Biblical Emphases: Vocation

Sermon for Midweek of Laetare – Lent 4

1 Corinthians 7:17-24  +  Luke 10:1-16

So far on these Wednesdays in Lent we’ve considered Original Sin, Justification by Faith Alone, and the Means of Grace. It was through the Means of Grace, through the preaching of the Gospel that God the Holy Spirit called us to the kingdom of Christ. As we confess in the Third Article of the Creed, “The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.”

That’s one kind of “calling” that we talk about, the Gospel call to faith. It goes out to everyone: Repent and believe in Christ! Come into the Master’s vineyard! Come to the wedding banquet of the Son! It’s essentially a call to Holy Baptism, a call that has been heeded by every baptized Christian.

Now, among those who have been called to faith in Christ by the Gospel, among the baptized, we speak of two other types of “calling,” two kinds of “vocation” in the Church. (You may know that the Latin word for “calling” is vocatio, where we get our word “vocation” from.) This evening we’re going to consider the Biblical emphasis on Vocation as it applies to Christians.

There is a calling—a divine call, we say—into the office of the Holy Ministry. And then there is also the calling or the vocation that describes all the various responsibilities that God has given to Christians within their calling to be Christians.

Let’s talk first about the divine call into the office of the ministry.

The divine call isn’t normally what we mean when we talk about vocation. It’s a special call that goes out to men whom God has specifically chosen to preach His Word and to administer His Sacraments. It may be a call that comes directly from God, directly from Jesus, as in the case of the Old Testament Prophets, or the apostles, or the 70 that we heard about this evening. We call that kind of divine call an immediate call, that is, a call made directly by God without any human means.

But since the time of the Apostle Paul, God doesn’t call people that way. Instead He calls them through or by means of the Church. We call that a mediate or a mediated call. To the men who were appointed as ministers in the city of Ephesus, not by Jesus directly, but by the apostles and the churches in Ephesus, Paul said, Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. The Holy Spirit had made them overseers of the church, but He did it through the call they received from the Church into that ministry, as He still does today. That’s the teaching of the Lutheran Church, and very different from the modern Evangelical churches, whose pastors are expected to feel a burning in the heart or a whispering in the ear that comes directly from God.

The divine call carries with it the authority of Christ Himself. We are ambassadors for Christ, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, as though God were pleading through us. We are stewards of the mysteries of God, he also wrote. And because ministers are called and sent by Christ, whether directly or indirectly, His words from Luke 10 apply to all the same: He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.

Now let’s talk for a moment about the other calling or “vocation” that describes all the various responsibilities that God has given to Christians within their calling to be Christians.

One’s vocation includes all the roles and responsibilities that God has assigned to His people for the purpose of serving our neighbor in love. It includes preachers, who have a divine call. But it also includes the hearer of the Word. It includes man, woman, boy, girl, father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, husband, wife, widow, employer, employee, master, servant, king, ruler, soldier, citizen, teacher, student, neighbor, farmer, truck driver, garbage man, bank teller, engineer, computer repairman, plumber, electrician, doctor, nurse, lawyer, chef, food server, the list goes on and on and on.

Some of these vocations are chosen by us, like whether to be a doctor or a lawyer, a farmer or a truck driver, although even then, the talents and opportunities necessary for each aren’t given equally to everyone. Other vocations are assigned to us by God without any choice on our part, through our parents or other circumstances of life, like if you’re a boy or a girl, a son or a daughter, of royal birth or not, born to a wealthy or a poor family, and so on.

The Christian usually has many vocations at once, and the Table of Duties at the end of Luther’s Small Catechism is a good place to start, if you want to know what God has said in His Word about the various categories of vocation and stations in life.

The important truth of vocation is that every role and responsibility a Christian has is designed by God so that Christians can show love in all the ways people need to be loved and served on this earth. And every vocation approved by God’s Word and motivated by love is just as pleasing to God as any of the rest. As St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk.

This teaching of vocation is sorely needed. It means that you can be content in any station, because God has given you a way to serve Him in any station by faithfully and patiently serving your neighbor, by simply carrying out the mundane tasks of your vocation, even the ones that seem insignificant. These are the good works for which God has created us and prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, the regular, everyday works of a person’s vocation. So think about your various vocations, and recognize that God has called you to the ones you now have, and is even now preparing you for others. Let love for your neighbor be the driving force behind them all. Amen.