Dear Alumni,
The launch of the Master of Arts (Christian Studies) program in
2004 set me on a quest to rediscover one of the lesser-known
treasures of our Reformation heritage: the biblical doctrine of
vocation. "Vocation," of course, is essentially the Latin way to
say "calling," and in Roman Catholic circles today it still
means essentially what it meant to the medieval church, the
calling to serve the church as a priest, nun, or monk. The first
"hit" in a Google search for "vocation" will take you to
www.vocation.com, where Father Anthony Bannon answers such
questions as, "Is feeling that you're not called to married life
a sign that you have a vocation?" Father Bannon's answer
confirms his correspondent's assumption that "vocation" and
"religious life" are one thing, and marriage is quite another.I came across Father Bannon's cyber-expression of medieval
spirituality in preparing for the MACS core course, Vocation and
Church, which sets the tone for the program by orienting adults
to the wide diversity of callings that God issues to us in the
workplace, the family, the church, and society at large. This
breadth of callings is what the Reformers discovered as they
reexamined Scripture. We sometimes hint at their discovery in
the shorthand expression, "the priesthood of all believers," but
the Reformers' insights are richer and more complex than that
motto can capture. In the first place, they spoke not only of all believers'
priesthood, but also of our prophetic and royal offices. The
Heidelberg Catechism, after explaining the meaning of Jesus'
title "Christ" in terms of his anointing to be our chief prophet
and teacher, holy high priest, and eternal king (Q/A 31), goes
on to explain why we are called Christians: Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in his
anointing. I am anointed to confess his name [prophetic], to
present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks
[priestly], to strive with a good conscience against sin and the
devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all
creation for all eternity [kingly] (Q/A 32). By virtue of our union with Christ not only pastors and elders
but all believers have a calling, an office, to speak God's word
to each other (Col. 3:16), to offer sacrifices and prayers in
God's presence (Rom. 12:1; Phil. 4: 18; Heb. 13:15-16; Eph.
6:18-20), and to perform the royal roles of resisting God's
enemies and some day ruling the new heavens and earth (Eph.
6:10-17; Rev. 5:10). In other words, the Reformers caught sight
of the implications of the Pauline metaphor of the church as
Christ's Body, in which every member (not only pastors, elders,
and deacons) is enabled by the Spirit, authorized by the Lord,
and accountable to the Father to make a distinct contribution to
the Body's growth by serving others through the manifold grace
that God supplies (1 Pet. 4:10-11; cf. 1 Cor. 12). Of course one momentous implication of the Catechism's answer is
that our true identity is not inextricably tied to our various
roles in labor, family, church, or society, but rather to Jesus
himself, who has called us by grace through faith into union
with himself (Mark 2:17; Rom. 1:6-7). You may not always be a
medical researcher, senator, teacher, factory foreman, or even
husband or wife, parent or child, as you are today. But such
shifting roles and duties are not at the core of who you are.
You are called, first and foremost, a child of God, beloved
forever by the Father not because of your fulfillment of various
responsibilities but on the basis of Jesus' utter faithfulness
to his supreme calling, keeping covenant fidelity and enduring
covenant curse in our place. I also discovered afresh, secondly, that the Reformers saw the
boundaries of "calling" drawn by Scripture not only as bigger
than pastoral office but also as much bigger than churchly
service. Through Gene Veith's wise little book, God At Work:
Your Christian Vocation in All of Life (Crossway, 2002), our
class members heard Luther extol the high calling of milkmaid
and magistrate. We listened to William Perkins's wise counsel in
A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men: With the Sorts
and Kinds of Them and the Right Use Thereof, especially
regarding the way a lively awareness that God has called and
placed us where we are in work and family can convey both
meaning to our labor and stability to our restless hearts.
We noted that God created by speaking, "Let there be...," and
then defined distinctions between his creatures by calling them
by name, "Day/Night," "heavens/land/sea." We read that God
created man, male and female, in his own image and likeness, and
called his human image-bearers to reflect his own glad labor by
filling and ruling the earth, by working and keeping the garden.
God then authorized Adam to call the animals by name, exercising
authority as he discerned their identity-the seed from which the
natural sciences in all their complexity have blossomed and
borne fruit (Gen. 2:19-20). What, after all, is the cultural
mandate, if not a call to office: that is, wielding delegated
authority to accomplish an assigned task by the power that God
supplies, as those who stand accountable to him? So we found
that farming, building, architectural design, safety inspection,
clothing design and manufacture, and other life-preserving,
life-protecting, and life-enhancing pursuits are all dimensions
of our calling to image the Creator's craftsmanship and
provision for his creatures in this now-fallen and dangerous
world. We surveyed the New Testament's summons to slaves to glorify
Christ and adorn the Gospel by rendering faithful service where
they are called, as other men's property (1 Cor. 7:17, 20-24;
Titus 2:9-10). We heard John the Baptist, the greatest prophet
of promise, send repentant Roman soldiers back to soldiering and
repentant tax collectors back to collecting taxes-but now to do
so differently, with integrity, respect, and compassion toward
others, because the kingdom of God had broken into their
hardened hearts (Luke 3:7-14). How many in first-century Judea
would have guessed that occupying troops who kept God's folk
under Rome's cruel boot, or Jewish traitors who wrung their
kinsmen dry to line their own pockets and pander to the powerful
pagans, could glorify God in those loathsome occupations, as
reborn subjects of the coming King of Kings? But God said it
could and must be done!
Now, why am I sharing this reflection on the full, biblical,
Reformational concept of calling or vocation with WSC alumni?
For two reasons: (1) Some of you have not been "called to the ministry" in the
sense that Edmund Clowney's little masterpiece describes it.
Jesus has not called you through ordination by his church to
preach his Gospel and shepherd his flock. You may be teaching,
or raising toddlers at home, or serving in government or
business or medicine or law or landscaping or some other high
calling, by which you are imaging the Creator in his provision
for his creatures, or his maintenance of just and compassionate
community. To you I would simply say, Be encouraged: where you
are, doing the work that you are doing, and loving the neighbors
among whom God has placed you (in your own home, neighborhood,
workplace, school, and beyond), you can hear and heed his call
to "image" God the Father, Laborer, Provider, Protector, Judge,
Warrior, Artist, Musician, Listener, Advisor, Healer, and more.
As you do what he has called you to do in that place, you can
and must adorn the Gospel of his grace both in your workmanship
and in your relationships. Your calling from the King is an
exalted one! (2) Many of you have been called to the ministry of Word and
sacrament. My challenge to you-and to myself as well-is this:
How have we, who are called to teach the whole counsel to the
whole people of God, alerted our brothers and sisters who have
other callings to the theological significance of their
"office"-to that confluence of task, authority, enabling power,
and accountability that is distinctive to each of them? How have
we taught them to approach vocational decisions with wisdom-not
just regarding employment and the education that leads to it,
but also regarding marriage, parenting, and engaging their
unique gifts as members of the Body of Christ? One MACS student told me last year, "Why don't we (engineers,
mothers, executives, or groundskeepers) hear these biblical
truths-that we are called by Christ to serve him where he has
placed us in the world-more often from the pulpit? This material
should be required for every M.Div. student heading for the
pastorate!" More recently, this fall I taught the congregation
that I serve a distillation of the MACS course's vocation
material in a class attended by nearly 80 adults (of all ages,
from college through retirement) and adolescents each week. One
father, knowing that his son and other teens face crucial
vocational decisions in the next few years, asked me to instruct
him to buy many copies of Veith's book and give them to every
kid in our youth group, so they could track with the reading
"assignments" each week. (And he did it!)
God's people are hungry and thirsty for biblical guidance
regarding how they can discern and follow Christ's call in their
homes, schools, workplaces, and communities, as well as in the
church. I encourage you: pick up and read a copy of Veith's God
at Work, Paul Helms's The Callings (Banner of Truth, 1987), Os
Guiness's The Call (Word, 1998), Leland Ryken's Redeeming the
Time: A Christian Approach to Work and Leisure (Baker, 1995),
Bruce Waltke's Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion? (Eerdmans,
2002), John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life (Crossway, 2003)-even,
if you can find it, Perkins's Treatise of Vocations. Let these
wise teachers, past and present, sensitize your ears to hearing
the "calling" theme that permeates the Word. Then convey what
you learn-in a Sunday school class, a small group Bible study, a
sermon series, or through counseling-with those with whom you
share the name "Christian," and the anointing as prophets,
priests and kings, by virtue of our union with Jesus, the
supremely Anointed One.
In the grace of the God "who called you to his eternal glory in
Christ" (1 Pet. 5:10),
Dennis E. Johnson
Academic Dean and Professor of Practical Theology
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