Luther's understanding of calling and vocation is startling and radical to modern ears, influenced by secularism. But it is true to Scripture itself. Consider the following account from Gustaf Wingren on Luther's understanding of divine providence and the multiple offices of every human in carrying out His providence:
God creates the babes in the mother's body--man being only an instrument in God's hand--and then he sustains them with his gifts, brought to the children through the labors of father and mother in their parental office. "Even though a father is an instrument of procreation, God himself is the source and author of life."
From this flow some scintillating truths. Firstly, human work, agency, and labour is not co-labouring with God in the sense that we do something and God does something, each contributing to the whole. Rather, God is the entire complete and whole actor; we are His servants, God working in and through us.
God himself will milk the cows through him whose vocation that is. He who engages in the lowliness of his work performs God's work, be he lad or king. To give one's office proper care is not selfishness. Devotion to office is devotion to love, because it is by God's own ordering that the work of the office is always dedicated to the well-being of one's neighbour. Care for one's office is, in its very frame of reference on earth, participation in God's own care for human beings. [Gustaf Wingren, Luther on Vocation, trans. by Carl C. Rasmussen (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1957), p.9.]
Secondly, because when a mother feeds her child, God is feeding the child, and because when the soldier defends his neighbours, God is defending the neighbours, likewise all work, all human agency must be regarded as God providing and God working. All of life, then, is holy. All lawful work, and offices, and responsibilities are holy. The distinction between sacred and secular evaporates.
No comments:
Post a Comment