The Superbowl and vocation

Last updated on: February 1, 2017 at 10:20 pm By Gene Veith

The Superbowl is this weekend, time for the obligatory polls about whether or not God gets involved in the outcome of sporting events. One-quarter of Americans believe that he does. About a half believe that God rewards faithful athletes with health and success.

Certainly, the easy answer is that of course God doesn’t care about a sporting event because He has much more important things to do. But if God attends to the fall of a sparrow, why wouldn’t He attend to the fall of a pigskin?

The real problem is that all this assumes a theology of glory (God’s favor = success). But what would a Lutheran approach to this question be like?

The answer to where is God in the Superbowl would have to be in vocation. Athletes on both sides should do their best with their God-given talents. Furthermore, they should love and serve their neighbors when they play. Their neighbors would be their teammates, the viewing public, their opponents. So they shouldn’t cheat, make cheap hits that needlessly harm their opponents, etc. And they should know that God is just as likely to break them with trials and tribulations, if that is what they need so as to depend on Hi.

Other than that, things just have to play out. Can anything else be said on this topic? (more…)

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More misunderstanding of vocation

Last updated on: January 10, 2017 at 8:44 pm By Gene Veith

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Frederich Buechner is a novelist and writer that I really appreciate, but his definition of vocation is causing confusion. He said that your vocation is “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” Great words with some good applications, but to say this describes vocation contributes to the notion that vocation is something special, tied to self-fulfillment, and something better than ordinary “jobs.”

So now Jo Swinney, thinking of that definition, says, writing for Christian Today (a British site not to be confused with Christianity Today), that “the idea of vocation can be deeply problematic.”

Anyone, of any tradition, who writes about vocation needs to start with the great theologian of vocation: Martin Luther. According to him, vocation is God’s calling to love and serve our neighbors in the tasks and relationships that He gives us. Also, our “jobs” are only one facet of our vocations and probably not the most important: we also have callings in the family, the church, and the society. And our vocations are not just where we find our fulfillment but also where we bear our crosses.

Read the criticisms of vocation after the jump, and then read my further thoughts on the matter. (more…)

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Martin Scorsese on vocation

Last updated on: January 2, 2017 at 7:37 pm By Gene Veith

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Renowned film director Martin Scorsese talks about vocation in a recent interview. He didn’t make it through seminary but started to realize that you don’t have to be a priest to have a vocation.

I have noticed more and more Catholics who have started understanding vocation in Lutheran terms.

Scorsese also discusses his new film Silence, based on Shusaku Endo’s classic novel about the persecution of Jesuit missionaries in Japan in the 17th century. Currently in limited release, the movie is being hailed by some of those who have seen it as one of the truly great Christian films. If you have seen it, please report.

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Vocation in Hacksaw Ridge

Last updated on: December 6, 2016 at 5:43 pm By Gene Veith

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Notice how many movies are about vocation. For example, consider Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson’s movie about Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector who won the Medal of Honor. A medic, he rescued 75 wounded servicemen in the Battle of Okinawa.

I haven’t seen the film yet, but a review in World Magazine by Sophia Lee quotes a passage that goes to the heart of the doctrine of vocation. Read it and my discussion after the jump. (more…)

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The curses on vocation

Last updated on: November 14, 2016 at 11:09 pm By Gene Veith

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Picking up from yesterday’s post, something else I learned from Jordan Cooper’s presentation on the Two Kingdoms and Creation. He pointed out that just as God established human culture by appointing the vocations of marriage, parenthood, and work in Paradise, the curses after the Fall are directed specifically to vocation: conflict within marriage; pain in parenthood; frustration with work.

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Vocation as the foundation of culture

Last updated on: November 14, 2016 at 5:18 pm By Gene Veith

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I learned some things at the Two Kingdoms conference I spoke at, sponsored by Jordan Cooper at Just and Sinner. Jordan commented that our vocations–in the family, the economy, the church, and the state–are no less than the foundations of culture.

He studied the first chapters of Genesis and concluded that the so-called “cultural mandate” (by which human beings are given the authority and the ability to rule the earth), should more properly be called the “vocational mandate.”

UPDATE: You can hear Jordan’s complete presentation here.

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