A reflection on vocation
21/12/14 05:20
A brief Latin lesson to begin your day: “vocatio" means “summons.” It is a direct order to do a specific task. In English, the word is vocation, and we generally do not include such a forceful definition. We often talk of vocation as a feeling. Vocation carries with it a sense that one is particularly well suited for a particular career or occupation. Often we use the word simply to identify the main occupation or employment of a person.
The term, however, still carries with it that deeper sense of a direct order, especially when applied to certain callings. In the ministry, we often use the term “call” when we speak of vocation. There are a dozen or more places where the Bible speaks of the concept. Romans 12 is often cited: “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”
In our denomination, as is the case of many others, part of the process of ordination is being able to be articulate about one’s call. After the educational requirements for ministry are achieved, one has to present a formal paper that describes one’s experience of being called to the ministry. That paper is examined together with the candidate for ministry. In our tradition that examination takes place in the context of an ecclesiastical council. The wider fellowship of the church, in most cases an Association of churches, is convened for the purpose of examining the candidate in terms of fitness for ministry. The candidate presents her or his paper, questions are asked and answered and a formal vote is taken.
It has been decades, but I remember the process very well. My paper was titled, “A chosen chooser.” I spoke of vocation both in terms of being chosen - having received a compelling sense of direction as the result of prayer and consultation with spiritual advisors - and in terms of making choices - responding to the call with specific choices that put me on the path towards pastoral ministry.
In my mid twenties, I think I had a strong sense of my own free will and my capacity to direct my life in different directions. I might have gone into my father’s business. I had that option. I might have chosen law school. I might have chosen to be an academic. I might have chosen to become a counselor.
Looking back from nearly four decades later, I am not sure that any of those other options would have been a wise choice and at least some of them would have been choices that led to failure. Perhaps there was more of a “vocatio” - a direct order from God than I realized at the time.
The Gospel of Luke reports that when Mary learns that she is to be the mother of Jesus, the news is given as a direct statement: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” Mary, who we have already met as one who “ponders” a lot, is given no choice. There is no negotiation here, no sense that it might be possible for Mary to refuse. Mary does ask, “How can this be?” The response is that “nothing will be impossible for God.” That is the conversation. There is no “perhaps I’ll consider this or that.”
Still, a few verses later, when Mary goes to greet her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country, Elizabeth makes her famous declaration, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” There is almost a sense in Elizabeth’s words that it might have been possible for Mary to have refused to believe. There might even be a hint that others had refused before Mary.
I suppose it is a rather subtle argument about whether one is in control of the choices one makes or whether one is responding to having been chosen. I am sure that both dynamics are a part of the decisions that get made.
Sometimes it seems obvious what direction one should take in one’s life. Our daughter was drawn to and skilled with children from a very early age. There is no surprise in the fact that she is a preschool teacher. It seems as if it is exactly what she was called to be from a very early age. Our son, on the other hand, earned a degree in English and showed considerable skill as a writer. In college he thought that he might become a writer for films. The ned to earn a living found him in library school where he was especially interested in medical libraries and he works as a hospital administrator these days, directing multiple hospital libraries. He is no less suited for the work he does than is his sister, but the particular job that he does did not seem as clear when he was a child.
Most of today’s young adults will face multiple job shifts during their working years and many will go through a total change of career. The world of work is changing so quickly that there are jobs that will be critical a couple of decades from now that we cannot even imagine today. There are jobs that exist today that won’t exist in the future. Successful people will be those who are adaptable and who can change course and head in a new direction.
That, of course, is an other Biblical mandate. “Repent” means simply that. Stop going the direction you are headed and go in a new direction.
Both the call to a vocation and the call to repent come as direct orders in the Biblical narrative. Perhaps, as was Mary’s case, the key to vocational success lies in being willing to believe that one has been called.
The term, however, still carries with it that deeper sense of a direct order, especially when applied to certain callings. In the ministry, we often use the term “call” when we speak of vocation. There are a dozen or more places where the Bible speaks of the concept. Romans 12 is often cited: “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”
In our denomination, as is the case of many others, part of the process of ordination is being able to be articulate about one’s call. After the educational requirements for ministry are achieved, one has to present a formal paper that describes one’s experience of being called to the ministry. That paper is examined together with the candidate for ministry. In our tradition that examination takes place in the context of an ecclesiastical council. The wider fellowship of the church, in most cases an Association of churches, is convened for the purpose of examining the candidate in terms of fitness for ministry. The candidate presents her or his paper, questions are asked and answered and a formal vote is taken.
It has been decades, but I remember the process very well. My paper was titled, “A chosen chooser.” I spoke of vocation both in terms of being chosen - having received a compelling sense of direction as the result of prayer and consultation with spiritual advisors - and in terms of making choices - responding to the call with specific choices that put me on the path towards pastoral ministry.
In my mid twenties, I think I had a strong sense of my own free will and my capacity to direct my life in different directions. I might have gone into my father’s business. I had that option. I might have chosen law school. I might have chosen to be an academic. I might have chosen to become a counselor.
Looking back from nearly four decades later, I am not sure that any of those other options would have been a wise choice and at least some of them would have been choices that led to failure. Perhaps there was more of a “vocatio” - a direct order from God than I realized at the time.
The Gospel of Luke reports that when Mary learns that she is to be the mother of Jesus, the news is given as a direct statement: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” Mary, who we have already met as one who “ponders” a lot, is given no choice. There is no negotiation here, no sense that it might be possible for Mary to refuse. Mary does ask, “How can this be?” The response is that “nothing will be impossible for God.” That is the conversation. There is no “perhaps I’ll consider this or that.”
Still, a few verses later, when Mary goes to greet her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country, Elizabeth makes her famous declaration, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” There is almost a sense in Elizabeth’s words that it might have been possible for Mary to have refused to believe. There might even be a hint that others had refused before Mary.
I suppose it is a rather subtle argument about whether one is in control of the choices one makes or whether one is responding to having been chosen. I am sure that both dynamics are a part of the decisions that get made.
Sometimes it seems obvious what direction one should take in one’s life. Our daughter was drawn to and skilled with children from a very early age. There is no surprise in the fact that she is a preschool teacher. It seems as if it is exactly what she was called to be from a very early age. Our son, on the other hand, earned a degree in English and showed considerable skill as a writer. In college he thought that he might become a writer for films. The ned to earn a living found him in library school where he was especially interested in medical libraries and he works as a hospital administrator these days, directing multiple hospital libraries. He is no less suited for the work he does than is his sister, but the particular job that he does did not seem as clear when he was a child.
Most of today’s young adults will face multiple job shifts during their working years and many will go through a total change of career. The world of work is changing so quickly that there are jobs that will be critical a couple of decades from now that we cannot even imagine today. There are jobs that exist today that won’t exist in the future. Successful people will be those who are adaptable and who can change course and head in a new direction.
That, of course, is an other Biblical mandate. “Repent” means simply that. Stop going the direction you are headed and go in a new direction.
Both the call to a vocation and the call to repent come as direct orders in the Biblical narrative. Perhaps, as was Mary’s case, the key to vocational success lies in being willing to believe that one has been called.