I;m looking at the electronic version of the herald and the Christmas message from the church leaders throughout Auckland. It is one of the few times something overtly religious is in the paper, and this year the lads have managed to sneak in something moderately important.

Some with no religious faith may feel that there is an irreconcilable tension between faith and reason. From its very beginnings two thousand years ago in the person of Jesus Christ, Christianity was not an exclusive sect. Before his birth, people in that part of the world lived by the great theological or philosophical traditions of the Greek and Roman civilizations and the revelations given by God to the Jewish people. The rise of Christianity after the death and resurrection of Jesus was very public and its first adherents were Jews, Romans and Greeks. It was open to all and offered a rational account of God and of the creation and destiny of humanity which came to fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.

What is the relationship between divinely-inspired faith and human reason? One contemporary philosopher wrote that without reason, faith tends towards uninformed feeling, emotion and intuition. Reason without faith tends towards self-interest, personal and transient satisfactions and the absence of altruism.

We affirm the intellectual credibility of the Christian faith, and remind ourselves and others that human intelligence will never be fully satisfied except by God. The centuries-long procession of Christian thinkers, humanitarians, artists and scientists for whom faith and reason were central to their work is unequalled and unparalleled in its contribution to our civilisation. Naturally there have been problems along the way, as we are all flawed human beings prone to sin and greed

The idea that Christianity is reasonable, and that one can think clearly, logically and rigourously from a christian base is not acceptable for modern society. to borrow Orwells version of English, it isungoodthink. Evertying is supposed to be relative.

But it is not. If there is a God, and he defines Good as external to himself, as a absolute stanadards, then there are absolute things we can find. We can explore truth. We can explore beauty. Without being entrapped in some form of worship of them.

For no human, no matter how wise, no matter how beautiful, courageous… is worthy of worship. We all have flaws. We are all fallen but glorious. Our very imperfections make us equal: for without the great mercy of God none of us would evern enter the true city of God.

Revelation 21:22-22:5< ²²I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. ²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. ²⁵Its gates will never be shut by day – and there will be no night there. ²⁶People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. ²⁷But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

¹Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; ⁴they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

One of the unfortunatel things about post modernism is that it promises a lie. we will be acocuntable. We will have to deal with the consequences of our actions. We will be — by the grace of God — worthy of being in the city — but no one who persists in doing the unworthy, the evil, the sinful will be allowed in.

If we worship our lies, we will be blinded to the situation we find ourselves in. following groupthingk, and ending up in error. We know this is unwise in business. It is not good research practice, And it squally unwise in life.