You are being called out

Vocatio – Greek meaning “call.” English root is vocal or voice. When one is called out they are marked, or placed in a situation they must contend with. A “vocation” then is something we are called to – either a job, a mission, a craft, etc.

It seems that we have a tug of war in our lives in how we view our daily work in the world. On one hand we buy into the Genesis 3:17 description of the human race “in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, you are dust and to dust you shall return.” On the other, we do discover in our daily work joy and it does indeed feel like we are partaking of God’s creative task.

Dorothy L. Sayers puts it this way (Essay “Vocation in Work”):

“… the first thing [the author of Genesis] tells us about God, in whose image both man and woman were created, is that [God] was … a creator. He made things. Not presumably, because He had to, but because He wanted to … And there is something quite distinctive about [the human being]: [they] make things – not just one uniform set of things, as a bee makes a honeycomb, but an interminable variety of different and not strictly necessary things, because [they] want to.”

She goes on to say that we as human beings, even in our fallen life, we still are near to our divine pattern that we continually make things, as God makes things, for the fun of it!

So the question comes then … so how is what I do in my daily work holy work?

I think the answer lies in the fact that we are not fully human until we produce or make something – anything. It is holy because God has deemed the work of your hands as holy. (Of course for this short essay I am avoiding any talk of the ethics of work, that is for another time).

So now that your work is holy, what does that make you but divine! Not because of what you do, but because you are doing it. You are fulfilling your divine calling, your vocation, that which has called you out!

You are made in the image of God. God creates because God can’t help it. You create because you are a child of God. 

God’s work. Our Hands!

Here have a gift - please - take it!

In Isak Denisen’s short story Babette’s Feast there is this lone line that sums up the old sisters lives: 

Did she believe that they would allow her to spend her precious money on food and drink – or on them?

Babette has just won the lottery and wanted to use that money to throw a grand feast. At this suggestion the Norwegian stoic sisters throw up their hands, as if to say – how can any extravagance be wasted on us? 

How many times have we done the same thing when someone offers us a truly grace filled gift, that is, a gift that we have not earned? What do we say? O you should not have! or I did not get you anything. or I could not accept this! All these answers shame the bearer of the gift. The intention, I suppose, of our answers is to show a kind of humility. But, it is a false humility. At best it is a form of cover for our surprise. What would it be like if we had instead just said, "Thank you?"

God, in offering his only son, is a lot like Babette. Here, God says, have this gift, have this gift of amazing grace. And we too often shame the gift. We sometimes speak the same words as the sisters, "Does God believe that we would allow him to spend his precious Son’s life on forgiveness and reconciliation – directly to us?" We would not have such a thing! 

But, such a thing is given. God's only Son sent into the world, not to condemn it, but to save it. To save you. To save me.

The table is set. Wine is poured. Bread is broken. The meal is offered.  Free, unmerited, unhindered, waiting for you. Will you accept it and say thank you?

Hannah Gives Thanks

There is no Holy One like the LORD,

no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God.

Talk no more so very proudly,

let not arrogance come from your mouth;

for the LORD is a God of knowledge,

and by him actions are weighed. 

1 Samuel 2:2-3

This is a part of Hannah’s prayer of thanksgiving for answering her prayer. She was barren and she prayed to God for a son. Samuel was born. And to give thanks she dedicated Samuel to the temple. She gave up the very thing that she prayed so fervently. She gave this precious child she so longed for back to God.

What is it that we pray so desperately for? And in doing so are ready to give it up in the same breath? I have a sneaky suspicion that none of you would be so bold … or even to do so out of pure thanksgiving.

Hannah, while giving thanks, also reminds us and herself what the problem is –  our arrogance and our inability to recognize that there is no one holier than our God.

Some of you are like me. I am egotistical enough to think that somehow everything I do is of my own making – both my triumphs and my failures. I am conceited enough to think that everyone who likes me or dislikes me feels this way because of my very excellent or not very excellent way of carrying myself. I am so supercilious, bigheaded, haughty, superior, overconfident and proud that I have the gall to think that everything that happens to me is of my own doing.

There is no one like our God. From God comes our life and our being. Do we give thanks in a way that recognizes this? In what way do we give back to God to show our thankfulness? This God of ours, the God of knowledge and by whom our actions are weighed, deserves our thanks!

I am not suggesting that your salvation depends on this; this has been promised through your baptism into the body of Christ, your righteousness before God has been taken care of. No what I am suggesting is that maybe some of our struggles in life happens because we do not take the time to offer thanks, to tangibly hand back to God that for which we are thankful. Are you thankful for your good health? How can you offer that health back to God? Are you thankful for your income? How might you offer that back to God? Are you thankful for clean drinking water? How might you offer that back to God?

One of the life lessons I have learned over and over again is that when I do live a life of thanks for what I have, I am not able then to live that arrogant life. And when I do not live that supercilious way I really discover joy.

Why I Despise Video Depictions of Scripture

Tamar and Amnon by LeSeur

I am choosing not to watch the History Channel's take on Bible stories, just like I really did not want to watch Mel Gibson's self-flagellatory version of the Passion. I make this decision based on very good life experiences that have led to my jaded expectations of such endeavors.

I can make two predictions:
One: The writers and directors of the episodes for this series will seriously mess up the stories that are in scripture. They may tell the story of Noah - but not his drunkenness  They may tell the story of David - but probably gloss over his wantonness.

Tamar and Judah by Horace Vernet

Two: They will pick and choose stories that people know. Not the stories that might make us uncomfortable. Will they tell the story of Tamar - who seduced her father-in-law as a prostitute (Genesis 28)? Will they tell the story of another Tamar who was raped by her brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13)? How about Jeremiah and his underwear (Jeremiah 13)? Sampson who committed suicide (Judges 16)? How about Jesus and his reaction to the Canaanite woman whose daughter was sick (Matthew 15)?
The problem is that very few people want to know that these stories exist in scripture. They would rather think that everything is just as they learned it in third grade Sunday School from Mrs. Knutson, whose favorite medium was the felt board.

Ruth and Boaz

The reality is that we adults really do need to hear and see these stories. What are we to make of the story of Ruth? Naomi instructed her widowed daughter-in-law to go to Boaz and "lay with him at his foot," that she should show how she was willing to be his concubine, to be taken into his household. What are we to make of Abraham shelling his wife about as his sister?

Close but ...

As a culture we would do well to ruminate on the real stories of the Bible and not the sanitized or overly romanticized versions. (I actually saw a show where the story of David and Bathsheba was a love story!) For in these stories we see ourselves reflected back in all our sinfulness and desires.

There are good stories in the Bible; of people who followed the Lord and were called righteous. The story of Daniel comes to mind. But these are few.

The real, and only, hero of scripture is God.