© 2026 Evan D. Garner
Audio of this sermon is available here. Video is available here.
Four hundred years ago, likely standing on the deck of the ship Arbella, John Winthrop delivered what has since been described as the greatest lay sermon ever preached. Historians aren’t sure whether Winthrop himself was the author or whether he was reading someone else’s work, nor are they sure whether he was preaching before or during the transatlantic voyage, but they are sure that his words to the members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 were a solemn call to fulfill their divinely appointed mission as settlers in the New World.
Now the
only way to avoid this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow
the counsel of Micah—to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God.
For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man. We must
entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge
ourselves of our superfluities. For the supply of others’
necessities, we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness,
gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other, make
others’ conditions our own—rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer
together—always having before our eyes our commission and community in the
work, our community as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of
the spirit in the bond of peace.[1]
Even before they arrived near what is now Boston, Massachusetts, Governor Winthrop wanted his fellow colonists to know that they had an obligation to God and to future generations to establish a community guided by the Christian values of justice and mercy. But, for him, these were not merely abstract concepts to which their colony should aspire. They were real, governing principles that dictated actual communal practices like the requirement to lend generously to those in need without regard for their ability to repay the loan or to be sure that anyone who did not have enough bread to eat was provided for by those who did.
In the closing words of his sermon, Winthrop quoted today’s gospel lesson, reminding those who dared embark on this dangerous undertaking that their actions would be seen by others and that they must, therefore, build a society that would bear witness to their faith in God:
We shall
find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist
a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men
shall say of succeeding plantations: the Lord make it like that of New England:
for we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all
people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work
we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we
shall be made a story and a byword through the world…we shall shame the faces
of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses
upon us until we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.[2]
This was the first time an American politician quoted Jesus’ line about “a city on a hill,” and how things have changed! Over the centuries, Winthrop’s warning about the need to establish a godly community has been repeated and altered until the phrase is now most often used as a justification for American exceptionalism. As God’s shining city on a hill, some argue, our nation must remain a beacon of liberty for the world at all costs. That sounds quite different from Winthrop’s admonition that the eyes of the world are upon us, and the choices we make about the society we embody will be seen and judged by others.
But what did Jesus mean when he preached those words in the Sermon on the Mount? What sort of city on a hill did he have in mind for his followers? First, we must remember to whom Jesus was speaking. The crowd that gathered around him was amazed by his miraculous healings and captivated by his message about the nearness of God’s reign. They followed him because Jesus gave them hope—the kind of hope they hadn’t found in their ordinary lives. The religious and political and economic institutions of their day had left them wanting more, and Jesus was giving it to them.
These were ordinary people, working people, disaffected people. Jesus had taught them to believe that God could do more for them and the world than they were accustomed to seeing. He had invited them to give up their lives as they knew them and follow him into a way of freedom, inclusion, reconciliation, and peace. “You are the light of the world,” he told them. You are the ones through whom God’s light and love are shining in this world. Together, you are as a city built on a hill—a beacon of hope that cannot be hidden. So do not hide your light under a bushel basket but let it shine out so that everyone can see its glory—the glory of God that lives within you and through you.
Jesus wasn’t talking about the United States of America, but he was absolutely talking about this nation—this country, this community, this place we call home. Whenever God’s people come together to build a society, God’s ways must be at the heart of their common life. “I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets,” Jesus tells us. “I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.” And what are the law and the prophets that Jesus commands us to keep in his name? Into what way of being does he call us? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”
The prophet Isaiah reminds us what shape our common life must take, and Jesus calls us to fulfill that vision by giving us the Holy Spirit who lives and breathes and works through us until God’s kingdom comes. You are the light of the world, he tells us. God’s light of salvation has been given to us. It burns brightly within all who belong to God in Jesus Christ. Together, we are as a city that has been built upon a hill. Collectively, the light that God has implanted within us shines as a beacon to others. The eyes of the world are upon us, even now. This broken and hurting world is desperate for a message of hope that is more than mere words. And Jesus has given us that hope and called us to carry it to all the places in this world where evil resides.
We must, however, remember that we are not the source of the light we carry. When we forget that we are custodians of the divine light and mistake our own inclinations for the will of God that is only given to us by the Holy Spirit, we inevitably twist the meaning of Jesus’ words into a maxim that promotes our own exceptionalism. The history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, including its destructive relationship with the Algonquian-speaking tribes they encountered as well as its record as the first slave-holding colony in New England, is a stark reminder that even those who intend to embody the principles of our faith often miss the mark. We need God’s continual help to let our light shine.
To close, I borrow from the words of President-Elect John F. Kennedy, who, in a speech given to the Massachusetts state legislature, reminded this nation of the importance of a moment that I believe we still inhabit:
Today
the eyes of all people are truly upon us—and our governments, in every branch,
at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a
hill—constructed and inhabited by [people] aware of their great trust and their
great responsibilities. For we are setting out upon a voyage in 1961 no less
hazardous than that undertaken by the Arabella [sic] in 1630. We are
committing ourselves to tasks of statecraft no less awesome than that of
governing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, beset as it was then by terror without
and disorder within. History will not judge our endeavors—and a government
cannot be selected—merely on the basis of color or creed or even party
affiliation. Neither will competence and loyalty and stature, while essential
to the utmost, suffice in times such as these. For of those to whom much is
given, much is required.[3]
Now, as much as ever, our light must shine before others, so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.
[1]
Winthrop, John. “A Model of Christian Charity,” from https://www.masshist.org/publications/winthrop/index.php/view/PWF02d270.
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
Kennedy, John F. “Address of Delivered to a Joint Convention of the General
Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” January 9, 1961, from https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/massachusetts-general-court-19610109.
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