How did we forget the meaning of vocation?
Gene Edward Veith, Jr. has done well to remind me. I’m grateful. He doesn’t know it, but he’s helped me to weave the teaching of vocation into Titus 2 for Life (www.titus2-4life.org ). Gene Veith and I met when I was serving as President of Lutherans For Life. We have mutual friends. These days, I see his writings in many publications. Good thing. Through his many vocations, he is engaging the culture with the Biblical worldview.
His book, God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life (Crossway Books) and his recent article, “Arenas of Service” (WORLD,8-28-10) have been very helpful to me. Somewhere in my instruction between home, catechism, and Bible classes, I’ve heard God’s call to live out my faith in whatever I do. Of what good is my faith if it’s private or left in the pew? Non-Christians often seem very committed to living out their particular belief. But, many Christians act as if they’ve either forgotten or never been told what vocation really is.
After the Reformation, Christians held to three key teachings: the authority of Scripture, justification by faith in Jesus Christ, and the doctrine of vocation. “Modern” and “progressive” thinkers work hard to ignore the first two. As for the doctrine of vocation, well, it “faded from the church’s memory,” says Veith.
Vocation, as Veith explains, is like justification: It is God’s work. Vocation is how God works through us. God uses us to care for and govern His creation. He uses our gifts and talents to make a difference. We are called by God into vocations.
Vocation is more than a “job.” Every Christian has multiple vocations. Martin Luther, notes Veith, sorted them into four “estates,” or spheres of life that God established: the church, the household, the state, and what he called “the common order of Christian love.”
God calls His people to vocations in the church. Pastors are called into the ministry. God works through them to teach His Word, preside at His sacraments, and give spiritual care. Laypeople are called, too. They serve in human care, as elders or trustees, singing in the choir, teaching children, and caring for one another.
God calls His people to vocations in the family. Marriage is a vocation. Fatherhood and motherhood are vocations. In fact, as Veith points out, being a brother or sister, a grandfather or grandmother, or nephew or niece are all vocations.
God calls His people to vocations in the state. As citizens, we have responsibilities to our government and to our culture. Some of us are called to serve in positions of government. The United States is unique. U.S. citizens, writes Veith, “have the unusual calling of being both subjects and rulers at the same time, since our democratic republic places the governing authorities themselves under the authority of the people who elect them.” The Christian is to involve himself in civic roles and cultural engagement.
The fourth vocation is “the common order of Christian love.” God calls us to serve Him and others through our ordinary, everyday life and relationships with our neighbors. Some may believe we serve God only by doing “church work,” but this isn’t what Luther and the other reformers taught. We are not to withdraw from the world, but be engaged in it. God transforms the culture through Christian men and women who use His Word in all areas of life.
We go to Divine Service on Sunday to find the forgiveness of Christ, feed on God’s Word, receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and grow in our faith. Then, we go back out into the world — our families, neighborhoods, jobs, classrooms, voting booth, volunteer activities — to serve God by serving others.
Galatians 5:6 and 1 Timothy 1:5 remind us that the purpose of every vocation is to love and serve our neighbors.
Faith bears fruit in love.
“God doesn’t need our good works,” Veith quotes Luther, “but our neighbor does.” Our relationship with God is based completely on His work for us in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. But just as God is hidden in vocation, Christ is hidden in our neighbors.
As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to Me.
Matthew 25:40 reminds us that we love and serve God by loving and serving the people He puts into our lives — friends or strangers, easy to love or not, in good times or bad.
In some vocations we exercise authority. But, think of how Jesus exercised His authority… He was a servant.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
This Word of God found in Mark 10:42-45 makes me ashamed because, too often, it’s all about me. In my selfishness, I sin against my vocation.
Faithful to God’s pro-life Word, Veith writes, “Vocation clarifies moral issues. Mothers are called to love and serve their children, not abort them or abuse them. Doctors are called to heal their patients, not kill them. Leaders are called to love and serve those under their authority, not exploit and tyrannize them.”
Here’s something else. “Some actions are sinful when done outside of vocation but good works when done within vocation. We have no calling from God that would authorize having sex with someone to whom we are not married. But within the vocation of marriage, sex is not only authorized, it becomes the means by which God creates a one-flesh union, engenders new life, and builds a family.”
Veith explains that “vocation has to do with the priesthood of all believers. A priest is someone who performs a sacrifice. We no longer need sacrifices for our sins, since Christ, our great High Priest, offered Himself as our sacrifice once and for all (Hebrews 9:26). But, in light of that sacrifice, God calls us (Romans 12:1)
. . . to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
We are not called to lord it over others nor are we called to obsess on self-fulfillment. Vocation focuses away from self to others.
Fathers are living sacrifices for their families when they faithfully protect and provide even in weariness and frustration. Mothers are living sacrifices for their families when they put their own feelings aside to encourage husbands and nurture children. Workers on the job are living sacrifices when they do their best to serve both employer and customers.
Veith explains that “Christ, who is in vocation and in the neighbor, takes up all of these sacrifices, small or great, into His sacrifice. And He loves and serves His creation by means of our love and service in our vocations.”
A Biblical understanding of vocation means that nothing we do to God’s glory is ordinary or insignificant. Luther said that changing a child’s diaper is holy work. In that vein, so is preparing a meal, changing a tire, looking after an unmarried aunt, being a good listener, doing homework, donating blood, sitting by the bedside of a dying spouse, being informed about candidates before election day, praying, training in purity, paying fair salary, and performing honest labor. The list goes on… and on.
Our vocations are many. God works through our vocations to serve others. Trusting this, says Veith, changes the quality of what we do. He’s right. It changes the words we choose, the music we sing, the business we transact, the clothing we wear… even the table we set.
Thank you, Gene Edward Veith, for helping me review my vocations. May God help me see every word and deed as opportunities to serve not self, but others.
Now, for the rest of you, move on over and sit a spell with The Blog of Veith www.geneveith.com
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“In the beginning, was the Word.” In six days, the Word spoke the universe into being. Is there proof? Yes!
Ezerwoman's Blog 
Don’t Mingle, “Dig In”
Posted in Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, Life issues, tagged " conform, " vulnerability, chaos, church, God's Word, hope and change, influence, Jesus Christ, kindness, lifestyle, nation, order, PC, political correctness, public opinion, silly myths, The Life, The Truth, The Way, world on October 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Andree Seu, writing in WORLD (11-6-10), paraphrases comments made to her by Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf. With both hands about shoulder-level, roughly 12-inches apart, Rep Wolf explained to Seu that we have “the church” here and “the other world” here. He posited that this is always a constant distance of separation. Seu writes,
“Where the thing gets scary, explained Wolf, is that as the world moves toward greater immorality, the church continues to keep the same distance from it. That is to say, the church is sliding into debauchery along with the world, just at a slower rate. What is important to note is that this slippage from God is not so easily detected because the gap between church and world remains the same, and so we seem, to ourselves, to be doing OK.”
In the first session of my Titus 2 Retreat, “We Are Vulnerable,” I ask the group to give examples of “silly myths” that lead to “social experiments.” Believing “silly myths” (i.e. abortion is a woman’s right or two women who love each other should be able to marry) inevitably leads to social experimentation. Such experimentation is actually tampering with God’s design. This is never good for a people who want to imagine beyond themselves to new generations. God’s design brings order and new life. Experimenting with His design brings chaos and death.
We are vulnerable, I explain during a Titus 2 Retreat, when we profess Jesus Christ as our Lord but wrap Him around silly myths and social experiments. There is a saying: “We become like the company we keep.” We become like the world — even though we think we’re keeping a distance — when we begin to mingle (just a little here or a little there). When we let worldly ideas of spirituality, worship, the roles of men and women, marriage, family, and children weave into Christianity, we’re in trouble. Truth does not embrace or wrap around worldly ideas. Truth and the world are opposites. A lesson from history gives some clarity.
In the Old Testament book of Ezra, we learn that the king of Persia was going to allow the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem. They had been exiles and captives for a long time. It’s important to note that only a small number of Jewish exiles wanted to return to their homeland. Most were unwilling to give up their Babylonian property or lifestyle to go back to their old ways. So, because there was such a small group of workers, the rebuilding of Jerusalem became more difficult. There were people in the area who offered their help. Those people didn’t believe in God and held to a blend of mixed religious beliefs. It goes without saying that they had motives of their own. The Jewish people refused the offer of help with their building project. Why? 1) The task was given exclusively to God’s people; 2) accepting help from non-believers would obligate God’s people to pagan ways; and 3) the potential for corruption in worship was too great if God’s people became aligned with non-believers. (Ezra 4:3)
A Christian, wanting to be progressive, might think: If I embrace the best parts of a worldly idea, I will be able to move forward the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a modern way. But, too often, moral-influence flows the opposite direction. God knows that. Therefore, He says: Don’t mingle; dig in. Dig in to the One Who is not of this world (John 18:36). Jesus says, “I am the Light.” The world is dark (John 1:4-5). “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The world is deceptive and leads to death (John 10:10). “My peace I give you.” The world offers no such peace. (John 14:27) For this reason, St. Paul was inspired to write in Romans 12:2:
Don’t mingle. Dig in.
To mingle with the world is to walk on shifting sand. For awhile, public opinion might lean one way; then, depending upon anything from the economy to a national crisis, public opinion can suddenly shift the opposite direction. Andree Seu explains that there is “a little thing called the ‘Overton Window.’ It is the term for an insight by a Joseph P. Overton that at any given point in the stream of a population’s public life there is a ‘window’ that contains or frames a range of opinion that is currently acceptable. Outside that window lie the ideas considered wacko. The intriguing thing is that what is ‘acceptable’ and what is ‘wacko’ can (and does) shift. The window itself moves — and clever and diabolical forces have an interest in moving it.”
What was “radical” yesterday is “acceptable” today. The unthinkable, notes Andree Seu, can go from “popular” to “policy.” Remember. Ideas like abortion, homosexual “marriage,” and euthanasia used to lurk in the shadows of the American landscape. Not anymore.
I’m an ezer woman who lives in a culture where “evil” is called “good.” For this reason, I’m compelled to dig heels into the foundation of God’s Word but, at the same time, push forward with weapons of truth. As ideas and behaviors spiral downward, the one who follows Jesus is called to be intentionally polite. Kind. Pure. This will irritate some and be seen as naive by others. But, for a neighbor caught momentarily in darkness, the light may shine more brightly. The Word of Truth, kindly spoken, pulls from shifting sand to solid ground.
There is a model for those who no longer want to mingle but, instead, dig in. Curious? I invite you to explore Titus 2 for Life.
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