Christendom and vocation

Thanks for last week’s discussion of “Christendom.” I agree that the church must not get caught up in wielding power. The church is all about the Gospel of Christ. There is another piece of the puzzle, though: Vocation.

“God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does.” Those who receive Christ’s forgiveness through the Word and Sacraments are then sent out into the world to love and serve their neighbors. They are called to do so in the family (the vocations of marriage, parenthood, and childhood), the workplace (as master and servant, as a worker using whatever gifts and opportunities God has given), and the state (as ruler and citizen, as member of the particular community, culture, and society).

The different vocations are intrinsically culture-making. Not culture ruling, but culture-making. Historically, Christians have had an impact in their cultures, and not just Western cultures as we are still seeing today in Africa and elsewhere. Christians in their diverse callings always open schools, establish hospitals, reject tribal revenge codes in favor of the rule of law, make contributions in the arts, promote productive economic activity, etc., etc.

So if we could fully recover the doctrine of vocation, keeping the Gospel central, what would that look like today? How could that bear fruit, if not in a new Christendom, in a positive Christian presence in the culture?