READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Ezekiel 34:11-16
1 Peter 2:21-25
St. John 10:11-16
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
Listening to God is like listening to your parents. You may not agree, but He is God, so He has His own say in matters. One of those matters is good works and one of the ways we understand good works is Vocation, God’s calling He gives to us in this life. He causes Vocation to be written of in His Word that we might hear His voice on this matter and properly interact with Him.
In order to listen to a voice, the Good Shepherd must call out. And Jesus has called out from the cross, crying out with a loud voice and handing over His Spirit to His Church. What we are to hear from the Good Shepherd is this Call or Vocation, especially since our Epistle speaks of it too.
And in true Law-Gospel fashion, when God Calls, or gives us our calling, we receive it in two ways. The first calling, or vocation, we have is to Faith. This is our heavenly vocation to be forgiven and redeemed sinners. The Holy Spirit Calls us with the Gospel, sustains, and keeps us in the one true faith. This heaven accomplishes without our works.
The second vocation is our earthly call to love our neighbor. This vocation St. Paul begins to reveal in 1 Corinthians 7:20 where he teaches, “let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.”
That is to say, one of the gifts of God for us is our earthly vocation: the work He gives us to be a part of, in His Creation. What we will NOT talk about today is what our feelings tell us is our calling in life. Not even what we enjoy doing, as our calling, though that sometimes overlaps.
The Call, Vocation we are talking about today is our station in life. Where and what we are born into, most of which we have no control over. Who our family is and where and what we are doing at the moment. Wherever it is that God has saved us. When He did, we were in a certain place in our lives. After He saved us, we remained there, thanks be to God.
Vocation from God can be maybe better understood as a station, a duty-bound place. As opposed to our dreamed-up-life or what we have plans for, our station is the place we have been put, now. Who our parents are and we as their child. Who our siblings are and we as their brother or sister. Who our employer is and who we are as employee. Who is in our neighborhood and who we are as their neighbor.
These things which we seemingly have little to no control over, are our vocations. The everyday, the rat-race, the hum-drum. If we are hungry, God feeds us Himself…through the vocation of a farmer. If we are sick, God comes to heal us Himself…through the vocations of healthcare.
Though He could give to us directly, by miraculous provision as He fed the children of Israel in the desert, God has chosen to work through man, who, in their different capacities and according to their different talents, serve each other.
God could have decided to populate the earth by creating each new person from the dust, as He did Adam. Instead, He chose to create new life through the vocation of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. God calls men and women together and grants them the unfathomable ability to have children.
The ability to read God's Word is an inexpressibly precious blessing, but reading is an ability that did not spring fully formed in our young minds. It required the vocation of teachers. God protects us through the cop on the beat and the whole panoply of the legal system. He gives us beauty and meaning through artists. He lets us travel through the ministry of auto workers, mechanics, road crews, and airline employees. He keeps us clean through the work of garbage collectors, plumbers, sanitation workers, and the sometimes-undocumented aliens who clean our hotel rooms.
And instead of enjoying this merciful and wonderful gift from our Father, we despise it and reject it for the limelight. We fall for the trap every time someone asks us, “I know what you do for a living, but what do you do for Christ?” You’re right, we agree. I must follow a higher path, even if it means I forsake those who depend on me. God wills it!
Repent. This is why understanding vocation is important, because what people mean, what satan means, when they ask that question is in direct contrast to what our Good Shepherd is accomplishing among us. The Good Shepherd gathers us, sanctifies us, and gives us a new life in Him within the sheep-pen. We are tempted to want what is beyond the sheepfold.
That is, in our sin, we believe God wants a truly spiritual life where we make vows to Him. Yes, we have put ourselves back in the cloister and made monks and nuns of ourselves. It may not seem like it was in the past, but we are neo-monks. Ones who promise God to serve Him full-time.
In order to make ourselves a true believer, we seek the new councils of perfection, where we devote every day to prayer, contemplation, worship, and the service of God, as we see fit. Marriage, parenthood, and human relationships are all earthly attachments. Having a heavenly vocation means the willingness to vow our lives to higher things.
The Sheepfold we are gathered into is a messy thing. Sheep are not the best of farm animals and so we can understand the pull to be more than we are, to find a life “outside” that is more holy, more righteous, and more pleasing to God. And then wonder why we cannot find God in our lives anymore.
Our Old Testament and Gospel reading place the work of Christ in the center, because it is the Son’s vocation to do the will of the Father, that is to save His people from their sin, set them free from sorrow, and slay bitter death. It is Jesus’s job to not only order our heavenly vocation, being saved, but also our earthly one.
We do not make or break His vocation with our own. If we try to seek the sinless life in our vocation or by our vocation, we cast aside the work of Jesus. If we imagine sinless choices we make because of our super-spiritual vocation, we choose sin over Jesus.
When St. Peter explains the example Jesus left us, in the Epistle reading today, he explains it in a way that we cannot attain that Example unless we are first made an example of. First, Jesus’s vocation must be accomplished and it must be accomplished for us. That is, we must be brought into the Sheepfold of perfection in front of God only for Christ’s sake.
And only in that “pen” of Grace and Faith and Scriptures can we then find our vocation ready and waiting. He committed no sin that we might find forgiveness for ours. He did not revile, that we might be brought His own righteousness. His bearing our sins on the tree, in His Body, was to bring us a life that is pleasing to God: the life of faith in His Son.
In His wounds we are healed and when we stray from that, when we stray from relying on His vocation and instead believe we know what the Spirit has led us to and what heavenly work and worship is there, we become the violent invaders of heaven and once again crucify Jesus, in our sin.
Jesus gives us His wounds and His healing in His Church. He tells us exactly where He will be for us, what He expects from us, and when He will accomplish such a thing. Our heavenly vocation, the most and highest-est Calling God has given to us, the most spiritual and holy thing we can accomplish on earth, is to receive from God’s hand what He is handing out. This, our Divine Service is centered on.
When we leave His blessed sanctuary of revealed glory, we enter into His hidden glory. That hidden glory, in the Christian life, is to practice that same faithfulness in little things, in our vocation. Holding down a 9-5 at DG Market is more difficult and more glorious, even than martyrdom.
Martyrdom is aided by an agitated time, an emotional disposition, and is often quickly won. It only takes a brief moment and that moment is black and white. However, being faithful in little things involves bearing presently and patiently the quiet tedium of a monotonous, elapsing life, to the praise of the Lord. (The Word Remains, Wilhelm Löhe, p.81)
In our Vocation, God gives us the charge of sustaining His creation. Not that it is on us, but He chooses to work through His Law, through us, to fight for the good, the true, and the noble in our lives. We need no super-spiritual vow to enact God’s will in this life. We have simply to remain vigilant in our station.
Is our neighbor in need, as we watch behind the DG Market counter? We know God’s will then. Is someone sad or a fight about to happen? Peacemaker it is!
Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude, or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm?
We may not make the headlines. History may not remember us. No one may ever know of the little things God chooses us to accomplish, in His Name, but what does that matter? Jesus has given us life in His Name, not ours and not our works. He has also then prepared works for us, to live with Him in His Sheepfold, works He authorizes. That is, Word and Sacrament and our holy Vocation.
And what we do in our vocations, is what we do for Christ. Are you an airline pilot? Then what you do for Jesus is flying people around.
Alleluia…
In the Name…
“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must
bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock,
one shepherd.”
Listening to God is like listening to your parents. You may not agree, but He is God, so He has His own say in matters. One of those matters is good works and one of the ways we understand good works is Vocation, God’s calling He gives to us in this life. He causes Vocation to be written of in His Word that we might hear His voice on this matter and properly interact with Him.
In order to listen to a voice, the Good Shepherd must call out. And Jesus has called out from the cross, crying out with a loud voice and handing over His Spirit to His Church. What we are to hear from the Good Shepherd is this Call or Vocation, especially since our Epistle speaks of it too.
And in true Law-Gospel fashion, when God Calls, or gives us our calling, we receive it in two ways. The first calling, or vocation, we have is to Faith. This is our heavenly vocation to be forgiven and redeemed sinners. The Holy Spirit Calls us with the Gospel, sustains, and keeps us in the one true faith. This heaven accomplishes without our works.
The second vocation is our earthly call to love our neighbor. This vocation St. Paul begins to reveal in 1 Corinthians 7:20 where he teaches, “let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.”
That is to say, one of the gifts of God for us is our earthly vocation: the work He gives us to be a part of, in His Creation. What we will NOT talk about today is what our feelings tell us is our calling in life. Not even what we enjoy doing, as our calling, though that sometimes overlaps.
The Call, Vocation we are talking about today is our station in life. Where and what we are born into, most of which we have no control over. Who our family is and where and what we are doing at the moment. Wherever it is that God has saved us. When He did, we were in a certain place in our lives. After He saved us, we remained there, thanks be to God.
Vocation from God can be maybe better understood as a station, a duty-bound place. As opposed to our dreamed-up-life or what we have plans for, our station is the place we have been put, now. Who our parents are and we as their child. Who our siblings are and we as their brother or sister. Who our employer is and who we are as employee. Who is in our neighborhood and who we are as their neighbor.
These things which we seemingly have little to no control over, are our vocations. The everyday, the rat-race, the hum-drum. If we are hungry, God feeds us Himself…through the vocation of a farmer. If we are sick, God comes to heal us Himself…through the vocations of healthcare.
Though He could give to us directly, by miraculous provision as He fed the children of Israel in the desert, God has chosen to work through man, who, in their different capacities and according to their different talents, serve each other.
God could have decided to populate the earth by creating each new person from the dust, as He did Adam. Instead, He chose to create new life through the vocation of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. God calls men and women together and grants them the unfathomable ability to have children.
The ability to read God's Word is an inexpressibly precious blessing, but reading is an ability that did not spring fully formed in our young minds. It required the vocation of teachers. God protects us through the cop on the beat and the whole panoply of the legal system. He gives us beauty and meaning through artists. He lets us travel through the ministry of auto workers, mechanics, road crews, and airline employees. He keeps us clean through the work of garbage collectors, plumbers, sanitation workers, and the sometimes-undocumented aliens who clean our hotel rooms.
And instead of enjoying this merciful and wonderful gift from our Father, we despise it and reject it for the limelight. We fall for the trap every time someone asks us, “I know what you do for a living, but what do you do for Christ?” You’re right, we agree. I must follow a higher path, even if it means I forsake those who depend on me. God wills it!
Repent. This is why understanding vocation is important, because what people mean, what satan means, when they ask that question is in direct contrast to what our Good Shepherd is accomplishing among us. The Good Shepherd gathers us, sanctifies us, and gives us a new life in Him within the sheep-pen. We are tempted to want what is beyond the sheepfold.
That is, in our sin, we believe God wants a truly spiritual life where we make vows to Him. Yes, we have put ourselves back in the cloister and made monks and nuns of ourselves. It may not seem like it was in the past, but we are neo-monks. Ones who promise God to serve Him full-time.
In order to make ourselves a true believer, we seek the new councils of perfection, where we devote every day to prayer, contemplation, worship, and the service of God, as we see fit. Marriage, parenthood, and human relationships are all earthly attachments. Having a heavenly vocation means the willingness to vow our lives to higher things.
The Sheepfold we are gathered into is a messy thing. Sheep are not the best of farm animals and so we can understand the pull to be more than we are, to find a life “outside” that is more holy, more righteous, and more pleasing to God. And then wonder why we cannot find God in our lives anymore.
Our Old Testament and Gospel reading place the work of Christ in the center, because it is the Son’s vocation to do the will of the Father, that is to save His people from their sin, set them free from sorrow, and slay bitter death. It is Jesus’s job to not only order our heavenly vocation, being saved, but also our earthly one.
We do not make or break His vocation with our own. If we try to seek the sinless life in our vocation or by our vocation, we cast aside the work of Jesus. If we imagine sinless choices we make because of our super-spiritual vocation, we choose sin over Jesus.
When St. Peter explains the example Jesus left us, in the Epistle reading today, he explains it in a way that we cannot attain that Example unless we are first made an example of. First, Jesus’s vocation must be accomplished and it must be accomplished for us. That is, we must be brought into the Sheepfold of perfection in front of God only for Christ’s sake.
And only in that “pen” of Grace and Faith and Scriptures can we then find our vocation ready and waiting. He committed no sin that we might find forgiveness for ours. He did not revile, that we might be brought His own righteousness. His bearing our sins on the tree, in His Body, was to bring us a life that is pleasing to God: the life of faith in His Son.
In His wounds we are healed and when we stray from that, when we stray from relying on His vocation and instead believe we know what the Spirit has led us to and what heavenly work and worship is there, we become the violent invaders of heaven and once again crucify Jesus, in our sin.
Jesus gives us His wounds and His healing in His Church. He tells us exactly where He will be for us, what He expects from us, and when He will accomplish such a thing. Our heavenly vocation, the most and highest-est Calling God has given to us, the most spiritual and holy thing we can accomplish on earth, is to receive from God’s hand what He is handing out. This, our Divine Service is centered on.
When we leave His blessed sanctuary of revealed glory, we enter into His hidden glory. That hidden glory, in the Christian life, is to practice that same faithfulness in little things, in our vocation. Holding down a 9-5 at DG Market is more difficult and more glorious, even than martyrdom.
Martyrdom is aided by an agitated time, an emotional disposition, and is often quickly won. It only takes a brief moment and that moment is black and white. However, being faithful in little things involves bearing presently and patiently the quiet tedium of a monotonous, elapsing life, to the praise of the Lord. (The Word Remains, Wilhelm Löhe, p.81)
In our Vocation, God gives us the charge of sustaining His creation. Not that it is on us, but He chooses to work through His Law, through us, to fight for the good, the true, and the noble in our lives. We need no super-spiritual vow to enact God’s will in this life. We have simply to remain vigilant in our station.
Is our neighbor in need, as we watch behind the DG Market counter? We know God’s will then. Is someone sad or a fight about to happen? Peacemaker it is!
Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? Have you been hot-tempered, rude, or quarrelsome? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm?
We may not make the headlines. History may not remember us. No one may ever know of the little things God chooses us to accomplish, in His Name, but what does that matter? Jesus has given us life in His Name, not ours and not our works. He has also then prepared works for us, to live with Him in His Sheepfold, works He authorizes. That is, Word and Sacrament and our holy Vocation.
And what we do in our vocations, is what we do for Christ. Are you an airline pilot? Then what you do for Jesus is flying people around.
Alleluia…
In the Name…
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