In my last post, I discussed the universality of vocation and suggested that vocation is “the place where your deepest gladness meets the world’s deepest need.”[1] Here, I want to focus on “Christian” vocation and the thought of theologian Jürgen Moltmann.
Those who follow the way of Jesus, as outlined in the Bible, often speak of vocation theologically to describe a perceived divine call to pursue specific, faithful, sacrificial witness to Jesus and service to the world.
This witness and service reaches beyond ordained ministry to embrace various forms of outwardly-focused purposeful labour. When Jesus employed metaphors of salt and light (Matt 5:13-16 CSB) to describe those who followed his radical way of being in the world, he was referring to their vocations of witness to the love, mercy and justice of God, of service empowered by the example and teaching of Jesus.
Christian vocation may take the form of gospel storytelling, persuasive argument, pastoral care and counselling, management and administration, diaconal service, or some other form. It may primarily involve speaking, listening, caring for the sick, making music, novel-writing, school teaching, bricklaying, clerical duties, creating wealth, gardening, or a host of other tasks. It is the purpose and motive that matters.
To intentionally follow Jesus in a vocational, whole-of-life manner is necessarily a radical act. It will be misunderstood by some and lampooned by others. It will attract criticism from various quarters. It implies that being Christian “calls forth action that may not be in agreement with other-than-Christian standards,” and that “there are Christian-specific reasons for acting and Christian-specific criteria for deciding which actions are in keeping with the will of God.”[2]
The focus on joyful service to others I mentioned in my previous post applies not only to individual Jesus-followers but corporately too. In the final chapter of his Theology of Hope, Jürgen Moltmann (1926-2024) argues that the essence and goal of Christianity is not its own existence but “something which reaches far beyond itself” – that is, the kingdom of God.[3]I will quote him at length since his insight on Christian vocation is profound.
Referring to Romans 12:1ff (CSB), Moltmann writes, “Not to be conformed to this world does not mean merely to be transformed in oneself, but to transform in opposition and creative expectation the face of the world in the midst of which one believes, hopes and loves.”[4] The salt-and-light identity that comes from being with Jesus and learning from Jesus has relational, community, and world-scale implications for witness and service in the name of Jesus.
Moltmann is speaking about vocation. He says, “the mission and call of the Christian Church fan out, so to speak, into the world in our earthly callings in services, commissions and charismata [gifts] towards the earth and human society.”[5] There is one call, and many callings; the Reformers’ habit of identifying call with calling “was never intended to dissolve the call in the calling, but vice versa to integrate and transform the ‘callings’ in the call.”[6]
Life in the contemporary world often seems to operate at a great distance from the concerns, priorities and relative simplicity of the world in which Jesus lived. Moltmann views our world as “a society of mobile jobs” rather than as a community in which vocations are fixed by time, place and culture as they once were. Yet he sees this as an opportunity to serve others with elasticity, adaptability and imaginativeness.[7]
For Moltmann, as a result of Christian hope in God’s better future, “this present world becomes free in believing eyes from all attempts at self-redemption or self-reproduction through labour.” Christian vocation focuses on humble service to others. It models the way of Jesus in our own times and places. It seeks “a humanizing of conditions” and “the realization of justice in the light of the coming justice of God.”[8]
Moltmann has been discussing “the glory of self-realization” represented by philosophical Idealism and “the misery of self-estrangement” represented by Romanticist and Existential writing – a world of lost horizons, of dashed hopes. The great task of the Christian church, he argues, is to disclose to this lost world “the horizon of the future of the crucified Christ.”[9]
This is the work of vocational witness and service. This is being salt and light in our communities and workplaces. This is how we follow Jesus. This is the inbreaking of the kingdom of God among us.
Dr Rod Benson is Research Support Officer at Moore Theological College, Sydney. He previously pastored four Baptist churches in Queensland and NSW, and served for 12 years as an ethicist with the Tinsley Institute at Morling College.
References
[1] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 95.
[2] Howard W. Stone & James O. Duke, How to Think Theologically (fourth edition; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2023), 122f.
[3] Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope (trans. James W. Leitch; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993/1965), 325.
[4] Ibid., 330.
[5] Ibid., 331.
[6] Ibid., 333.
[7] Ibid., 333.
[8] Ibid., 338.
[9] Ibid., 338.
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