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When I was a senior in high school, I found myself in a difficult dilemma. I was the youngest of eight children. By the time I was ready to graduate from high school, five of my brothers were either serving as pastors or at the seminary preparing to be pastors. Both of my sisters were Lutheran school teachers. Talk about pressure! The question was always on my mind: Should I be a pastor or teacher, or should I do something else? The latter choice would mean that I would be the only one in my family who did not enter the public ministry.
The pressure did not come from my parents or siblings. It was pressure that I put on myself.
It was my mother who relieved that pressure. She knew that I was struggling with the decision. So one day she said to me, “Remember, the Lord needs good laypeople just as much as he needs pastors and teachers.” Not only did her words immediately take the pressure off me, but in those few words she taught me an important biblical concept—a teaching that we call Christian vocation.
Vocation means “calling.” We properly speak of serving in the public ministry as a calling, since God calls people to their work as pastors, teachers, and staff ministers. But one of the precious scriptural truths that Martin Luther rediscovered and restored at the time of the Reformation was that a Christian vocation is not limited to serving in the public ministry. Every role that God gives—husband, wife, father, mother, child, doctor, baker, factory worker, truck driver—is a position in life into which God himself calls people. All vocations are given by God, and that means that no vocation is more important or honorable than another.
To be sure, God gives us our Christian vocations to bless us. But more importantly, God gives us our vocations to provide opportunities to show Christian love and bring God’s blessings to others. The faithful spouse lives to serve his or her partner. The faithful parent cares for his or her child physically and spiritually. The police officer helps to keep people safe and secure. The farmer raises crops and animals to provide food. It’s no wonder that Martin Luther described our Christian vocations as the “masks” of God, because as we carry out our vocations, it is really God, unseen, who is blessing other people through what we do.
In September, we celebrate Labor Day. To be sure, it’s a day to thank God for the blessing of work. But don’t let that three-day weekend go by without recognizing that your work is really a calling into which God has placed you to serve others. And beyond the job or career that you have, recognize the many other vocations—spouse, parent, child, student—that God has given you to carry out as you live your Christian life in a world where your vocations are all vitally important.
Author: Mark Schroeder
Volume 111, Number 09
Issue: September 2024
