Vocation in the New Year
“The Christian shoemaker does his or her duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”
I love this oft-quoted saying of Luther because it gets to the heart of his understanding of vocation. And that is, quite simply, that God can – and does! – use any and all of us to make this world a more trust-worthy place.
In Luther’s medieval world, there were various orders of – and values assigned to – labor, and those who worked for the church – nuns, monks, priests – were viewed as doing “better” or more spiritual work. Luther, however, believed that God calls all Christians to care for the world God loves so much and for this reason all labor done with care and with a regard for the neighbor is of equal value and, indeed, pleasing to God.
In fact, the word vocation stems from the root – vocation – or “calling.” We all, Luther believed, are called by God to care for neighbor and world and anything we do toward that end – whether it is for pay or volunteer, prestigious or unnoticed, in a “helping profession” or not – is holy work.
Which means that 2017, which is nearly upon us, will give each and all of us manifold opportunities to show our devotion to God by caring for our neighbor and the world by doing whatever work is in front of us with care. Blessed New Year!
I love this simple message!
Thank you. Your words are an inspiration to not give up because we are old, less agile than in previous years. It is STILL necessary to give life 100% of whatever we have left to give.
There is a saying, “anything worth doing is worth doing right”. At one place I worked I saw the capital letters on a sign, DIRTFT which stood for “Do It Right The First Time!” Now I realize that also anything I do is also “holy work.”
Over the years, I have preached on Luther’s Theology of Vocation 3 or 4 times. Once early on, I made the point that the woman who vacuums our santurary and cleans our toilets is just as important as the preacher . . and her work has the same value to God.
Well, the wheels came off the wagon. ‘How can you say that?’ ‘You cannot be serious!’ ‘What are they teaching you in seminary?’
Perhaps two years later, same sermon but I added the following: ‘If you do not believe that the work of our janitor is of equal value to God, here is what we will do: I will not preach for three weeks and she will not clean the toilets for three weeks. After that time, you tell me who is important and who’s work has value around here.’
End of conversation.
Happy New Year . . .van c.