The March issue explores the Lutheran doctrine of vocation.
- From the President: ‘A Royal Priesthood’
- Life in the Church Year: Prayer in Lent
Features
- ‘The Life the Lord Has Assigned’: A Lutheran view of vocation — Gene Edward Veith Jr.
- What Do You Love About Church Work? — A Set Apart to Serve feature
- Building Up the Body of Christ: The role of pastors and laity in the church — Aaron Moldenhauer
- Masks of God’s Mercy: Christians in the medical field — Donna Harrison
Departments
- Snippets: News from around the LCMS and the world
- Commonplaces: Selections from Scripture, the Confessions and Lutheran hymnody
- The Road to Convention: Overtures
- Searching Scripture: Following the Formula: Article III: The Righteousness of Faith Before God
- Walking Together: Concordia Lutheran Church in Jackson, Tenn.
From the editor
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:23–24).
How should we spend our days? Our world is full of opportunities, distractions and many competing demands. It can sometimes feel overwhelming to figure out how we ought to prioritize our time — sometimes especially so for Christians, who may feel the additional demands of keeping up their “spiritual health” on top of all of the other demands of daily life. If I were a pastor or a deaconess, we may be tempted to think, my daily work would keep me in constant contact with God and His Word. But as a lawyer, a mechanic, a doctor, a stay-at-home mother — it can feel like almost all of my time is used up just trying to get through the day’s work. I only have a few minutes here and there to serve God and come to Him in prayer. Did I choose the wrong line of work?
For such concerns, Scripture and our Lutheran Confessions offer great consolation. “If you perform your daily domestic task, this is better than all the sanctity and ascetic life of monks,” wrote Luther in his Large Catechism (LC I 145). As Gene Veith writes in this issue, vocation was “at the heart of the Christian life” for Martin Luther. By “vocation,” Luther didn’t refer just to a religious calling. He didn’t even refer only to the various jobs a person might have. Martin Luther considered every God-given role in a Christian’s life as a part of his calling — the work of a mother caring for her child just as God-pleasing as a pastor consecrating the elements. “Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him,” as Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians (7:17).
In other words, as Christians, we can have great peace amid the many demands of modern life: God gives us clear direction as to how we should spend our days. He calls us to look at our life and see our duties as He has given them to us: Are we parents? Do we have parents? Who is our pastor? Who are our God-given leaders? Do we have a spouse? What job or jobs do we currently occupy? Our primary task each and every day is simply to attend to these things. In doing so, we serve Him as He wishes — by serving our neighbor.
This issue of The Lutheran Witness explores the Lutheran doctrine of vocation. Gene Veith gives an overview of the Lutheran doctrine of vocation (p. 8); David Van Rooy (p. 11) and Donna Harrison (p. 20) give us a look into how two specific jobs (military and medical service) are God-pleasing vocations; Aaron Moldenhauer unpacks the roles of the pastors and laity in the church (p. 15); and Roy Askins challenges the notion that God has one path picked out for our life that we have to discover (p. 18).
We hope this issue will be a blessing to you as you faithfully forge on in “the life that the Lord has assigned” to you.
In Christ,
Stacey Eising
Managing Editor, The Lutheran Witness
