I remember a song that Belle, one of the Area Directors at a Lutheran Summer camp where I was a counsellor one summer during college, taught us counsellors a song. I don’t remember the verses, but I remember the chorus. “All God’s critters got a place in the choir, some sing low and some sing higher, some sing loud on the telephone wire and some just clap their hands or paws or anything they got now.” Then each verse mentioned different animal talents. There ya go! A pretty encouraging little song, that if I pause to think about it for a moment, I realize that it should be our battle hymn for celebrating Martin Luther’s doctrine of vocation. You could Google it, but I’m going to give you a brief rundown. In the early 1500’s people had the idea, no scratch that, people were taught that there was a hierarchy in God’s eyes, where the clergy had a higher, or better or more religiously significant calling than everyone else. Luther felt that this was not true, and was harmful and disenfranchising to the laity, or those who were not clergy. It was however very effective at padding pockets and accruing and centralizing power and prestige in the hands of the church. Luther was not a fan. Luther turned to scripture and taught about the priesthood of all believers, Luther taught that all Christians are called by God through Christ to be his beloved and forgiven children, and that they don’t need someone in between to be able to receive God’s grace. And when we receive that grace through Christ, we become priests to our neighbors, and share God’s love with them perpetuating the cycle. Was Luther saying that we don’t need pastors and priests? No, I don’t think so at all. As communities of faith , we call and ordain clergy, or pastors and priests whose job it is to study God’s word and help others to discover their gifts of ministry within their own vocations. Luther was pointing to the fact that we are wonderfully and beautifully and uniquely made and that each and every person has a very important ministry in sharing God’ love and mercy in the world in many varied and unique ways. Remember, some sing low and some sing higher, some sing loud on the telephone wire and some just clap their hands or paws or anything they got now. I have come to find that not everyone resonates with the same sermon style or topics or illustrations, or the same pastor’s personalities or styles and that we do the best when we are ourselves. Luther would tell us that we don’t have to beat the bushes or cast about searching for places or opportunities to exercise their ministry, we do ministry in our vocation and each and every person is inevitably placed—in family life, work, citizenship, and church. Each person—lay and clergy alike—is called to work in the world. We are all valuable and important in God’s mission for the world. Let’s notice something in the Gospel. Jesus. Jesus himself has gone back to his hometown area and he’s healing people, but something is wrong. He’s still Jesus but the people only see the ordinary. They see Joseph’s kid, an ordinary guy they think is too big for his britches or whatever the term was at that time. They’re just not getting it. This is not the Christ, it’s “Just Jesus”. Jesus heals some in his hometown despite their disbelief, but he can only do what Mark calls therapeuo. That’s where the word therapeutic comes from, but they are missing, the thing that is not happening is a different greek word. That word is sozo. Sozo is a different type of healing or work of power. Sozo means salvation or to make whole. No matter how ably one can walk and work, wholeness (sozo) comes only in trusting and following Jesus. For that to be the case, it takes faith. That faith, that getting past the just Jesus attitude and opening up to transformation and the Holy Spirit’s power to create that change in our hearts and minds, to turn us from an inward or self focused state of mind to thinking and acting outwardly for our neighbor, be they friend or enemy, insider or outcast or seemingly invisible. So with this group of people, Jesus FAILS. That’s right, Jesus tried and failed. But notice it doesn’t end there. Jesus sent the others out and they were able to accomplish great things, and by the way it’s phrased in comparison to Jesus, I would say that people were being made whole. I’ve thought I’ve had bad days at work! But the beautiful and awesome thing is that Chrit’s ultimate mission is accomplished. Jesus knew that he was not “just Jesus”, he was God’s beloved son, and as he sent out the disciples he told them if they were not received or shown hospitality, to shake the dust of that place off of their feet. To me, I have always just sort of gone past that portion of the passage like it was no big deal or had little significance, but as it turns out, when understanding it from the culture of the writer, it’s a pretty big deal. Frederick Niedner points out that, “Jesus sends out the disciples to befriend and accompany the shunned and outcasts and he renders “uncleanness” a meaningless category. It un-hells hell. Pious folks who couldn’t avoid traveling in unclean territory shook the dust off their feet upon reentering holy land. Jesus’ dust-shaking directive upends the thinking behind this practice. He implies that a lack of hospitality most effectively makes a place unclean.” End quote. So being a loving, welcoming, forgiving and merciful person is a fundamental participation in our christian vocation. Remember what Jesus said about simply offering a cup of cool water. Plain ordinary work is transformed into a Christian vocation as the Christian exercises his faith-active-in-love. Also let’s take a hint from what we see in Jesus. Sometimes Jesus failed. Let that sink in. But the thing is, Jesus did not label himself a failure or incapable of ministry or his vocational identity when he was rebuffed. Sometimes, someone might dump your cup of cool water in your lap. You are wonderfully made. You have been created with your own unique abilities to share the gospel through who you are and what you do. You are not seeking the world’s approval but faithfully sharing Christ with your neighbor. In your day to day life. We’re not talking profound sermon writing or preaching. At times during my ministry, I have been engaged in so-called “part time ministry” or “tentmaker” ministry, which means that I was working two jobs at the same time and I had jobs before I was ordained. I’ve worked fast food, served ice cream, tuned pipe organs, been an EMT, a dialysis technician, custodian, school bus driver and a woodworker/pipe organ builder. In all of these different vocations I witnessed what Luther was talking about. I’ve also found that things always went better when I was myself. Here’s a surprise, I’m not very good at being other people. I had a bad case early on of “Just Jesus” or in my case, “Just Jonathan.” I tried to imitate others or be someone I was not to try to fit the idea of what a christian was or what a pastor was and how you were supposed to act or do things. I always felt like a fish trying to build houses in the desert. I have a weird, weird sense of humor and sometimes see things from odd angles. I like hard rock, bluegrass, dubstep and 80’s music and I love to work with my hands, get dirty and play video games. Pastor-wise, some have told me that that is an inappropriate mix. But that’s not just stuff I like, it’s who I am. It took me time to realize that maybe, I’m just not their cup of tea. I’m not just Jonathan, and neither are any one of you, just anything. I struggled getting there, and I am sure that I missed many ministry opportunities along the way because of it. I found that when I was accidentally me, in this collar, interesting things happened, or when I was wearing any of the uniforms I’ve worn. It took shaking some dust off and reflecting on those moments of connection with others that were struggling, connections that took place because I was Just Jonathan. That whole group of youth that spent time talking to me in a game store because they couldn’t believe I liked D&D and Harry Potter. They were filled with questions about religion and God. Or the young boy that was laid up in the hospital for months, becoming more and more depressed and not communicating. He made the mistake of asking me what the little white square did. I told him he could touch it and he pulled it out. Now, keep in mind, this was not a heart patient. I grabbed my neck, made a horror movie sound and collapsed on his bed rail. That’s when we connected and talked every day afterward. It takes all kinds of people with different interests and different vocations and gifts for them. Being who God created me makes me a lot happier and a better witness and servant of Jesus and it will do the same for everyone. So let’s rejoice that calls us and needs us to use our own unique gifts to exercise our faith-active-in-love to bring sozo, salvation, and wholeness to those in need, in whatever vocation we find ourselves, be we singing or clapping anything we’ve got, because as Frederick Buechner points out that, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
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