What I want to take from this is that one of the reasons we struggle to reconcile our experience of faith and Church with the world around us is that, unlike to the disciples who, in our reading of John, remained with Jesus, the Church still too often depends on the signs of faith, rather than on the bearers of a faith which is in itself a sign. In other words, we are always looking for the light on the hill, rather than being the light ourselves. The problem is that this means we generally look more to the newspapers for signs that God is there and worthy of belief, than to the story of Jesus Christ for inspiration and to deepen the faith that exists. in us. As a result, a week like this, and so many before it, leaves us wondering if there is a God rather than wondering how God could be at work in all of this, how God could he do something to remedy this problem? And it is a question that the modern Church, indeed the Church for much of its history, has struggled to ask, but which is a source of inspiration for faith to become a sign. The life of the early Church is perhaps the best example. According to American sociologist of religion Rodney Stark, "Christianity revitalized life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new types of social relations capable of confronting many pressing urban problems." To cities filled with the homeless and poor, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. For towns filled with newcomers and foreigners, Christianity offered an immediate basis of attachment. In cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity brought a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn apart by violent ethnic conflicts, Christianity offered a new basis of social solidarity. The way in which the Church responded to the conflicts of the Greco-Roman cities testifies to the sociological signs of the faith that were in them. Christians offered charity and hope to