Calvary Lutheran Church

Pastor for Calvary Lutheran, Waupaca
&
 St. Paul's Lutheran, Wild Rose

Shepherd Notes May 2022

Our Calling and God's Glory “Vocation”

 Ephesians 4:1-7,  I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,  eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

1st Corinthians 7:17 Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned him, and to which God has called him.
 
    "Justification by faith alone" is surely the most important contribution of the Reformation. The second most important, was Luther’s "doctrine of vocation."

The doctrine of justification is widely understood; the doctrine of vocation has all but been forgotten. The word vocation can still be heard sometimes, but the concept is generally misunderstood or incompletely understood. The term means "calling," but it does not have to do with God's voice summoning you to do a great work for him. It doesn’t mean serving God by evangelizing on the job. Nor does it mean that everyone is a minister, although it is about the priesthood of all believers. It does mean doing everything for God's glory, doing our very best as a way to glorify God.

The doctrine of vocation is the practice of living the Christian life. It solves the problems of the relationship between faith and works, (Faith causes works) Christ and culture, how Christians are to live in the world (Because I’m a Christian…). Vocation is the key to strong marriages (Honoring God) and successful parenting (Bring a child up in the way he should go). It shows the value, as well as the limits, of the secular world. And it shows Christians the meaning of their lives.

Somehow we seem to place religion in the realm of the extraordinary, rather than in the ordinary. In vocation, however, God is hidden even in the mundane activities of our everyday lives. And this is his glory. Luther put it best “Christian's preoccupied with their families, struggling to make ends meet, living their mundane lives "are all in a state of holiness, honoring the Lord with their vocations".                                     

                                                  Your Servant in Christ    Pastor Brian