Vocation and Self-Defense

Last updated on: March 4, 2018 at 9:56 pm By Gene Veith

In the current debates over gun ownership and self-defense, we would do well to consider how the doctrine of vocation applies.

On the most basic level, according to Romans 13, we are not to impose justice by taking personal “revenge.” Rather, God protects us and punishes evildoers through the agency of authorities whom He has called to “bear the sword.” In today’s terms, that would include police officers, our military, and other lawful officers.

A well-ordered society is not going to be what later political theorists would call “a state of nature,” in which everyone has to battle everyone else in order to survive. God’s gifts of vocations makes for an interdependent society. Then again, not all societies are well-ordered. Lawless societies, as in the “wild west,” function differently. And even in a well-ordered society, those who “bear the sword” cannot be everywhere. But vocation still applies. Keep in mind that we have multiple vocations, not just in our particular line of work, but in our families, the church, and society.

In considering issues of self-defense and bearing arms in the context of church shootings, Matthew Cochrane, a confessional Lutheran, sorts out the issues by applying the doctrine of vocation in a multi-faceted way. He also applies the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, explains the Biblical distinction between “slaying” and “murder,” and accounts for gray areas.

The Federalist has published the article, which gives its thesis in the title and subtitle: Why Christians Should Prepare To Defend Themselves From Mass Shooters In Church: Every Christian sitting in a pew on Sunday morning is also a father, son, neighbor, or citizen, and we all have the responsibilities and authorities that go with those vocations.

You need to read the entire article. Here is a brief sample:

We generally rely on police to keep the peace in order to avoid the chaos that comes with vigilantism. However, in those crucial minutes (or even hours) before police can effectively respond to violent situations, it is quite sensible to empower ordinary citizens to keep the peace in the meantime.

By way of analogy, we give our fire departments the responsibilities of fighting fires. Nevertheless, if we wake up in the middle of the night to find our house on fire, we don’t just call 911 so the government can handle it. We also rouse our family from their beds and make sure they get outside, and when appropriate, we use our own fire extinguishers and buckets to put out the fire. In the same way, a citizen whose friends and family are under attack does what he can to save them, with or without the police.

Second, the state is not the only authority ordained by God; he also created fathers to be the heads of their households. Just as the state is given the sword to defend the lives of those in its care, a father is empowered to defend the lives under his care. It is not merely a matter of human custom, but of natural law that fathers are responsible for the well-being of their families, particularly when someone is seeking to end the lives of their wives and children. Most Christian congregations are blessed to include many wonderful fathers whose rights and responsibilities in this regard do not end when they bring their families to God’s house.

[Read the rest of the article. . . ]

I suppose that since the purpose of every vocation is to love and serve your neighbor, a vocational approach would emphasize not just “self-defense” but “neighbor-defense.”

What do you think of Cochrane’s applications? He is thinking of church shootings, not the recent school shootings, but how would his thesis apply to that and other kinds of threats?

Photo, Ross Martin & Robert Conrad, “The Wild, Wild West,” via Pixabay, CC0, Creative Commons

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Luther on Epiphany and Vocation

Last updated on: January 4, 2018 at 5:50 pm By Gene Veith

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Today is the 12th and last day of Christmas. (Happy drummers drumming day!) Tomorrow is Epiphany, marking the coming of the Wise Men but also beginning the season of Epiphany, which commemorates the various “epiphanies” or revelations of Christ’s identity. These took place throughout His life on earth (His baptism, His first miracle, etc.), with the season ending with the observance of His Transfiguration. Then comes the very different season of Lent. A good way to get your Epiphany off to a good start is to read Luther’s classic Epiphany Sermon.

He preached many on this theme, but this one was preserved as one of his “church postils.” These were sermons covering the entire church year that were given to pastors as models or, in the case of the many unlearned clergy, as ready-to-read sermons to instruct their flocks. The postils thus became extremely important in teaching the principles of Reformation theology to the common people. They are of special interest to me because they include some of Luther’s most illuminating reflections on the doctrine of vocation.

Concordia Publishing House is publishing the Church Postils in five volumes as brand new editions to the Collected Works. There will be five volumes, and four have already been released. (Start here.) They are also available in other forms, including 99 cent Kindle editions. (These “church postils” were preached in church. There are also “house postils” based on Luther’s preaching in his house to family and friends. Those were published based on transcriptions of notes from people who heard them. )

Here an online version, which I’ll be quoting from: SERMONS OF MARTIN LUTHER – EPIPHANY.

In this sermon, Luther plunges into the Wise Men account in Matthew 2:1-12, which he explores in a depth and detail that few of us are used to anymore. It’s hard to imagine this discourse fitting into our 20-minute sermon mold, and it’s even harder to imagine an uneducated pastor reading out the whole thing to his congregation.

Also, the sermon is filled with digressions that are interesting in themselves, rabbit-trails though they be: How King Herod is like the Pope, leading to a discourse about the papacy. The difference between magic and natural forces. True vs. False Worship, in light of the Ten Commandments, and more.

Through it all is the charm, wit, and edge that makes Luther so enjoyable to read.

I’ll give you some samples in hopes that they will make you want to read the whole thing.

First is his reading of a Biblical prophecy that indicates the timing of Christ’s birth, something I had never heard before!

2. The Evangelist first refers to Herod the king, in order to recall the prophecy of Jacob the patriarch, who said: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.” Genesis 4:9-10.

From this prophecy is evident that Christ must come, when the kingdom or government of the Jews is taken from them, so that no other king or ruler from the house of Judah might sit on the throne. This was fulfilled now when Herod, who was not of the house of Judah, nor of Jewish descent but of Edom, hence a foreigner, was made king over the Jews by the Romans to the great dissatisfaction of the Jewish people. Hence for thirty years he warred with them before he finally silenced and subdued them.

3. Now when this foreigner had ruled over the Jews for thirty years, had taken possession of the government, and the Jews had acquiesced therein having no hopes of getting rid of him and thus the prophecy of Jacob was fulfilled, then the time was at hand, then Christ came and was born under this first stranger and appeared according to the prophecy; as though he would say: The scepter has now departed from Judah, a stranger is ruling over my people; it is now time that I should appear and become king; the government now belongs to me.

Luther says that the Wise Men were not kings, as popularly thought, since Herod did not treat them as peers or give them the courtesy due to such a rank, but rather orders them around like commoners, which they must have been. Luther says that the star must have been an apparition that hovered above the ground, rather than a celestial body in the sky; otherwise, they couldn’t follow it. And then, in the midst of such factual speculation, Luther gives one of his startling insights into Scripture. He points out that the Magi could not find the Christ-child with the star alone, but rather needed the Word of God, as given them by Herod’s scribes:

92. It was diligently prevented that the wise men should find Christ through themselves, or men. On the contrary, they found him alone through the Scriptures of the prophet and by the aid of the stars of heaven that there might be put to naught all natural ability, all human reason, all light outside of the spirit and of grace, which now boasts and pretends to teach the truth and lead people aright, as was said above is done in the universities. Here it is concluded that Christ, the knowledge of salvation, is not taught or acquired by human teaching or assistance, but the Scriptures and divine light must reveal him. as he says, Matthew 16:17: “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” With this Christ distinctly casts aside flesh and blood with its revelation, i.e., man and all human wisdom, which, being nothing but darkness, cannot reveal Christ.

As for vocation, Luther drifts into a discussion of when we should expect a miracle (without “tempting God”) and when we should trust God to work through His creatures, including one’s own vocation and that of others.

105. Whatever can be accomplished by ordinary means should be done. We should not presume upon faith and say in idleness: I trust in God everything will grow that is to grow. His creatures have no purpose if we make use of them. In Genesis 1 he created and ordained all creatures with their works, and indicated the use man shall make of them. This will he never recall and ordain something special for you. . . .

107. If you have not God’s Word you should continue to make use of your power, of your goods, of your friends, and of all that God has given you, and thus abide in the dispensation, established by God, Genesis 1. For he did not give it to you in vain, he will not, for your sake, turn water into wine or stone into bread, but you should use according to his order whatever he has created until he forces you by word or work to use it differently.

108. But when the hour comes that the creature cannot help you any more and all your strength fails, behold then God’s Word begins. For then he has commanded us to acknowledge him as God, i.e. expect everything that is good from him. This word, though in force all the time, will yet be only understood and made use of in need, when nothing else avails. . . .

Again we read in the legends of the fathers that two brothers journeyed and one of them died of hunger for God’s sake; that is, he went to hell; for they came amongst wicked people, who offered them something to eat, and the one said, he would not take bread from these people, but expect his food from heaven. The other took and ate and lived. That fool did nothing else but set aside God’s order and tempted him. However sinful people may be they are still God’s creatures as well as thorns and thistles. You make use of a thorn to open a boil or for some other purpose; will you look contemptuously upon it, because it is a prickly brush?

HT: Jackie

Painting, “Adoration of the Magi,” by Andrea Mantegna [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Christmas, Scrooge, and Vocation

Last updated on: December 16, 2017 at 11:52 am By Gene Veith

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On this 174th anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol, I am re-running this post–at a reader’s request–from a couple of years ago:

Christmas and Vocation:

One thing you learn from the doctrine of vocation is that the Christian life includes what we might describe as the secular. The realm of “Christian” does not consist just of overtly devout exercises. Rather, it also includes our lives in the family, the workplace, and the community. This point also applies to how we celebrate Christmas. We are surely right to complain when Jesus is left out of the celebration of His birthday, but those who complain about the secular observances–wanting it to be just a religious holiday celebrated in church, being irked that even non-Christians are celebrating it, and complaining about all of the presents–may be missing something about the scope of Christ’s reign and the nature of vocation.

Consider, for example, this piece by Patrick Callahan, Charles Dickens’ War on Christmas. This is a much better and more nuanced treatment than most, but it advances the by-now-familiar thesis that Dickens’ The Christmas Carol is responsible for “the transformation of Christmas from a religious feast to a secular holiday.”

First of all, Dickens did not invent the Christmas customs and sentiments that he records. The philanthropists raising money for the poor, the office parties, the family feasts, the spirit of benevolence and merry-making, the talk of holly and plum pudding–none of that would make any sense in the story if the readers had never heard of them before. Dickens is writing about Christmas observances; he is not making them up. In fact, his treatment of the Ghost of Christmas Past suggests that the customs were much more robust in the old days.

Mr. Callahan does concede that Dickens refers to Jesus and to church quite a few times, in passages scattered throughout the novella. Consider this quotation from Scrooge’s nephew:

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

This passage refers to the past associations of Christmas time, but, more importantly, note Mr. Callahan’s italicized reference to Christ. It indicates what, I would argue, all of Dickens’ allusions to Christ indicate, that nothing belonging to Christmas, as Dickens presents it, can be seen “apart from the veneration due its sacred name and origin.” That is, that the secular observances are framed and given significance by Christ’s birth.

Dickens’ readers were closer to the time when the doctrine of vocation, which likewise relates the secular to the sacred, was a commonplace of Christian teaching. Those visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past were even closer. But around Dickens’ time, things had indeed started to change.

The industrial revolution had the effect of making work less personal, as opposed to the Reformation teaching of personal calling; and the new economic theories focused on self interest, as opposed to the vocational focus on love and service to the neighbor.Ebenezer Scrooge, like his dead partner Marley, has amassed great wealth, but he does nothing with it other than to amass it. He exploits his employees. He has chosen the pursuit of wealth over marriage and parenthood. He ignores his extended family. He acknowledges no civil obligations. As a result, he is completely isolated from any other human beings.

The Christmas Carol is about vocation. Scrooge has to learn to love and serve his neighbors, which is the purpose of all vocations. As an employer, he has to learn to see employees like Bob Cratchitt as human beings with families and with struggles, to love them and then to serve them, even as they serve him in their work. Scrooge has to learn to love and serve his family, including his earnest nephew and his bride. He has to learn to love and serve his neighbors in the London alleys who are poor and destitute. He has to learn to love and serve the urchins in the street and the passersby in the square.

The catalyst for this archetype of self-seeking capitalism discovering the true purpose of his vocations in the family, the workplace, and the community is the spirit(s) of Christmas.

Today, too, Christmas has to do with our vocations. Consider our “secular” sentiments and customs:

“Christmas is a time for family.”  Our vocations in the family.

“Christmas is for kids.”  Family vocation + homage to the Christchild.

Office parties.  Our economic vocations.

Shopping.  Our economic activities as part of the exchange of vocation. Whereas usually, our economic activities pursue our rational self-interests, our Christmas shopping makes us think about the interests of the neighbor we are shopping for.

Gifts.  Giving and receiving gifts is the image both of the grace of God in Christ and the mutual giving and receiving that takes place in every vocation.

Is Christmas too materialistic? Well, it’s not as materialistic as God becoming flesh, redeeming our sinful flesh, and sending us back into the material world to live out our faith in love and service to our physical neighbors.

HT: Mary Moerbe

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From “Sologamy” to Marriage as Vocation

Last updated on: October 16, 2017 at 12:22 pm By Gene Veith

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Jim Priest, a family columnist for the Daily Oklahoman, discussed “sologamy,” the growing practice of marrying oneself. A woman or a man (usually a woman) who has decided to remain single dresses up in wedding garb, invites guests, and has a ceremony, complete with a ring, cake, and reception.

Priest quotes a young woman in a wedding dress who has just pledged her love for herself:

“I told my relatives and friends that if I had not found my soul mate I would marry myself by my 40th birthday. If tomorrow I find a man to build a future with, I will be happy, but my happiness will not depend on him.”

There is even a sologamy website: I Married Me, which offers sample ceremonies, vows, and a wedding ring. The homepage says,

You Are Reason To Celebrate

A roadmap to positivity, our I Married Me kit has all you need to create your own ceremony, including a self-wedding ring, vows and daily affirmation cards.

A self-wedding is a symbolic ceremony–about reconnecting and staying connected with you. Wear the ring to remind you every day to LOVE YOURSELF.

The site says that you can marry yourself even if you are already married, as a way to affirm your love for yourself. (But wouldn’t that be polygamy, not sologamy?)

Priest goes on to reflect that marriage is NOT about finding someone to make you happy. Rather, it is forming a union that is bigger than yourself.

He quotes the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was himself single, writing to his niece upon her engagement, while he was imprisoned and waiting execution for being part of a conspiracy to kill Hitler. Bonhoeffer is simply describing marriage as a vocation.

From Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison:

Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which He wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love, you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal — it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man.

It is possible to rule by force by simply seizing power. But without a “crown”–that is, being lawfully entitled to rule–the ruler will lack genuine authority. Similarly, a person can enter into a wide range of conditions in order to “find happiness,” including sologamy, but to get married is to enter “a status, an office”; that is, a vocation.

And this vocation is not only inwardly focused, towards the couple or the two selves that make up the couple, it is “a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind.” Since it involves the perpetuation of “the human race till the end of time,” creating a family that becomes the institution for having and caring for children, it involves the married couple with the outside world, since they become responsible for their children’s well-being now and in their future.

“Marriage is more than something personal”–it is a vocation, which God inhabits and through which He Himself works.

Photo by geralt, “Self Love,” via Pixabay, CC0, Creative Commons

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Vocation quotes from Luther for Labor Day

Last updated on: September 4, 2017 at 12:15 pm By Gene Veith

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Labor Day is a good day for Christians to celebrate Vocation. That is, the teaching that our work, our family relationships, our church, our citizenship are all “callings” from God, the realms in which we live out our Christian faith as we love and serve our neighbors. In addition to the cook-outs and the finales to our summer vacations, I invite you to meditate on the following quotations from Martin Luther, the great theologian of vocation. (I discuss these passages in my latest book on the subject, commissioned by the Acton Institute: Working for Our Neighbor: A Lutheran Primer on Vocation, Economics, and Ordinary Life.)

Martin Luther on Vocation

If you are a manual laborer, you find that the Bible has been put into your workshop, into your hand, into your heart. It teaches and preaches how you should treat your neighbor. Just look at your tools—at your needle or thimble, your beer barrel, your goods, your scales or yardstick or measure—and you will read this statement inscribed on them. Everywhere you look, it stares at you. Nothing that you handle every day is so tiny that it does not continually tell you this, if you will only listen. . . .All this is continually crying out to you: “Friend, use me in your relations with your neighbor just as you would want your neighbor to use his property in his relations with you.”

Martin Luther, “Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount” (Luther’s Works 21:237)

There is no true, basic difference between laymen and priests, princes and bishops, between religious and secular, except for the sake of office and work, but not for the sake of status. They are all of the spiritual estate, all are truly priests, bishops, and popes. But they do not all have the same work to do. …A cobbler, a smith, a peasant—each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops. Further, everyone must benefit and serve every other by means of his own work or office so that in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community, just as all the members of the body serve one another.

Martin Luther, To the Christian Nobility, LW 44:127-130.

Now observe that clever harlot, our natural reason…takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, ‘Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labor at my trade, take care of this and that, do this and that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make a prisoner of myself? O you poor, wretched fellow, have you take a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful, carefree life; I will become a priest or nun and compel my children to do likewise.

What then does the Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says ‘O God, because I am certain that thou hast created me a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock this little babe or wash its diapers, or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? O how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labor, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is pleasing in thy sight.”

Martin Luther, “The Estate of Marriage,” LW 45: 39-40.

[Human nature] knows nothing but its own good, or what is good and honorable and useful for itself, but not what is good for God and other people. Therefore it knows and wills more what is particular, yes, only what is an individual good. And this is in agreement with Scripture, which describes man as so turned in on himself that he uses not only physical but even spiritual goods for his own purposes and in all things seeks only himself.

This curvedness is now natural for us, a natural wickedness and a natural sinfulness. Thus man has no help from his natural powers, but he needs the aid of some power outside of himself. This is love.

Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans, in LW, 25: 345.

When you pray this petition [“give us this day our daily bread”] turn your eyes to everything that can prevent our bread from coming and the crops from prospering. Therefore extend your thoughts to all the fields and do not see only the baker’s oven. You pray, therefore, against the devil and the world, who can hinder the grain by tempest and war. We pray also for temporal peace against war, because in times of war we cannot have bread. Likewise, you pray for government, for sustenance and peace, without which you cannot eat: Grant, Lord, that the grain may prosper, that the princes may keep the peace, that war may not break out, that we may give thanks to thee in peace. Therefore it would be proper to stamp the emperor’s or the princes’ coat-of-arms upon bread as well as upon money or coins.

Martin Luther, Sermon on the Lord’s Prayer (1528). LW 51:176-177.

[The ruler] should picture Christ to himself, and say, “Behold, Christ, the supreme ruler, came to serve me; he did not seek to gain power, estate, and honor from me, but considered only my need, and directed all things to the end that I should gain power, estate, and honor from him and through him. I will do likewise, seeking from my subjects not my own advantage but theirs. I will use my office to serve and protect them, listen to their problems and defend them, and govern to the sole end that they, not I, may benefit from my rule.” In such manner should a prince in his heart empty himself of his power and authority, and take unto himself the needs of his subjects, dealing with them as though they were his own needs. For this is what Christ did to us [Phil. 2:7]; and these are the proper works of Christian love.

Martin Luther, Temporal Authority, LW 45:120.

Although the Christian is thus free from all works, he ought in this liberty to empty himself, take upon himself the form of a servant, be made in the likeness of men, be found in human form, and to serve, help, and in every way deal with his neighbor as he sees that God through Christ has dealt and still deals with him. This he should do freely, having regard for nothing but divine approval. He ought to think: . . . . “I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me.”[i]. . .Just as our neighbor is in need and lacks that in which we abound, so we were in need before God and lacked his mercy. Hence, as our heavenly Father has in Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbor through our body and its works, and each one should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same in all, that is, that we may be truly Christians. . . .We conclude, therefore, that a Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. .He lives in Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor. Yet he always remains in God and in his love.”[i]

Martin Luther, Freedom of the Christian, LW 31: 366-67, 371.

“What else is all our work to God— whether in the fields, in the garden, in the city, in the house, in war, or in government—but just such a child’s performance, by which He wants to give His gifts in the fields, at home, and everywhere else? These are the masks of God, behind which He wants to remain concealed and do all things.”

Martin Luther, LW 14:114-115

Illustration by Timasu, on Pixabay, CC0, Creative Commons

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A Lutheran Catholic and vocation

Last updated on: April 25, 2017 at 3:21 am By Gene Veith

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Our hosts here in Finland arranged a city tour of Helsinki with Emil Anton. As he works on his doctorate in theology, he works for a tour company, among other things, and has put together the “Holy Helsinki” tour of religious sites. But Emil is also quite a Christian thinker himself. He is a noteworthy author, speaker, and blogger (see this, for which the translator in your browser can give you an extremely rough translation, and this in English).

Emil is a Catholic who loves Luther and Lutheranism. He says he is the kind of Christian Luther wanted: an evangelical Catholic, a member of the historic church who, thanks to Luther, understands the Gospel. Emil is interested in the whole breadth of Christianity. He reads evangelical authors, such as Ravi Zacharias, and is writing his dissertation on Pope Benedict. Emil–whose father is Iraqi (an Assyrian Catholic) and whose mother is Finnish and who is married to a Polish woman–is a fascinating model of contemporary Christianity.

Anyway, as he was telling us about the sights of Helsinki, we were also carrying on other conversations. I commented on how I was struck by the way contemporary Catholic writers were discussing vocation. Whereas the term “vocation” in a Catholic context used to only refer to the calling to religious orders, I have been seeing it used lately more as Luther used it. Vatican II documents and papal encyclicals now talk about the “vocation” of laypeople, the “vocation” of marriage, the “vocation” of workers. More than that, these documents also talk about the concept in ways that reflect the specific content of the Lutheran doctrine of vocation: God works through human vocations. The purpose of vocation is to love and serve our neighbors.

Emil said, “Right! Which brings us to something I want to show you.” Huh?, I thought. What can he show me on a city tour in Finland that would bear on the new Catholic understanding of vocation? (more…)

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