set up, and then here comes a cloud, and now everything looks wrong and wonky and dumb and the light's shot. I'm like, all right, can't keep doing that. I'm gonna have to just control the light. So I go around and I hang things up and I try to make it work. And let me tell you, it is quite the chore to get light under control because light is incredibly permeating, which I think is probably a good thing since light, I'm told, is enormously helpful to human existence and life in general and the transfer of energy. So uh, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I am very pro-light and will continue to be, but it is quirky when you think about what it takes to get it under control and its permeating attributes. So in Matthew 5.14, when Jesus says, You are the light of the world, a city on a hill can't be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl, instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. When he says that, I actually think it's fairly easy to understand what's going on. In a dark place, a tiny bit of light does a whole lot. It is incredible how much in pitch blackness a lit match can do. It's incredible being out in the deep woods here in the wild west where I live. And I mean, I live in a place that is crazy dark when there's no moon or total cloud cover. But at the same time, a moon where you live, and there are probably some of you who live in places like me, but a moon where most of you live, even a full moon, you go outside and you're like, wow, it's sort of bright. Or you go outside and you're like, I see a few stars. Where I live, you go outside in that exact same full moon coming through the woods and bouncing off snow, especially. Like I'll maybe I'll link a picture. I can take photographs on my phone that show color at one in the morning. It's amazing what that little bit of light does to affect otherwise darkness. It's amazing what one flashlight acres away in the forest does as I stand there and look out the window of my kitchen. I can see it in the midst of all that darkness. So the idea here then is yeah, you're just a bunch of people on a hill. Like I literally have 12 lousy disciples. That's it. And like one of them is gonna have me killed later. So that's super disappointing. Uh, but it might seem like it's not much. But this little bit of light in darkness can be enormously effective. So we're getting a little bit of a hint here of again something we're gonna see fleshed out in the kingdom parables of Matthew 13, that idea of a little bit of yeast working through all of the, working through all of the dough, the idea of this little tiny mustard seed growing up into something huge. We're getting a preview of this idea that if you are part of the light or reflecting the light of God, that has enormous potential to do good, to preserve, to go back to the previous metaphor. Now, people have read this a few different ways. The Catholic Church, I don't know about now, but especially when church and state were very mingled in the Middle Ages and on into the early modern age. Catholic theology and Catholic thought looked at passages like this and, like, we are the city on the hill. We are the city that's taken over the hill. And this light is this is how we do it. We do it through a union of church and state. If you think that's a great way to do it, I can respect that. Cool. You and I would have to have a friendly disagreement about that. My read on history is that Christianity has tended to be more of a light on the hill when it is not in power, and has tended to be kind of ick on a hill when it is in power. I think Catholicism's best days are when it didn't wield much power. And I think even most Catholics would agree that its most unfortunate days tend to correspond with the days where it wielded the most power. But it's not just Catholics. I mean, come on, it's it's all of us. We all wrestle with what to do with you know this principle of being light to a dark world and where the state fits in with that. I mean, the the Puritans and um the early reformers, especially those born out of the Zwingliite Calvinist tradition, they looked at this exact passage and quoted this language a lot as you know, what we're gonna do is we're gonna set up a society. The society will be a light on a hill, and the society itself, comprised of thinking, moral, good Christians, kingdom agents, this will be a beacon to the rest of the world to say, like, look, this is how it ought to be. Well, it maybe. And as much as I have tremendous respect for Reformed thought and Calvinist tradition, you know, still, like, I don't know, they burned a guy at the stake for thinking the wrong stuff about the Trinity right after breaking away from a church. They would say, misuse this passage. And people came across the ocean, they set up shop in my country. The idea there was, you know, we're gonna be a city on a hill. But they ran into problems right away and they had to kick some lady out for thinking the wrong thoughts and have her go live out in the wilds, and she ended up dying out there with her family. I mean, being banished in those conditions is not quite the same as a death sentence, but it's pretty rough. And it wasn't just the, you know, the Calvinist tradition there. It was pretty much every tradition that came over and had to brave the wilds, ran into some practical thing where they're like, uh, we're just not very good at ruling. I mean, we get some stuff right, it's okay, but there is this one problem that we run into, and it's what do we do when we have to wield the sword or pass judgment? But we're also trying to be church. And I don't know, at times that has gone better than others in all traditions. But what I would say is this it seems like Christians have tended to be more effective and more productive in terms of modeling the kingdom values when somebody else has the sword and things are even a little bit tough toward us. Again, we've talked about this before. I don't think Jesus is saying, let's go out and get persecuted so that you know we can receive all of these special benefits. I don't think it's a command to go get persecuted. I think it's a statement of reality. And I would argue, and again, smart people would disagree, no, not smart, smarter people would disagree with me on this point, and I just have to respect it and disclose that disagreement. But I would argue that when the church seizes control of all aspects of life, when the church effectively becomes the state, at that point it kind of becomes the world system just because of the natural forces that are at work there instead of the kingdom system that it is supposed to be. It is something of a paradox, an oxymoron for the church to run the world kingdom. And I'm not totally sure what we do about that other than try to do justice and mercy and get things right. I don't so much have a constructive solution to it other than to say, I can look at this passage, I can look at the history of planet Earth and say, I think the idea of kingdom citizens being light on a hill is more in that salt preservative, a small number point to good even if they have to suffer for it, point to the kingdom even if they have to suffer for it, kind of approach, than the rally enough support to eventually take over and make everything kingdom-like. Ultimately, the Bible says that everybody will come around when the age of debate and arguing and all of that is over, and Jesus himself, not the church, not by political force, but just like God Himself settles the questions. And then the language is, you know, every knee is going to bow and every mouth is going to acknowledge, okay, yep, that was the actual real thing. Until then, you know, it's debatable. Smart people could see it differently and think that I'm crazy about that stuff. And that I think is just the reality that Christians kind of have to live with for this moment in time. I'm going to break this down just a little bit more tomorrow, and then um we're on to a much bigger, much more complex, but also very natural follow-up question that I think every audience of every age would have been asking. I can never say thank you enough to those of you who literally are the reason I can do this, who support the program at patreon.com/slash the tmbh podcast. I cannot say thank you enough to everybody who doesn't. I'm thrilled that all of you are here. This is a free product, so don't feel any obligation. But for those of you who do, you have my unending thanks. All right, I'm gonna hit pause there. I'm Matt. This is the 10 minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do it again soon.