Are you the salt of the earth? Reminds me of that great song from Godspell, “You are the salt of the world, but if that salt has lost its flavor, it ain’t got much in it’s favor, you can’t have that fault and be the salt of the earth.”

It really goes back to a very fundamental question that we should be asking ourselves all the time. A Henry Blackaby devotional raised the issue and he points out what should be a constant reminder to us, are we salt, are we that preserving agent in a corrupted, degenerating world. “Your life is designed and commissioned by God to enhance a community and to preserve what is good and right.” (Henry Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day p 51)

Blackaby points out when we are focused on God and what He is guiding us to do, are we staying in front of God. This may be a digression, but it’s part of being a soldier of the Cross too. Do I go and worship, restrengthened, yes even rearmed in Christ. Have we been in His presence in worship, hearing the preached Word, strengthened by the Body of Christ, our brothers and sisters. If we haven’t been strengthened by the Body and Blood of Christ, can we truly be prepared to be salt to a world, a decidedly unsalty and very corrupt and degenerate world. We are regenerated through the things that God gives us, baptism, Scripture, the preached Word and the Body and Blood. We are not only salt in the world, but also sufficiently armed to face the spiritual challenges that keep pushing back against everything that is Jesus.

Blackaby asks: “How do we test the ‘saltiness’ of our life? Look at our family. Are we preserving it from the destructive influences that surround it? Examine our workplace. Are the sinful influences in our work environment being halted because we are there? Observe our community. Is it a better place because we are involved in it? What about our church?”

No one is saying that your environment is perfect, we are always going to live in a fallen world. But because of our saltiness is the world around us being impacted? When I worked in finance and during my time on active duty, people did come to me, and they did kind of expect a little more from me, and they did want to “talk”. Look I’m not saying that I was just all that, but it seems that I did make an impact. For many of us, who expect whiz-bang results, I can’t say my results were whiz-bang, but I can say that God was using me. Let’s make it a constant recheck, are we affecting our environment for Christ in the way the Holy Spirit is leading us to impact.

Wednesdays at the Green Bean Coffee Shop 10am, corner of W King and Beaver Sts, park behind the church. Let’s talk about this, and we’re still also looking at the Gene Veith book.

I’m not trying to get self-righteous, holier than thou, but the following is the kind of story that really does affect me, that surely there has to be a way for people to focus on what’s really important.

This is from an article by Brad Feld in Inc Magazine Jul/Aug 2013. Mr Feld writes about two men who were “tech entrepreneurs” who committed suicide independently but close in time to each other. Feld points out that they both faced incredible pressure and both suffered from depression. He describes his own work as regularly being 80 hour weeks, traveling, not getting enough recovery time, no regular exercise. You can do this for a short time, but you can’t do it regularly. Trying not to sound judgmental, but this really is idolatry. This is putting your work, your priorities above everything else. Further he writes that this is the lifestyle that is expected by peers in that industry, so again putting something above what is really God honoring.

He writes that he would observe “digital ‘Sabbaths'”. I have to suspect that Feld does kind of understand the relationship, that he does need a Sabbath, but again the work, striving for success is the ultimate goal, the primary idol and everything else can wait. I know that this is going to antagonize but I will bet that Feld and the two other men were being medicated for depression. I’ve seen this a lot with adults/children I have come into contact with as a pastor. The problem isn’t “disease” as such, it is lifestyle and instead of changes in lifestyle, people think they can modify the negative impact of lifestyle by taking pills. One of the most obvious examples of this is diabetes. Diabetes by anyone’s account is epidemic, seems as if anyone I know over 60 years old is being treated for diabetes and they take this as almost a matter of course. But it’s really a result of poor diet, lack of exercise and the idea that something/someone will bail me out of my bad choices. Lifestyle includes things like overwork, anything that takes our focus off of God’s will and on to what we want, what we’ve decided is important. But as Curt Thompson writes in “Christian Counseling Today” (vol 20 no 3 p 66) “Might taking medication be my way of avoiding what God is trying to do in my life in this time of despair? If prayer is not working, does this indicate depression and not something primarily spiritual?”

Again, I’m not trying to get holier than thou, been there got the t-shirt. I’m writing this while I am, I hope, on the upside of the flu. (So if I seem a little disjointed, I’m chalking it off to that.) When I worked in corporations and was in the Military Reserves I could hit the high end of the speedometer and heard about it. Church pastors are rather notorious for putting a lot of time and pushing beyond what is healthy. We have to maintain a Godly perspective, at what point is God calling us to take our focus off of our priorities and and focus on His healing love, His desire for what is truly best in our life?

Let’s cut to the chase, we are all born sinners, we are all sinners, you, me everyone. (I just saw an episode of NCIS where a guy who dealt heroin and killed people, claimed to be a good guy because he hadn’t killed the person he had just kidnapped???) Get over yourselves, you don’t have to be a murderer or a kidnapper to be a sinner. If we consistently work 80 hour weeks and we don’t take time for God and family, that is sin. It happens sometime, but it can’t be a consistent part of our life. How much different would a person’s life be if they took that time to come before the Lord, acknowledge what they are, lift it up to the Lord and know that they are forgiven, that they are loved by the God, who as a man, did push the limits, but did it so that we could be saved in His death, in His sacrifice for us. He certainly does want us to push, to aspire, but He also wants us to know that He made us in a way that is actually rather fragile and when we ignore His will and try to push beyond the limits that He created in us, we will crash. When we come to Him in worship, when we lift up all of our frailties, failings and yes sin to Him, He strengthens us, He reminds us of what’s important.

Take some time to really examine your life, what is important, what do you really lift up as vital in your life and how that might conflict with what God wants for you. Let’s hear from you. Thanks and God bless.

Fred Wilson is a venture capitalist, if you don’t know, venture capitalists provide start up funding, as an investment, to new companies. Often VCs will become involved in the management or at least the direction of the company. Because of the size of their investment and that they often bring management expertise, they become a lot more then just a “walking checkbook”. So when Mr Wilson weighs in he is doing it on the basis of his experience of putting his money where his mouth is with many new companies.

Mr Wilson is quoted in Inc Magazine (Feb 2011 p 23) The article starts with “It’s a cutthroat world, so you had better keep an eye on the competition, Right? Wrong, writes venture capitalist Fred Wilson (avc.com). The smart strategy, he says, is to do your best and forget about the rest.”

I’d just like to step in here and say I’ve certainly seen that in ministry, “well they’re doing such and so over at ABC Church, so we should…” Constantly reacting to what every other church is doing/not doing, is going to take you off the focus that God has given this particular church. God has put His church here “for such a time as this” for a particular reason. Likewise God has put you where you are for His particular reason. Our job isn’t to chase around worrying about what others are doing, our job is to faithfully follow what the Holy Spirit is trying to do in us, doing what we can to, discern what God’s will is for us. That of course means what we are doing in our personal life and in our professional life. All the aspects of our life are inextricably linked in us, that one person that God loves so much, that He is trying to do a certain thing in that person’s life, all his/her life, and we look to Him to follow Him and discern His will for me, the same me that God’s Son Jesus died for, to save me to eternity.

Mr Wilson goes on to write, “One mistake I see startups make a lot is getting too focused on what is going on around them. They spend too much time trying to figure out what their competitors are going to do. They watch the next hot startup with jealousy and it reminds them of when they were that ‘shiny new thing’ and they want that back. The reality of startups is that there is so much opportunity out there that if you just focus on what is in front of you, your company will do fine.” Amen brother!

So it is with churches. Reminds me of Luke 10:2: “He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” There are plenty that need to be reached and no doubt God has given us custom made directions to reach those people He wants us to reach. As I’ve written in pasts posts, I have a vision of our church being much more liturgical, worship that is focused on the Lord, worship that is about us worship, not entertainment. Well that certainly is not a view that is widely held in a lot of Christian churches, Sunday mornings are more about “program” then “worship”. I truly believe that this is a vision that God has put on my heart, that it is something that is particular to our church, our denomination (Lutheran),

I am not going to get into a snit about what other churches are or aren’t doing, not even other Lutheran churches, God has put me, this church, this group of people where we are in order to lift Him up in worship in a particular manner. What other churches/Christians do, that’s not what God has for me. Quite often the “shiney new thing” is not at all reverent towards God, but the idea is that it will bring people into the church. That can’t be my perspective, I am called to faithfully worship, to help others faithfully worship and to help them understand what that means.

What Mr Wilson says is applicable to us as people in the workplace, as Christians, as members of a church. We are called to discern God’s will for us in all aspects of our lives, because God has put us on this planet for particular reasons in our work life, personal life, worship life, leadership life, not to fuss about others, but to follow His leading in our life.

This is aimed at our on-line group in Linked-In, certainly others are more than welcome to share this discussion on-line, or…. join in Wednesdays 10am at the Green Bean Coffee Co corner of W King and Beaver Sts, we are discussing Gene Veith’s book about being Christian in the Workplace also, don’t need to have a book, we will provide excerpts for you to join in the discussion. Park behind the church and get a cup of great coffee and join a great discussion. And as always I am the pastor at First St Johns church, and you are most welcome to come and worship Sunday 10:30 am.

This discussion has come up in a few different places for me and when that happens, I really feel led to write about it.

Prayer in general is a subject that I like to discuss, encourage, preach on. I’ve preached a few times in my short time in ministry, I’ve written in other venues, we have a monthly prayer breakfast (last Tuesday of every month at the church starting at 8:30 am, no charge, no obligation, breakfast is always great, come and check it out), we have our prayer chapel, we have a prayer meeting Sunday afternoon at 1:30, so yea, we are serious about prayer and I’m always looking for new prayer opportunities. Please feel free to e-mail me with your prayer requests and I will include them in our prayers during worship, our prayer meeting and prayer breakfast, better yet, bring them with you.

Mark Myers in Christian Counseling Today (Vol 20 No 3 pp 62-65) writes about something that I’ve had people, frankly even myself raise as an issue relating to prayer. Quite often I will be praying and then it seems as if I am not focusing on what I “should” be praying on and I’m drifting off somewhere else. Dr Myers writes that his parishioners bring this to him also: “As I understood them, continual distractions and worry of their situations made them feel disconnected from God. It could be that this psychological entanglement, or lack of being present, in say, prayer, is a key factor in our growth as Christians.” (p 65)

Let’s face it, when we start in prayer, we have an agenda, “I need to sit down and pray…” For too many of us, prayer is a one-way communication where we take our concerns to God and the heavenly transcriptionist takes them down, reads them back to Father, and then we presume He acts according to our directions. We think that God should understand how good intentioned we are and He should just jump right on those prayer requests, when He doesn’t, well then He hasn’t “answered” our prayer. God always answers prayer, it may not be according to our plan, but hey, God knows everything, He has things planned out and he is going to proceed according to His plans. Can we intercede, can we plead with God? Certainly! The Bible has instances of that. But God always answers prayer, sometimes it is yes, sometimes it’s no and sometimes it’s wait. Part of faith is that we trust God’s plan and when we really think about it, God’s plan is always better then ours and afterwards we look back (as I often have) and praise God. I’ve felt it so many times, “wow, that was so cool, I’d have never thought of that”. Yea, that’s why He’s God and I’m not and that’s a very good thing.

In respect to being “distracted” during prayer and as I said, I’ve had the same thing a lot too, I submit that maybe this is the Holy Spirit moving you to focus on what He wants you to focus on. Is it possible that we think we should go into prayer with some kind of agenda? And that we have to stick to that agenda?

Dr Myers’ article is about research that’s been done, that he’s been involved with, regarding “mindfulness”, to the effect that it’s dealing with where/what/how you are at the moment. That you focus on what you are at that point, the thoughts that come in to our mind and do it in a “non-condemning” manner. Now I do have some reservations, I do understand where Dr Myers is coming from, that we should leave ourselves open to the Holy Spirit. Too often we get so caught up in our current situation and we let that consume us. We ignore what is going on around us, we lose any empathy with anyone else, we are sure that everything is tied up in this issue and we get very tunnel visioned. It’s happened to me, I’m sure you can see how this would happen. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit is trying to move you along or perhaps get you to shift your focus or broaden your field of vision.

Now my reservation is this, you really have to be discerning. When we are in prayer we are dealing with the spiritual, I would add to Dr Myers article that when you start to pray, that you ask for the leading of the Holy Spirit, that you are praying in the Name of Jesus Christ and you are looking for leading in prayer to God the Father. I’m not trying to weird anyone out, but as I said, you are dealing with the spiritual, when you are in Christ, when you are making it clear that you are looking for the leading of the Holy Spirit, you are making it clear that is what you expect. Too many people immature in the faith, if at all in the faith, rely on guidance of the spiritual that they may not even understand or identify. Guided prayer does keep us focused on God, but the point is to try and be open to the Holy Spirit’s leading and not always coming to God with your own agenda.

In Psalm 46, we are told “be still and know that I am God”. Elijah was told to wait on the still small voice. Too often we expect an answer to our concerns, that what we think is important should be dealt with and not only that the answer should be announced through a bull horn or written across the sky. Come on, you know you do.

As I said, pray in the Name of Jesus and then wait, be still, know when God is speaking or leading, wait on that still small voice. You may have a lot on your heart, we usually do, at some point maybe we need to lay it at God’s feet and let Him work things out for us. We think we know the way life should play out, we have our priorities, let’s submit them to God and let Him sort them out.

First pray, take the time to come before the Lord and lift up your heart to Him. But once in awhile let the Holy Spirit take the lead. Trust in Him to show you what He wants for you, we have a great God who loves us more profoundly that we could ever even begin to understand. He loves us so much, He gave His only Son in order for us to be saved from our sins and to give us the promise of eternal life. Maybe we could trust Him with our prayers? So offer confession, certainly glorify and give thanksgiving, even offer intercession, but then wait on that small, still voice, wait for the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts. I bet He will answer prayers you never even thought to raise up. God bless, please send your prayer requests to First St Johns, to me as the pastor, come to our prayer breakfasts, please feel free to come and use our prayer room, even worship with us 10:30 Sunday mornings, 140 W King St., downtown York.

Strive in life for you and to honor God.

Love of Christ in Christmas and Year Round

First St Johns    January 5, 2014

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God,    and all those who go into the world with the love of Christ said … AMEN and remember together that Christ is born

We are still in the Christmas season, the most celebrated occasion on the Christian calendar, a new baby, new hope, but it is also a time that we remember that “today is the day of salvation and that the Lord can wrap up history whenever He likes, or as Jesus says, ‘What I say to you, I say to all: watch” Mark 13:37 NKJV)”[1]  We have great joy and celebration. While we don’t really think of it in these terms we should remember that Jesus’ second coming will be at least as much a time of joy and celebration as His first coming. Christmas certainly brings us the time of the new Hope “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”, the shepherds who heard those words knew full well what that meant, the angels used the word Christ, in Greek Xristos, in Hebrew Meshiach, the anointed one, the delivered, the promised one of God. This was the beginning of the new era, in Christ, in the anointed one, we are reconciled with God, before man was lost in their sins. Man could not rely on the Savior to know his God, to know salvation. Finally in the fullness of time God sent His Son and through Him we are saved, maybe not according to the hopes of first century Judaism, which if those hopes were fulfilled certainly would not have saved everyone, a new David, a new political state might have somehow benefitted most people, but the bottom of that society would have drudged along and died, lost forever, as would all, a political salvation is nice, for a season, but in the end man is lost and no one wins.

These words would have rung a little hollow: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” There might be political peace, again for a season, but the evil that hounds man would still be as much as ever, probably worse,  while we have profound evil in the world today, we are still saved despite it, there would never be a solution to evil in a world where a new King David reigned. Heck, King David was capable of pretty profound evil himself, certainly not an ultimate antidote as Christ the Messiah is.

The world has slipped into this mode that Christmas is supposed to be an escape from reality, it tries to substitute the season for  all of the difficulties, melancholy, even despair of the world with “nostaligia, artificial trees and unrealistic diets” Despite the phoney cover the world tries to put over Christmas, it fails. For most of us, most of the time Christmas is a time of cheer, a break amidst the reality and that’s fine, but so many people see it as some sort of magical, cure all and it’s just not. Rates of depression and suicide skyrocket, why, because we’re supposed to be happy. Tammy, Donna and the rest of the Grief Share leaders did three separate programs this holiday season for Grief Share for the holidays. For those who have lost loved ones, and frankly who hasn’t when you get to a certain age, the nostalgia of the season often reminds us of the way Christmas was, who was there and who isn’t there now.

As Rev Sean Daenzer puts it, Far from ruining the holiday with a dose of reality, these days help us to ground our Christmas joy in the One who comforts in suffering and conquers in death. Jesus, our Emmanuel.[2]

No one is saying that we have to be some kind of kill joy, no one’s trying to bah-humbug the season of Christmas, good for you if you can transcend reality for at least one day and forget what is around you and in a way, you should and that’s what the church tries to show you. We have the hope, love and promise of Jesus 24/7, 365, we really don’t need to have what the world seems to need. A time when as Daenzer observes, the world tries to create a phoney world view, and then a few days later we deal with Winter Storm Hercules. The love of Christ is year round, the church is year round, the Body of Christ is year round, as brothers and sisters in Jesus we have a day in/day out reminder of who we are in Christ, the joy we have in Jesus.

Daenzer goes on to point out, that the church annually finds a way to sort of bring us back into the reality of the world, yes, we spend time remembering the Christ child and we do it by wrapping Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red nose reindeer and Black Friday and bright lights yada, yada and yada, but the church commemorates two great men of the Bible and also to remind us that evil is still prevalent and that the only remedy is the love of Christ year round.

Right out of the gate we celebrate St Stephen. Stephen was the first martyr after Jesus’ ascension. He started as a deacon, whose work of love in Jesus was to serve the widows of Christians by distributing food to them to help them survive. Widows of the most vulnerable people in that period and the Christian Church worked to serve those who had lost their husbands, often as a result of martyrdom.

On the very next day we remember St John the apostle and evangelist. John proclaimed Jesus as “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) We have John’s Gospel, we have the Book of Revelation that he wrote and his three epistles. Daenzer writes: “[John’s] writings bear witness both in deep and in simple ways, but they always point to what Christmas is all about: love. This love isn’t fading nostalgia. It isn’t love tarnished by broken promises, absent loved ones or dysfunctional family gatherings. God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only begotten Son.”[3]

Finally the harsh remembrance of evil on Dec 28, “The Holy Innocents” Herod’s slaughter of the babies, his insane attempt to try and eliminate the true king of the Jews. Last week’s Matthew reading quoting Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”(Matt 2:18) Who is Rachel? She is Jacob’s wife, and what was the name that Yahweh gave Jacob? Israel! These are the children of Israel and Rachel is mourning her children and Jacob’s.

It is the love of Christ that moves us, sustains us, comforts us throughout the year. Certainly we should celebrate that love on a particular day and what better day to do that then on the day that the angel proclaimed to the shepherds: “”Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2: 10-11) As I said, they knew what Xristos/Meshiach meant, the Savior, the chosen one. We have this great promise. On this day we remember the Magi, these men were not Jews, but they came to honor Him who would be the salvation of not just the Jewish people, as John wrote “for God so loved the world”. And so it was the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “Everythiing in the heart and life of the Father was released to His Son. As the Father expressed His love for a broken and sinful world, this passion was manifested through the life of His Son.”[4] Henry Blackaby writes. The day of the incarnation that love blossomed into the world, but it would be a love that would grow and increase and climax on that cross, that cross that would pay for our sins. It was a love that far exceeded Christmas and is for all of us every day. What did the wise men do on that day of Epiphany? They did what we should be doing at every opportunity, Leo Sanchez writes: “the wise men followed the star and came to Bethlehem for no other reason than to ‘worship’ the Lord.” … “We see in the wise men’s worship of Jesus a picture of faith and love.” [5] As this Baby brought to us gifts of eternal value, the wise men brought gifts of great earthly wealth to Him as acts of worship. We have the opportunity to show the love of Christ year round through our “gifts” to Him to imitate the Magi. We use our treasure to support the Church of Christ, to serve others with our wealth, not for our benefit, but as we would tell those who receive to live for Him who gave His all for us.

Christmas is a time of great joy, but let’s temper that joy by remembering those who gave back to Jesus in great sacrifice, who died for the cause of Christ, who came a long distance to worship Him and offer their wealth to Him. Blackaby writes: “Jesus prayed that God would place this same love in His disciples. He knew that no other motivation would be sufficient for the assignments God had for them. God’s answer was to place His Son in them. It is impossible for a Christian to be filled with this measure of love and not to be on mission with God.”[6]

Take this time to reflect not only on what God gave us in His Son, but how we worship and sacrifice for Him who served us. Enjoy Christmas, but remember it’s deeper meaning and go back into the world on December 26^th in the spirit of Stephen, John, the magi,  those who gave all they had for Christ. Remember the love that motivated them and that Christ has for us. By doing this we persevere through the entire year, even that time before Christmas when we may not feel merry or the need to make merry, but are lifted up in Him whose love is not just year round, but for eternity.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amin and shalom Christ is born!!

Father Nkwasibwe brings up an interesting issue that is a hot button with those who are concerned about maintaining their faith integrity. You might have thought of it, and now I’m going to give you a label to slap on, the word is snycretism. As a Lutheran pastor I am very serious about Lutheran doctrine. Lutheran doctrine is significantly different then the rest of Christian belief. There are 5 main branches of Christianity and their doctrine is decidedly different. I’m not going to go into detail (unless of course asked to and I will be happy to elaborate) anyway, syncretism is the concept that we are just supposed to all agree and put aside rather profound differences. That sounds all warm and gushy, but there is such a thing as integrity too and being faithful to the teachings of the church that you have professed loyalty to. Now I know the whole concept of loyalty and confessing doctrine is just oh so narrow and inflexible, but believe me, if this was something that I couldn’t profess I wouldn’t and certainly wouldn’t go out teaching it.

So having said that, I feel that there are many who would have issues of integrity and loyalty regarding their beliefs, especially in terms of interactions at the workplace. I am in no way suggesting some kind of holy war, please do not, it’s one thing to stand by your beliefs, it’s another thing to wrestle at the workplace, that’s not cool. If you want to respectfully disagree do so, then disengage.

“…an inter-faith activity would be depreciating fidelity and obligation to God of one’s understanding if it promoted “syncretism”, which refers to a synthetic amalgamation of dissimilar forms of religious beliefs or practices. Also if it sponsored “faith neutrality, which refers to a claim of nonaligned status or impartiality in one’s loyalty to God of one’s understanding, it would be downgrading fidelity. Meanwhile, if it endorsed “relativism”, which refers to the denial or undermining of the absolute or ultimate moral truths and values, it would be exalting deviation from the obligation to promote the standards of the truth or common good.” (Business Courage, pp 140-141 (hey you asked, and I had to type it!)

Please do not take any of what I blog as some sort of endorsement or encouragement to put aside what should be your sincere, faithful beliefs for others religious beliefs, ceremonies, etc. For example as Lutherans we have a very high view of the Lord’s Supper, the Body and Blood of Jesus. If you were not in fellowship with the church and did not have the correct understanding of the Lord’s Supper I would encourage you not to take communion. So it does go both ways, there should be proper respect to not compromise on your faith, or to compromise someone else’s.

I want people to live out their principles, their beliefs, live out their life in the workplace in Christ. In other than extraordinary circumstances I would not (assuming you’re a Lutheran), come to your place of business and give you the Lord’s Supper. I would however as your pastor want you to live your life in Christ in the workplace. Feel free to bring on the discussion.

We kind of like to substitute “reason” for pragmatism. We like to think we have “reasoned” out the issue and whatever is the most pragmatic solution, well that then of course is the most reasonable. You always know that there’s the “right” way, the God-honoring way, but that’s not always how we make our decisions. Fr Frederick Nkwasibwe in his book Business Courage quoting Pope Benedict writes: “Mature faith is a handmaid and rescue service provider of reason. In spite of reason having a significant likelihood of deforming our way of thinking, behaving and relating, it also has the potentiality and it can actually be purified and liberated by faith from its blind spots and mistakes. Faith has the capacity of liberating reason from its mistakes that rule our minds. Pope Benedict XVI (2005) underscores this point when he writes: ‘If reason is to be exercised properly, it must undergo constant purification, since it can never be completely free of the danger of a certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interests … Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God  – an encounter opening up new horizons extending beyond the sphere of reason. But it is also a purifying force for reason itself. From God’s standpoint, faith liberates reason from its blind spots and therefore helps it to be ever more fully itself. Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly.” (Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (God is love Dec 25, 2005) no 28, a) pp 73-74 Business Courage).

So what does that mean? We must continually go back and be in God’s Word, in His sacraments, regularly meeting with brothers and sisters in Jesus, remembering what is ultimately the most important thing. The faith that God gives us guides us to things and results we can’t even imagine, whether it is what happens in our vocation or for eternity. Trust in Him and He will lead you to the best result, something that your reason can’t even begin to imagine or justify.

Let’s talk some more, now that the holidays are over and the snow and cold of winter is here in force, well, we’re at least back on our regular schedule. Join us at the Green Bean Coffee Co, the corner of W King St and Beaver St, park behind the church, 10am Wednesday Jan 8. We are still in Gene Veith’s book on our vocation, we have copies for you to use.