The one institution that will last for eternity is the church. This (the local church) is the “city on a hill [which] cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). It’s this great insight that drove the famous Augustine to write “The City of God.” Essentially, his argument throughout his magnum opus was that the church (not Rome) was the city – it was the city of God. As the Roman Empire crumbled and weakened, as that city became evidently weak, so Augustine wrote to persuade his readers that the city in which they should invest their lives was the city of God, that is, the church. This, of course, is also the lesson of Noah in the Old Testament. As God brings his judgment to the world, Noah is told to build a boat to be a rescue agent for his family and creation. What is the New Testament equivalent? The church! That’s why medieval cathedrals are built like upturned boats. So, with our lives, our time, and finances, invest not in any kind of “city” (or polis, using the Latin name for the city) but in the city of God, the church!

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” – Matthew 5:14

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