If you feel as I do that it appears that there is less and less room for Jesus or Jesus followers in the public square, we’re not experiencing anything new.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2.7, ESV)

No matter how this is explained, it’s still a good metaphor: no place for Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. It’s becoming that way in the US. No place for God so that a football coach who just wants to pray after every game at midfield has to get an OK from the Supreme Court.

If one gets one’s marching orders from something or Someone other than the state, there is often “no place.” “Freedom of worship” means you can go to church if you want, just don’t bring any of its values into the public square.

It’s OK. We’re in good company. There was no place for Jesus either.

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13.12 – 14, NIV)