Nothing Is More Dangerous

Nothing is more dangerous than to become tired of the Word. Just as [God] initially gives us faith through the Word, so later on He exercises, increases, strengthens, and perfects it in us by that Word…Therefore, let every faithful person…employ humble prayer to God with continual study and meditation on the Word.

~Martin Luther, from his “Lectures on Galatians 1535”

Something greater and more glorious

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask. Yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask.

—Martin Luther (1483-1546)

My Hands, God's Hands

I have held many things in my hands,
and I have lost them all;

but whatever I have placed in God's hands,
that I still possess.

—Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Your God

Whatever your heart clings to and confides in,
that is really your God.

—Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Prayer

Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth;
help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.

—Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Finding Christ

Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?

—Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Vocation

“Here lies John Smyth who cobbled shoes
in this town 40 years to the glory of God.”
This inscription found on an English tombstone is my favorite epitaph. It speaks volumes of how any job can be done to God's glory. This was also true for the German Reformer Martin Luther who taught that it was not only those called to be monks, nuns or priests who had a vocation from God. Luther noted that everyone has a calling from God no matter their station in life.

In 1990, the Synod of Orthodox Bishops published a statement saying,

All are called to be saints (to be Christians), but each person is called to do so in his or her own unique way.... Some will work primarily in a physical way, others will work intellectually. Some will be artists, scientists, business people, and professionals. In the eyes of God none is better than the other is."

As the poet W.H. Auden put it,

You need not see what someone is doing to know if it is his vocation,

you have only to watch his eyes:
a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon

making a primary incision,
a clerk completing a bill of lading,

wear the same rapt expression,
forgetting themselves in a function...

There should be monuments,
there should be odes...

to the first flaker of flints
who forgot his dinner,

the first collector of sea-shells
to remain celibate.

Your vocation is the work you do that best uses the gifts God has given you. You may work in a job to pay the bills while your true vocation is a scout leader. Or your job might itself be your vocation as you are the teacher, sailor, banker, nurse (or whatever it is) that God created you to be, and you serve others through that vocation.

Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor