The Church cannot function as an isolated sphere. She has a primary function that necessarily impacts the secondary function. Her liturgical cause is fundamental to her identity. She cannot be home for political partisanship. Her authority comes from on high. She is a heavenly city seeking to colonize earth (Matt. 6:4).
But her worship is not some piece of artifact offered, displayed, and then left alone. Instead, she moves outside by the power of the Spirit, enabled by heaven’s blueprint to put into action heaven’s habits.
As Abraham Kuyper observed, the Church as an organism “elevates public opinion, introduces more solid principles, and so raises the view of life prevailing in state, society, and the family.” She is the ever-fruitful body taking her religion to the poor and widow (James 1:27), extending her mercy to those oppressed by sinful powers, and using her power of mercy to sustain the weak.
The church unfolds the “potentials of creation” by giving life wherever it goes and breathing Epiphany joy into other spheres. She is the alternative city precisely because she shapes earthly cities.
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