Brewing Your Faith

I have pasted below the outline of the talk given to us by Deacon David and Marty Velas... it was a great talk that can only be appreciated in it's entirety and with reflection.. Thanks to Deacon David and Marty for putting this together and for allowing us to share it...... I thought about shortening or taking out excerpts but there really is just nothing here that is worthy of ending up on the "brewery" floor. ---------- Enjoy----------------

Introductory comments on faith
Two aspects of faith -- What/content (head) vs. who/person (heart)
a) what we believe is what our intellect/reason tells us, an intellectual assent to truths/concepts
b) who we believe in, faith in a person, Christ
Remember, who we believe in is much more important that what we believe. What we believe is important , but we have to remember that “what we believe” cannot save us. Rather, it is “who” we believe in, Christ, that is our savior.

So, faith is more than content or information, it is more than what we believe. It is faith in a person.

Faith is formational -- St. Theresa of Avila said “It is in the search for God that we can better discover who we are.” So, as we, through faith, come to know the person of Christ, as we, through faith, develop our personal relationship with Christ, it is through our faith that we find the truth of who we are called to be by God. In other words, a person without faith cannot find the truth of who they are, like a seed that falls on the path instead of the good soil.

But faith formation is not like learning a field of study, medicine, law, etc.
It is not about self-improvement or self-development.
It is not solely about gaining knowledge.
Rather, it is a process of uncovering, through faith, the truth of who God created me to be.

Introductory comments on brewing:
Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing likes to say that we as brewers do not make the
beer but rather we create an environment in which great beer can be made and the beer
then makes itself.

I feel (with all due reverence and respect for the subject matter) that when looking for analogies between brewing and faith that the yeast can be considered the “holy spirit” and the act of fermentation tantamount to the bestowal of grace and wisdom.
Not as a passive phenomenon but as an active process with both God and the individual
participating and striving to become closer.

This process cannot be synthesized but is predicated on forces beyond man-made manipulation.

If we are diligent in our efforts to create a sanitary (holy) environment then the
potential for a healthy, flavorful beer (life) is possible.

If we are distracted by self serving endeavors and allow sin (bad bacteria) to inhabit
our vessel (lives) then the result will not be good but will be cast out (sewered).


I have taken each step in the process of beer brewing and given it a connotation as it
pertains to the spiritual journey of an individual who is on good soil.

1 – Barley kernal is seed nurtured by sun and rain full of potential.
An innocent child.

2 – Grain is harvested and brought together with water and warmth.
A nurtured child raised in the loving environment of family and community.

3 – Grain yields hitherto unshared treasure of sweet wort contributed
to a noble end. The child grows and discovers its gifts and talents.

From The Shattered Lantern by Ronald Rolheiser, three cultural factors to overcome – Narcissism, Pragmatism, and Unbridled Restlessness:
A) Narcissism – excessive self-preoccupation, overly concerned with self-improvement and development, overly focused on heartaches and problems, trouble seeing any reality at all beyond myself, and excessive need for privacy, e.g. when I was a kid, being told “go to your room” was a punishment, isolating me from my family – today, with our kids having cell phones, IPODs, TVs, computers, and music in their rooms, our children may prefer it.

4 – Wort (good works) are boiled (tried) in a tempest of the cauldron (of the
world). The young person faces the realities of the world.

B) Pragmatism – deriving much of our meaning from our ability to produce, valuing what we do more than who we are, prioritizing tasks over people, looking at others as how they can be used, and due to the demands in our lives, there is no time or energy left to pray.

5 – The sweet goodness of the wort is tempered / balanced by the bitterness
of the hops (human nature or the human condition).

C) Unbridled restlessness – overly active and busy with an obsessive greed for experience (nothing is ever enough), impatient for experience, i.e. R-rated movies, pre-marital sex, little time if any spent on examining our lives and relationships. Father Henri Nouwen writes (page 49 of The Shattered Lantern):
“One of the most obvious characteristics of our daily lives is that we are busy. We experience our days as filled with things to do, people to meet, projects to finish, letters to write, calls to make, and appointments to keep. Our lives often seem like over-packed suitcases bursting at the seams. In fact, we are almost always aware of being behind schedule. There is a nagging sense that there are unfinished tasks, unfulfilled promises, unrealized proposals. There is always something else that we should have remembered, done or said. There are always people we did not speak to, write to, or visit. Thus, although we are very busy we have a lingering feeling of never really fulfilling our obligations… We have a deep sense of unfulfillment. While busy with and worried about many things, we seldom feel truly satisfied, at peace, at home. A gnawing sense of being unfulfilled underlies our filled lives.

6 – The bittered wort (worldly wise) is then introduced to the yeast. (God)

A deep sense of unfulfillment takes place, i.e. mid-life crisis, there may be a sense of emptiness in my relationship with God, with myself, my neighbor, and creation. I am, in a sense, disconnected to one or more of these four relationships. God is calling me to be who I truly am, so there is some sense that I am not fully responding, or responding at all, to the truths of who I am called to be.

7 – Maturation – A process of various components transforming and becoming
greater than the sum of the parts
Faith is made stronger through adversity and contemplation.
Wort brought to a higher stage of understanding, compassion and wisdom than had it been left alone. Wort becomes enlightened and transformed to a more spiritual state.

Begins with faith, a recognition that I am called and chosen by God, that this maturation process is one of uncovering the truth about myself, that I must discard of my false self(ves) or masks that I wear (these can be some image I portray, some other person I become around others, someone who hides their true view to fit in or be accepted). Through faith, I come to recognize that God is constantly nurturing and guiding me in this formation process, recognizing that I need to be open to Him: seeing through the eyes of faith with open eyes, listening with open ears and, most importantly, being receptive to his call with an open heart.

8 – Filtration – a clarification of Gods plan for us and how we can do our part.
The essence of the Holy Spirit is still present although the manifestation which
was required to lead to grace is no longer necessary. It dwells within.

From our Baptism, the Holy Spirit is within us. It is the love between the Father and His Beloved Son. It has always been there, even though we may not have realized it. As we begin to uncover the truth about ourselves, we begin to allow the Spirit to act through us. We become Christ to the other and, as importantly, we see Christ in the other. As our Bishop says, we become the Face of Jesus.

To do this, we have to make a conscious choice, a conscious act of faith that Jesus Christ is living within us and to invite him to take part in every thought, action and decision in our life. We also have to give up the hope for a full and meaningful life based on confidence in myself.

Secondly, we have to recognize our need to truly be a disciple or student of Christ, to learn the heart and mind of Christ, primarily through the study of Scripture. We need to follow Christ and give up the goals, the attitudes and the priorities of our culture, a culture that tends to define us by what we have, as opposed to who we are.






9 – Packaging and distribution to the masses. Ministry.
Dividing and sharing that which we have to offer and are compelled to exalt.
Leading to a venerable elixir of conviviality. With the power to gently break down the mask of device and relate honestly and deeply. To help, to support, to love.
Gifts and talents that can be used to do God’s work. To make the world a better place by following Jesus’ example.

Moving out of ourselves. Recognizing the baptismal calls of prophet, priest and king.
A) Prophet – to witness to the gospel values of Jesus Christ through our daily lives, i.e. being an example to others. Dying to a fear of standing alone,
B) Priest – to die to self, living totally for God and others in love. Loving God and neighbor, i.e. unconditionally loving the other (with Christ’s love within us). Dying to a fear of revealing my true self to others.
C) King – to transform the world as a steward in Christ’s kingdom, i.e. in our workplace, marriage, family life, etc. Dying to any sense of hopelessness about the effect I can have on the world. How is this possible? Because it is Christ acting through us.


Some final, personal thoughts:

Marty:
Being a brewer and a man of faith I have become acutely aware of the role of beer and brewers to civilization and particularly in some areas of the world and world history.
Many analogies can be drawn between the loving production of these beverages and the actions of men who seek to enlighten their fellows. Products that some deem evil and yet Jesus himself deigned good.

Such naturally occurring substances as fermented fruit or grain beverages could not have been accepted and revered by so many spiritual groups and individuals throughout the ages had there not been some redeeming even enlightening properties in them.

Like many pagan rituals, ceremonies and celebrations that were adapted through the years by those who sought to incorporate deeply rooted customs into the patterns of faith-based ideologies, so it was with the thoughtful use of beer and wine.

I am proud to be blessed in the ability to produce and share a product that has been and remains to be a unifying element in our society.

As with any potent force, be it guns, physical strength, political power, influence in the workplace or home, journalistic following etc., alcohol offers the opportunity for abuse.

It is up to the nature of the individual and their sense of responsibility and morality to respect the nature of the power to do harm as well as good of these aforementioned devices.

During our struggles, joys, failings and triumphs here on earth I believe that beer and wine have been provided us as a reminder that God loves us. When taken in the proper frame of mind, in the appropriate setting, and in moderation, these beverages have the ability to transform us to a state conducive to reflection and fellowship.


Deacon David:
In closing, my thoughts about faith were not primarily gained through reading. Rather, my thoughts are my experience of life – it is in fact, my faith story, my life story. I have come to recognize that without faith, I cannot experience the fullness of life, of love, and of relationships with God, myself, my neighbor and creation.

So, it’s important that we all understand that we do not simply develop our faith in our heads, rather, we experience it in our daily lives. It is a life-long process. Sometimes, we can only fully experience “the experience” by looking back, by reflecting, by first seeing God’s action in our lives.

Through this experience of faith, we will likely come to recognize that we will fail much of the time. But we need to keep trying, taking comfort in Blessed Mother Theresa’s words: “We are not called to be successful, rather, we are called to be faithful.”