Everyone Has A Vocation, But Not All Have Jobs

Anyway, I bring this up because Bradley not only sums up what I’ve written about vocation (see my trilogy: God at Work, Family Vocation, and Working for Our Neighbor), she draws on something I’ve emphasized, but I don’t think I have put it as clearly and succinctly as she does.  Here is what she says (my bolds):

Christianity provides a spiritual and dignified understanding of work and vocation. Theologian Gene Veith argues that Martin Luther transformed the doctrine of vocation to apply to all of Christian life; it is the “mask of God” in which he is present in our ordinary affairs. Veith contends that “the priesthood of all believers is another name for the concept of vocation. … God calls some Christians to be pastors, but … other Christians will ‘exercise their royal priesthood by plowing fields, forging steel, and starting businesses.’” A culture that honors hard work, creativity, and service informs the institutional transformation necessary for economic development.

Everyone has a vocation, but not all have jobs. Paid labor can be a part of how you fulfill your vocation, but it’s not the only way. When politicians speak about the importance of jobs, they refer to the labor you sell in the marketplace. A robust economy creates job opportunities across various skills and education levels, from aeronautics to manufacturing. Meaningful work, not just jobs, can happen inside the market where we buy and sell our labor and outside the market in our homes, neighborhoods, churches, and civic institutions; it all matters.

Several people have asked me how I reconcile my retirement with what I’ve written about vocation.  (Here is how I’ve answered that in print.)  I’ve said that now I have time to pursue my other vocations–ones that I had sometimes neglected in the busyness of making a living–more fully:  in my family, in my local congregation, in my writing.  (I’m realizing that I’m still neglecting my citizenship.)

Retired people, the unemployed, the independently wealthy–they all have vocations.  Each has stations in life in which they can love and serve their neighbors.  We have vocations in each of the estates that God designed for human life:  the home, the church, and the state.  Luther added one more, a general realm of informal tasks and relationships:  the “common order of Christian love.”  That would include our friendships, our neighbors across the street, people we randomly encounter.  Luther classified our economic vocations as being part of the “home,” how the family makes its living.  (The very word “economy” derives from the Greek word for “house” combined with the word for “laws.”)  Some vocations–such as that of rulers, judges, soldiers–he also related to the state. Or in the case of pastors–and theologians–to the church.

At any rate, we often today use “vocation” to refer just to “job” or “occupation” or “profession.”  Maybe ramping those up a little, as in, “This is not just a job, it’s a vocation.”   But the term as used in “vocational training” or “vo-tech schools” is an extreme narrowing of a theological concept.  The word comes from the Latin for “calling.”  When the Bible talks about “calling,” it is revealing the doctrine of vocation.  For example, 1 Corinthians 7:17:  “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.”

What Bradley said also reminded me of an important corollary:  the importance of “our homes, neighborhoods, churches, and civic institutions; it all matters.”

Vocation means we must not neglect any of these estates, that God is masked in all of them, that the Christian life involves loving and serving neighbors in all of these spheres.  And that they all are in need of revival.

Photo:  “Congratulations on Your Retirement!”  by Jim the Photographer via Flickr, CC BY 2.0