VOCATION: The Call from God Church of St Martin in the Fields January 19, 2014

Transcription

1 Lord, take my lips and speak through them; take my mind and think through it; take my heart and set it on fire. W.H.H. Aiken *********************************************************** At my desk, I keep a copy of my favorite Eucharist dismissal. It is the one that ends with And now Father, send us out to do the work that you have given us to do To love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit be the honor and glory, now and forever. Amen Send us out to do the work that you have given us to do. This phase is a catalyst and a comfort to me. As I turn from Sunday to Monday, in good times I race into the world to do my work, in all its varieties and with all its fulfillments, and in bad times I am pulled forwarded to take on the challenges and burdens that are mine. Send us out to do the work that you have given us to do; to love and serve you as faithful witnesses. Work and vocation what is the difference? Work is what we do; vocation is how we do that work. The word vocation is from Latin, meaning a call or summons. In the Christian context, we use it to mean a call from God. God calls to me? I am overwhelmed by this gift - - that God, in all of the scope of creation over time, calls to me. What I feel in this call is an invitation to love - - to be loved, to love in return, to be in the midst of love. 1

2 The way we do our work, how we live out our vocation, is our response to this loving invitation from God. Yes, vocation, like much of our worship, is a call and a response, over and over, day in and day out, year after year. Today we are going to explore the call and response of vocation. I will admit that when I was asked to do this Forum, I was intrigued and terrified at the same time. I was intrigued because I think and pray a lot about how my vocation and life belong to God. I was terrified because I wondered what I would have to say about the topic. To stand in front of this vibrant Christian community, filled with saintly exemplars and talk about vocation well that seemed to be foolish. But I am willing to be a loving fool for God. I mentioned that I think and pray a lot about my vocation. Well that is just what I did for this Forum, and in that order. My husband will confirm that when I am stressed about an issue, I think it through by reading a lot of books. Amazon boxes arrive, the stacks of books pile up, and I pour through them. Then when my brain is full, I realize that my soul is hungry, and I start to pray. Today, rather than fill our brains, I want to feed our souls. So while I will provide a bibliography at the end of this session, I believe it will be more nurturing for our souls if we pray together about vocation. Before we move to prayer, a definition all of what we do is vocation, as all of what we do is a response to God s call. So as we speak of vocation today, we are talking about work in our professional lives, but as importantly the work we do as volunteers, the work of our avocations or recreation, and our work with our families and friends. All of this work is our response to God s call; all of this is our vocation. 2

3 Now to prayer. I am a delighted and devout Episcopalian. I am at my heart, however, a Trinitarian as much as I am a Christian. I am blessed by all of God s demonstrations of love God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Sustainer. The Trinity is the anchor of my prayer life, particularly how I respond to God s call. So as I released my mind, my heart, and my soul to meditations on vocation, I kept encountering the Trinity. I realized that this triad of gifts creation, redemption, and sustainment could be a path to engage on vocation. Some of the appeal about the Trinity and vocation is that it helps us deal with the secular view that if we have the right work we will be happy and fulfilled. The assumption is that if we do the right professional work, do the right volunteer work, have a right approach to our relationships, all will be right in our lives. The assumption is that if the fit between our talents or desires and Work is right that our hunger and yearning will stop. However, the work of creation, redemption, and sustainment is more complicated than that. While God s call is directed to us, it is not necessarily to further our immediate joy. The call is about welcoming us into all of God s work. 3

4 The call of vocation is in all the aspects of the work of the Trinity, Vocation is about creation. Our role to be creative can be taxing as it pushes us to the limits of our abilities. Vocation is about redemption. Our role in redemption may involve suffering, real intense suffering, which can be a gift. Vocation is sustaining. Our role in sustaining God s world may be about generosity, about paying it forward, which can be emptying. So I am inviting each of you, and all of us as a community, to pray about the Trinity and vocation. We will go through three cycles of reflection for each person of the Trinity, the personhoods of God which lives through each of us. First, I will share something from the Bible, which is the best book to read on vocation, then I will share a story about vocation, and then I will invite you to reflect and share. Each of the three cycles Creation, Redemption, and Sustainment may evoke different responses for you. One may seem irrelevant, one vivid, one neutral. This variety is part of why I love the Trinity. In the harmony that is the Trinity, there is always a voice that I hear calling out to me. In this Forum, I wanted to make sure that God s call was heard by each of you. My intention is that each of us feels supported by this spiritual exercise, not exposed. So share only as you are comfortable, but take care through prayer to attend to what may be disquieting. 4

5 God the Creator How does God call out to us through Creation? This call and response may be the most straightforward, because we all enjoy being creative. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to his followers: You are the light of the world. A city set on the hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see you good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16) Each of us has some unique skills, God- given talent some like to say. But to be really adept at something, we have to be willing to spend time. While there is genius, gifted people tend to spend a lot of time doing what they are great at. Time and excellence go together. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, hypothesizes that you have to spend 10,000 hours at something to really excel. By the way, if Jesus worked 12 hour days during his three years of active ministry and kept the Sabbath, he would have worked over 11,000 hours. We have always told our two sons that they should go work that they love, but also select a line of work where they don t resent the effort involved. Great writers do a lot of editing, excellent parents give the time, superior athletes show up early and stay late for practice. 5

6 My husband has a friend, Robert, who is a professional musician. He manages to weave together a financially and psychologically viable life from performing, arranging, and conducting. Robert is a creative person, but his most creative act is friendship. Robert shows up for people and he does it a lot. Robert spends hours on friendship by visiting, calling, ing, sending notes, making introductions. He creates friendship all over the world, through all walks of life. Robert gives people joy and courage because he values them. Now to reflect. How is God the Creator calling out to you? I would like each of you to answer two questions: What is God s call to me to create? (Noun) Think of a noun, how you would name this call. It can be a career, it can be to love your children, and it can be as a volunteer How do I respond to this call? (Verbs) Think of the verbs, the actions that you take and make in response to this call. So you are a company president, what about the way that you do this work makes it a vocation do you lead through values. So you are the mother of a gifted child do you protect their innocence while advancing their capacities? Take about 3 minutes, then turn to the person next to you and share one thought about how you respond to the call. Then I will ask a few people to share a some thoughts. 6

7 God the Redeemer Hmmm, this is the hard one for vocation. While we all suffer, to be called to suffer is challenging for us to accept. Paul writes in the letter to the Romans: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may be discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 Here is a story about being tested. Some years ago, my mother spent months at Fox Chase Cancer Center. She was very ill, very angry, and not a cooperative patient. My mother raised six children on her own. She is devoted to us and we to her. During her illness, each of us had a role in demonstrating our devotion. As the oldest daughter, I can be quite bossy. In the case of my mother s illness, my bossiness was an important skill. I had the role of making her comply with the doctors, the treatments, the therapies, the medications. When I came into the room my mother would roll her eyes, turn her back, and pronounce that I was a very mean person. I prayed intently about being the mean person, the bossy person, who was trying to act with love. It was hard, sad work being bossy and rejected but it was what I called to do. Where was the gift in this work? I had the opportunity to demonstrate to my mother the unconditional, unceasing love that she had always given to me. It is now a decade later, my mother is well. Luckily she has few 7

8 memories of those long hard months at Fox Chase, and she has been an absolute peach to me ever since. Now to reflect. How is God the Redeemer calling out to you? I would like each of you to answer two questions: What is God s call to me through suffering? (Noun) Think of a noun, how you would name this call. That you have a challenging teenager, an illness you are dealing with (yours or someone else s), a personal difficulty How do I respond to this call? (Verbs) Think of the verbs, the actions that you take and make in response to this call. Take about 3 minutes, then turn to the person next to you and share one thought about how you respond to the call. Then I will ask a few people to share some thoughts. 8

9 God the Sustainer This is a reading from 1 Corinthians. It is a bit complex, so listen closely. Paul writes: Anybody who has the gift of tongues must pray for the power of interpreting them. For I use this gift in my prayers, my spirit may be praying but my mind is left barren. What is the answer to that? Surely I should pray not only with the spirit but with the mind as well? And sing praises not only with the spirit and the mind as well? Any uninitiated person will never be able to say AMEN to your thanksgiving, if you only bless God with the spirit, for he will have no idea what you are saying. However well you make your thanksgiving, the other gets no benefit from it. I thank God I that I have a greater gift of tongues than all of you, but when I am in the presence of the community I would rather say five words that mean something than ten thousand words in a tongue. 1 Corinthians 14:13-19 Ensuring God s sustaining presence through our vocations can be challenging, as we are striving to pay it forward. I do a lot of work with leaders of not- for- profits and they are all dealing with a phenomenon called social entrepreneurialism. It is getting harder to secure gifts, donations, or endowments that are unrestricted. More and more donors want to ensure that their gifts have measurable, structural impact. The expectation is that not- for- profits develop means to sustain their work, and that their work create sustainable change. 9

10 Think of the difference between a feeding program and a farming program. In the perspective of social entrepreneurialism, feeding people may create a dependency that could undermine their independence to farm. I can hear your minds go off into the debate about social entrepreneurialism, so come back to this dialogue with yourself about vocation. The question I want to trigger is how each of us can be tempted to share our talents, our work, in a way that creates dependency. We all want to be needed and maybe even indispensable. Here is a question to wrestle with - - how do we give away our talents, become a sustaining and enabling presence, so that it is God s presence, and not ours, flourishes in and through others? Now to reflect. How is God the Sustainer calling out to you? I would like each of you to answer two questions: What is God s call to me through being a sustaining presence? (Noun) Think of a noun, how you would name this call. Are you a friend, a Stephen Minister, a good boss? How do I respond to this call? (Verbs) Think of the verbs, the actions that you take and make in response to this call. Take about 3 minutes, then turn to the person next to you and share one thought about how you respond to the call. Then I will ask a few people to share some thoughts. 10

11 Close A few thoughts to close with responding to God s call is a life- long act of faith. All of our work not matter how grand or humble is a vocational response. From your reflections today, you have some insights into how the God as the Trinity, lovingly calls out to you and how you call back. I hope today s insights and prayers help each of us to respond with greater commitment to God s call to create, redeem, and sustain. There are a variety of books available on vocation and work. I have a bibliography here at the front. Interestingly, I found the more evangelical books to be the most helpful they were anchored in belief not theory, in struggles not solutions, and in advancing one s relationship with God as a way to engage with vocations. My final counsel is to read the Bible, the call is there. And to pray, as that will support your dialogue with the Trinity on your vocation. Now, if we could close with the full dismissal quoted at the beginning; it s on the back of your worksheet. Let us pray. 11

12 Let us pray Almighty and everliving God, We thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the Body of your Son, and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And now, Father, send us out to do the work that you have given us to do, To love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ Our Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen. 12

13 God the Creator What is God s call to me to create? (Nouns) Think of the nouns, the names that you have for your call. How do I respond to this call? (Verbs) Think of the verbs, the actions that you take in response to this call. God the Redeemer What is God s call to me to redeem through suffering? (Nouns) Think of the nouns, the names that you have for your call. How do I respond to this call? (Verbs) Think of the verbs, the actions that you take in response to this call. God the Sustainer What is God s call to me to be a sustaining presence? (Nouns) Think of the nouns, the names that you have for your call. How do I respond to this call? (Verbs) Think of the verbs, the actions that you take in response to this call. 13

14 Bibliography Primary Sources The Jerusalem Bible The Book of Common Prayer The Oxford Book of Prayer edited by George Appleton The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle (this small book fits in a briefcase or satchel) Secondary Sources Business for the Glory of God: The Bible s Teachings on the Moral Goodness of Business by Wayne Gruedem Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation edited by William C. Placher Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way by Steven Pressfield God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life by Gene Edward Veith Jr. Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet by Howard Gardner How Then Should We Work: Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work by Hugh Whelchel 14

15 Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J. Palmer Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus (picture book for children and adults) Lying Awake by Mark Salzman (wonderful novel) Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring by Parker J. Palmer The God of the Mundane: Reflections on Ordinary Life for Ordinary People by Matthew Redmond What You Do Makes a Difference: Enjoy the World Gently (a box of daily sayings, from the web site See Jane Work. ) Work: How to Find Joy and Meaning in Each Hour of the Day by Thich Nhat Hanh (an excellent book for mindfulness, helpful in dealing with stress) Work in the Spirit: Towards a Theology of Work by Miroslav Volf Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work by Tom Nelson (excellence biblical references) Work Matters: Lessons from Scripture by R. Paul Stevens 15