The Presidents Piece for Peace
Welcome back from a restful (and rather warm) summer. We left off in the spring time of the year talking about the Family Altar and in this edition we will hear about the “Vocational Altar”. The Vocational Altar is a topic that receives precious too little attention from the pulpit and from the teaching isle in a manner that brings forth the Gospel aspect of vocation. As we learned about the Family Altar, it is about the ways God comes to us in the immediate gathering of the family around His Word. With the Family Altar there is singing, Word and devotion, prayers and discussion. The gist of the Family Altar is what God is doing for you. The same applies to the Vocational Altar. Too often it is presented as something you are to do in your every day life when in reality the Vocational Altar is what God is doing for and through you in every day life. For example I ate food today. It is right to say that it was God who fed me. If I ate a piece of bread, it was God who generated the wheat to grow which He planted seed via the hand of the farmer. He also harvested the wheat and then ground it into flour using the hands and technology of the mill worker. When the baker used the flour and other ingredients along with an oven, God baked the bread so that it could be packaged and shipped by a truck driver and unloaded at the store. He then used my vocation as a means of income so that I could purchase the bread, put (fat free) butter on it and eat it. So you see, all-in-all, it is God who fed me today. He did it through the many vocations whereby He has matched up worker with work for the sake of my and your well being.
What does this have to do with you and the Vocational Altar? From the Divine Altar and the Family Altar, God has fed you and sends you out into the world so that you may be His hands, feet and face to the world which will see Him in and through what you say, think and do. While we are active in the Vocational Altar, it is still God doing what He does for us. It is still a matter of the Holy Gospel, not simply a direction from the Law. When the community around you sees a loving husband, they are seeing Christ Jesus. When they see a faithful wife, they are seeing the Church. When they see honesty at work, humility in play, patience in tribulation, forgiveness in offense, trust in the midst of questions; they are hearing the voice of Christ through you for them and seeing the face of Christ to them in the Church.
The Vocational Altar is the means God has given to the Priesthood of all Believers (the baptized children of God) to confess His Name every day. While doing this God also uses your hands, feet and face to bestow blessings upon you and your neighbor. If you ever wonder if what you are doing is worth it; God says it is. It is the means He has determined by matching up worker with work for the sake of His gifts being distributed to the world that He sent His Son to seek and save. The Divine Altar (I will write about that next edition) is a weekly blessing, the Family Altar is a daily blessing; the Vocational Altar is a continuous blessing throughout the entire day. It brightly reflects the Glory of the Divine Altar and the unity of the Family Altar. If you have not read it yet, I highly recommend the book “God at Work” by Gene Edward Veith. It is published by Crossway Books in Wheaton, Illinois. You will find it a wonderful discussion at the Family Altar. Blessed reading to you and joyous vocation.
Brian Saunders, President of Iowa District East.
