There are plenty of ways these days that faith in Christ gets minimized, put into a corner, even trivialized. One way is the idea that faith is purely a personal, private thing. Sure, you can believe what you want, or even worship as you want, so long as it is all done in private and doesn't create the possibility of a problem for someone else. But, the argument runs, if your religious beliefs cause you to say or do something that criticizes the behavior of someone else, you've crossed the line. Another way that faith is minimized is the idea that belief in Christ is all about "getting to heaven." That view puts Jesus' teachings into the context of the next life, and how to "achieve" our salvation. Thinking that way means that what jesus says about life in this world, unless it directly relates to eternal life, can be conveniently ignored. That private, personal, next-life-only view of faith may well be something that lots of people share, but it isn't what Christ teaches. We see that clearly in today's Gospel (Jn 3: 7B- 15), where Jesus criticizes Nicodemus for not accepting Jesus' teaching about the things of this world. Jesus tells Nicodemus: "If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?" In other words, Jesus is saying that He has been teaching Nicodemus about the way to live in this world-- specifically, life in the Holy Spirit-- and Nicodemus isn't understanding or accepting what Jesus is saying. So, since that is true, people also will not accept Jesus if He teaches about things of heaven. But notice-- Jesus is saying that He has been teaching about things of this world, about how we are to live our lives here and now. Sure, there is a connection to eternal iive, in that if we live as Jesus teaches we will live with Him in heaven. But focusing only on the heavenly dimension ignores what Jesus is saying-- that He is telling us about the "things of this world." Jesus teaches us about the "things of this world" because those things-- that way of living-- is good in the here and now. Jesus does not tell us things that matter only in church on Sunday, or are only for those private, limited places in our lives. Jesus tells us how to live 24/7/365, because living as Jesus describes makes us the best, most fulfilled, most fully-human people we can be. Don't let anyone get away with the facile suggestion that religion is just a private thing, or that our faith is just what we do in church. That simply isn't Christianity.