Acting Outside My Vocation - Thoughts on Vocation (Part 6)

Gene Veith writes "When we act outside our vocations -- that is, when we try to do something we have no calling for -- we are only creating trouble for ourselves. Sometimes this may involve a moral transgression, as in taking the law into our own hands instead of calling the police or having sex with someone we are not married to. More often, acting outside of vocation is morally innocent, but it results in ineffectiveness, frustration, and wasted time." God at Work (2002) p. 139.

Well, four (4) hours of labor, and the creation of this octopus, has shown me that it was not my calling to be a satellite TV guy. But hey. . .it works!

You Must Be Perfect!

I rented Friday Night Lights last weekend. If you have not seen the movie, it is about a small West Texas high school football team struggling to win the state championship and the immense pressures placed on these young men by their community. Although I did not play football in high school, I found the community's attitudes in the movie strikingly similar to those in the small Georgia town where I grew up. At one point, the team's coach, played by Billy Bob Thornton, asks his players, "can you be perfect?" The players end up adopting the coach's challenge as their slogan -- "be perfect." As a Christian, the same demand is put on us by God -- " Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48 (NIV). Of course, we end up fumbling the ball most of the time. Unlike simply losing a football game, the consequences are much more dire. "Doing our best" or "trying hard" just will not be sufficient to appease a righteous and holy God. We have to play a perfect game. For each sin we store up more wrath against ourselves. However, Christ's perfect obedience has secured a place for his elect. Otherwise, there would be no hope. "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:2 (NIV). Thanks be to God!

Kingdom Confusion

Would you like fries with that? (Thoughts on Vocation Part 5)

"One day, a gentleman on a walk passed a construction site and inquired of the workers, 'What are you doing?' 'I'm breaking rock out of the quarry,' said one. Another replied, 'I'm in charge of making the mortar that will cement the stones.' A third man, caked in mud, was pushing a wheelbarrow, and he stopped just long enough to say, with a sense of proud delight, 'I'm building a cathedral." All three men were engaged in the same task, but only one had the 'big picture' in view. Apart from the transcendent (divine, vertical, theological) perspective, we can only see the details of daily routines. . .But when we begin to sign the composition of our daily scores with 'Soli Deo Gloria'--'To God Alone Be Glory'-- as did Bach, that can make even drudgery divine." Horton, Michael, Where in the World is the Church?" 159-60 (2000).

How would recapturing the doctrine of vocation affect the guy mopping the floors at McDonald's? Would understanding that he is loving his neighbor through his work give him more meaning and better perspective of the earthly and heavenly kingdoms? Lord, make us glad to serve in whatever work we are called to do.

* See archives for previous post on vocation.

Thoughts on Vocation (Part 4)

Staring at Our Navels.

"Every attempt to select a gathering of holy and unworldly people for service has the result of forcing love --and that is not the love of Christ. . .In the cloister man is forced to perform works which are a substitute for the works which he should 'pour out on his neighbor, in love,' in the world at large. His works are done for a reason other than the purely earthly aim of being of service to his neighbor; his aim is now to make himself holy. That is to seek justification before God by works. Faith is wiped out." Wingren, Gustaf, Luther on Vocation, 31 (1957).

"To realize that the mundane activities that take up most of our lives -- going to work, taking the kids to soccer practice, picking up a few things at the store, going to church -- are hiding places for God can be a revelation in itself. Most people seek God in mystical experiences, spectacular miracles, and extraordinary acts they have to do. To find Him in vocation brings Him, literally, down to earth, makes us see how close He really is to us, and transfigures everyday life." Veith, Gene, God at Work, 24 (2002).

How is modern evangelical thinking similar to that of the monastic orders?

* See archives for previous post on vocation.

Thoughts on Vocation (Part 3)

We are called to continue the creative work of God.

"'He gives the wool, but not without our labor. If it is on the sheep, it makes no garment.' God gives the wool, but it must be sheared, carded, spun, etc. In these vocations God's creative work moves on, coming to its destination only with the neighbor who needs the clothing." Wingren, Gustaf, Luther on Vocation, 8-9 (1957).

* See archives for previous post on vocation.

Thoughts on Vocation (Part 2)

Kingdom Confusion and the Doctrine of Vocation

"The Church always points, at least primarily, on towards eternity, up toward heaven. Vocation points to the present, to the present day, to this world." Wingren, Gustaf, Luther on Vocation, 28 (1957).

"So vocation belongs to this world, not to heaven; it is directed toward one's neighbor, not toward God. This is an important preliminary characteristic. In his vocation one is not reaching up to God, but rather bends oneself down toward the world. When one does that, God's creative work is carried on. . .Good works and vocation (love) exist for the earth and one's neighbor, not for eternity and God. God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does. It is faith that God wants." (emphasis added) Id. at 10.

Thoughts on Vocation (Part 1)

Faith and Vocation Are Only Temporary:

Faith
". . .faith looks to things which are invisible and unknowable; but they are invisible and unknowable 'not because they are basically unknowable, but because they are not yet visible, not yet knowable. Faith directs itself to that which is to come --Faith is the proper way to wait.' It is on earth that man believes in the kingdom of heaven, for it has not yet come with power. But in the resurrection world faith no longer exists. There one sees in which he has believed. Wingren, Gustaf, Luther on Vocation, 23 (1957).

Vocation
"In heaven man has neither wife nor children, for all offices leave off, and human beings are all alike, since the rule of law is put away. The realm of vocation is temporary. It is only in the present, short life that we are concerned with the endowments and responsibilities of office." Id. at 19.