The Purpose of Vocation: Living Outside Ourselves

I found this booklet on The Circumcision and the Name of Jesus, by Rev. Marcus Zill, pastor of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church and Campus Center. This particular section is addresses vocation and I found it challenging and moving.

God our Father, Your Son grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Bless, guide, and govern the children and young people of Your Church by Your Holy Spirit that they may grow in grace and in the knowledge of Your Word. Grant that they may serve you well and usefully, developing their talents not for their own sakes but for the glory of God and the welfare of their neighbor…through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Petition “For Young Persons,” LW, p.127

The purpose of all vocations is the self-sacrificial service of others. As Wingren puts it “God does not need our works, but our neighbor does.” Strictly speaking, we don’t “serve” God; He is always the one serving us. Rather, we “serve” our neighbor. Thus Luther taught that the Christian always lives outside of himself – in Christ by faith and in the neighbor by love. Through His Divine Service to us and in us, Jesus turns our selfishness inside out.

“Holiness before God is a gift of the Gospel, already established by Christ. Love towards the neighbor is a requirement of the law (Matthew 23:29 “You shall love your neighbor…”)

It is only before God that man stands alone (i.e. as an individual). In the earthly realm man always stands in relation to, and bound to others. Before his neighbor, the Christian is a doer of what God wants done in the world; Before God, the Christian is not a doer but a receiver.

“The sun shines in exactly the same way on all: the peasant and the king, the thorn and the rose, the pig in the alley and the lovely girl. They all receive alike of the sun’s light and warmth. But the works and actions which such diverse creatures carry on in the sunlight are widely different, and must be so. Likewise, all people are alike before Christ, who, like the sun, gives himself alike to all. All receive the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper; and all hear the same gospel. As for the reality which makes us Christians there is not the slightest difference between man and woman, young and old, learned and unlearned, great saint and frail character. The differences among persons all lie in the things which they can severely do, a capacity or a work, and these activities are directed ‘downward’ to the service of others. Before God in heaven there are no differences; all are simply human beings and sinners, to whom Christ is given, just like the sun that sheds its light on all without discrimination.”[1]

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[1] Wingren, 174.