All too often we fall into the trap of thinking that the little we know about something defines the whole. Even if we have spent our whole life doing something, we may actually know less than we think we do.

Recently, I refereed 5-aside football for the first time. For context, I started playing the beautiful game when I was four and have continued socially on and off ever since: indoor and outdoor; 5-aside and 11-aside. You would think I would know some rules, right? However, I discovered that picking up the whistle is a very sobering experience. I realised that I had only really engaged superficially as a player. So I approached the first game like the Titanic engaged its iceberg, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

For some people, Christianity is like an iceberg. They see the top, feel a bit underwhelmed, and sail on. Others crash into it, get hurt, and never want to repeat the experience.

The great faiths of the world are complex and their roots reach deep below the surface. Those who follow such faiths often discover that the iceberg is bigger than they thought it was. The deeper they go, the more berg they discover.

For the record, Christianity is really big and it encompasses everything.

When you have a faith (be it Christian, Islam, Buddhism, or any one of the great religions), you understand that this is the superset - everything else fits inside it. You don’t separate your faith from politics, economics, or morality, from your concern for the environment, your relationships, or the justice system. All of those things are influenced by what you believe in.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray by giving them the Lord’s Prayer. It describes the holiness of God; a desire for all people to have enough; the need to forgive and be forgiven; and the hope that we will be protected from challenges that might undo us. All of this is designed to enact heaven on earth. That’s the goal: “on earth as in heaven.”

Note, not “on parts of earth” - or “here and there as it suits” - but everywhere and in all we do. So, if you are a Christian, you are political (like Jesus), and you are ethical (like Jesus). Who you spend time with, how you vote, where you spend your money, and so on all fall within the superset of your faith. This is amazingly challenging, and most of us only manage some kind of subset where parts of our life overlap with the values of heaven. Being Christian is an exercise in increasing the overlap in the hopes that one day everything will be aligned. To do this, we have to dig deep.

The iceberg goes way below the surface - it’s really big. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t crash into it. Be prepared to dive deeper to discover something outside your comfort zone and well beyond the tip of the iceberg.