Friday, March 12, 2004 AD
The Liberation of Vocation
Yet another reason for loving Lutheranism: the doctrine of vocation. Sick of the Christian subculture? Fed up with being made to feel that your "secular" job is a bit "unspiritual" (unless you are able to evangelise your colleagues or make up for it by spending lots of spare time in "church" activities)? Then I recommend you spend some time this weekend reading Gene Veith's article on The Doctrine of Vocation.
How liberating it is to realise that our daily work, our everyday vocations (whether in paid employment, as a husband or wife, as a parent, as a citizen, or whatever), all these are of value to God and are used by him to answer the prayer, "Give us today our daily bread". As Luther puts it:
It's also liberating to realise that, while we are all priests (1 Peter 2:4-10), that is not the same as saying that we are all ministers (2 Timothy 4:1-5). Our everyday life (as citizens, employees, members of families) has value as we live as a "royal priesthood"; we are to be ready to "give a defence", to explain the gospel and its relevance to how we live (and what a privilege it is when such opportunities arise!); but we are not required to beat ourselves up for failing to "preach the Word in season and out of season", when we are not ministers.
This is such an important part of what freedom for the Christian, freedom in the Gospel, means in practice: an end to quasi-monastic divisions between "spiritual" and "secular" activities, which burden ordinary Christians with unnecessary guilt.
Finally, it is also liberating to realise that some things (including, in my case, anything to do with plumbing or electricity) are not our vocation, and that we are therefore justified in getting someone else to use their vocation in doing it for us, if God has blessed us with the (financial) ability to do so. One very practical application of this teaching is that it should spare me the job of remodelling our garden wall and patio this summer!
Now if you'll excuse me, my week of working at my vocation as a lawyer is coming to an end, and my vocation as husband and father beckons...
How liberating it is to realise that our daily work, our everyday vocations (whether in paid employment, as a husband or wife, as a parent, as a citizen, or whatever), all these are of value to God and are used by him to answer the prayer, "Give us today our daily bread". As Luther puts it:
All our work in the field, in the garden, in the city, in the home, in struggle, in government -- to what does it all amount before God except child's play, by means of which God is pleased to give his gifts in the field, at home, and everywhere? These are the masks of our Lord God, behind which he wants to be hidden and to do all things.As Luther says elsewhere, God himself is milking the cows through the vocation of the milkmaid.
It's also liberating to realise that, while we are all priests (1 Peter 2:4-10), that is not the same as saying that we are all ministers (2 Timothy 4:1-5). Our everyday life (as citizens, employees, members of families) has value as we live as a "royal priesthood"; we are to be ready to "give a defence", to explain the gospel and its relevance to how we live (and what a privilege it is when such opportunities arise!); but we are not required to beat ourselves up for failing to "preach the Word in season and out of season", when we are not ministers.
This is such an important part of what freedom for the Christian, freedom in the Gospel, means in practice: an end to quasi-monastic divisions between "spiritual" and "secular" activities, which burden ordinary Christians with unnecessary guilt.
Finally, it is also liberating to realise that some things (including, in my case, anything to do with plumbing or electricity) are not our vocation, and that we are therefore justified in getting someone else to use their vocation in doing it for us, if God has blessed us with the (financial) ability to do so. One very practical application of this teaching is that it should spare me the job of remodelling our garden wall and patio this summer!
Now if you'll excuse me, my week of working at my vocation as a lawyer is coming to an end, and my vocation as husband and father beckons...
