Theology of Vocation (Pt.3 Covenant)
+ Covenant: God Calls Creation into Right Relationship
To have a vocation is to be in covenant, an exchange of promises of two parties to be in relationship with one another such that each is fully defined and identified only in the covenant with the other. [Ed. Note: It is important to add that covenants are made between two parties to benefit a third party.] For example, if you know me as Kevan Penvose yet do not know of my marriage to my wife, then you do not know Kevan Penvose. Similarly, if you do not know my vocation in the baptismal covenant with God in Jesus' death and resurrection through Holy Spirit, then you do not know Kevan Penvose.
The unique thing about being in covenant with God compared to a covenant between two people, is that we don't get a say in entering into our covenant with God. God calls us into it. Creation does not get a choice to praise God by being and doing what it is created for. God calls it into being that way. Humanity does not get a choice to be God's image in the world. God calls us into being that way. God chooses, or "elects", the other party to be in covenant, and that's just the way it is. There are no "if" clauses when God cuts a covenant. There are no proposals for our consideration or negotiation.
God tells Abraham, "I will make of you a people more numerous than the stars. You will be a blessing to all peoples." God tells Moses, "Stop whining and lead my people out of Egypt." God tells Israel, "I will be your God and you will be my people." God tells David, "I will make of you a house." None of these people get a choice in entering into covenant with God, but they all have a vocation to participate in the covenant faithfully.
The thing about receiving a vocation from God (and thus to be in covenant with God), is that a calling always draws us further toward it. We never fully accomplish it exhaustively. (Abraham didn't live to see God's promise fulfilled; Moses didn't get to enter the promised land, etc.) There is always an incompleteness to vocation, an insurmountable obstacle to fulfilling our vocation, and thus our side of the covenant. This estrangement from who we are called to be is known as 'sin'. (There, Paul, I defined it for you. Happy now?)
This is a significant move for theology, because it breaks us out of traditional limitations -- both with theological method and with the question of evil (theodicy). In terms of method, classical theology has used many philosophical structures to support its claims. Yet seldom has Christian theology structured its claims on the key theme of the scriptural narrative, namely that of covenant. For example, St. Anselm can develop the satisfaction theory of atonement based on Greek metaphysics, rules of logic, and modeled on the feudal system -- all without taking into account that Jesus makes atonement precisely through God's covenant with Israel and the world. And this theory has dominated most of the past 1,000 years of Christianity! Many theologians since Anselm have described Jesus and salvation in ways that are supposedly true without being dependent upon Israel. Instead, all theological theories are to be defined in terms of covenant. (As, I'm attempting to demonstrate in this 7 part series.)
In this manner, we can best theorize about the question of evil in terms of covenant. The astute reader will have noticed that I have described creation and humanity in terms of a vocation that can never be fulfilled, and therefore 'sin' is part of how God creates us. This claim might be heretical. Eh, what the hell. A little heresy is good for the church. The point in making this claim, is that salvation is not God's plan 'B', as in God created everything fine and dandy then Adam and Eve screwed it up with the Fall, so then God has to fix it. So either there is an evil force comparable to God, or at least God allows evil to exist to maintain human freedom. This is the problem of evil for theology. Neither of these options are satisfactory in light of a good God. Rather, salvation is the continuation and fulfillment of creation -- God's one and only plan 'A'. Ultimately God is responsible for the existence of evil. There's no way around it. But creation isn't done yet. God takes responsibility for completing creation without evil by fulfilling the covenant whereby God reigns. This is God's answer to Job: "Where were you when I created the foundations of the world by bringing order out of the waters of chaos? You don't see the whole picture like I do, so chillax."
This is a significant move for the mission of the church, because it breaks us out of vocational misconceptions -- both humanly and personally. In being who God calls us to be, we always fail. Yet we see in God's covenantal faithfulness in Jesus that God fulfills the covenant on our behalf. We have a messiah who is willing to be a failed messiah (crucifixion) in order for God to incorporate us into messiahship. If we are to follow this messiah, then we will follow him into vocational failure. Rather than trying to live without sin as holier-than-thou snobs afraid to get dirty, the church freely embraces those mired in sin. We risk going to places we don't want to go and befriending people we don't want to befriend, because there we find God fulfilling our covenantal vocation on our behalf. Sin boldly, trusting even more boldly in God's covenantal faithfulness.
Likewise, when discerning our unique personal vocation, we must remember that our vocation is never fulfilled; completeness is unattainable. Too often I see people give up on their ministry, either because they think it's finished or they've failed at it. On the other hand, I often see people stick with their ministry long past the time they should move on, because they think they're not finished yet and must finish before making a transition. But faithful discernment of our covenantal vocation prevents us from making such decisions based on whether we think we've completed our calling.
Frequently, this decision is made to end a struggling marriage, or to prolong an abusive one. If we want a divorce because our marriage is tough, frustrating, and unromantic, and we think we've done all we can to make it work, then we should re-examine what our vocation within marriage is. If we stay in an abusive marriage, because we think we can do more, that we aren't finished giving all we got to change the abuser, then we should re-examine what our vocation within marriage is.
For clergy, this decision is often made when discerning whether God is calling them to stay in their current call or transition into a new congregation. If pastors want to file mobility papers because they think they've done everything God has called them to that congregation to do, or because they think they've failed to do it, then they should re-examine what their vocation in ordained ministry is. If pastors want to stay at their congregations simply because they think they have yet to do all God has called them there to accomplish in the congregation and must complete it before moving on, then they should re-examine what their vocation within ordained ministry is. When leading a community in Jesus' mission, the pastor's vocation is never accomplished, finished, or fulfilled. There is always more to be done in leading mission, but that doesn't necessarily mean the same pastor is the one God wants to do it in that congregation. In other words, if you're waiting to answer God's call to move on until your work there is done, then you'll miss out in answering God's call. (Drop your nets and follow.) And if you're moving on simply because you think there's nothing left there to do, either because you think you've done it all or because you fail at doing it, then you'll miss out in answering God's call to stay. (Jeremiah, the bleak situation is not God's reality, so buy yourself a field here.)
God doesn't call us to leave a so-called completed vocation or a so-called failed vocation; God calls us to enter into an incomplete-able vocation in which God's faithfulness transforms failure into covenantal fulfillment. We do not get to choose when our work is done or not worth trying anymore. God calls us into covenant: God will reign in our congregation and we will lead the congregation in discerning God's reign. Ultimately, we'll never finish this vocation and we're going to fail at it more times than we can count, but on our behalf God will transform our incomplete vocation and our vocational failures into the covenantal fulfillment of God's kingdom among us.
By this point, I hope you have lots of comments, questions, and complaints. I purposely used dramatic language and left some of my arguments logically incomplete and loosely supported, hoping to spark conversation and debate. Drop me a note, and I'll be happy to dialogue with you to fill in the gaps left here. In the meantime, check back for the rest of this series on the theology of vocation:
+ Messiah: The Human With God's Vocation
+ Trinity: God Is the Fulfillment of Covenant, the Purpose of Vocation
+ Salvation: All Creation Participates in the Fulfillment of Covenant
+ Church: The People Called into God's Vocation
4 comments:
consider it silly, but I use Ephesians 4: 1-6 in pre-marital counseling simply because i see the role of two disciples in marriage as something larger than the next step after, "we love each other very much." i see it as a calling and change in vocation. the reframe that i do with the happy couple is to have them conceptualize their identity in terms of their vocation. i believe if God calls someone into a specific role in life, then God will equip that person to live out that vocation. so, for the soon-to-be married couple, God is busy equipping them with the love they need to sustain a marriage relationship for the long haul. for the single person, God equips them in his/her call.
Right On, Man! That's a key passage for this Theology of Vocation. This is a great tip to use it in marriage counseling.
The one thing I forgot to mention in my original post (I added it now) is that covenants are made between two parties for the benefit of a third. In the covenant of marriage, the wife and husband make a covenant ordained by God to be a sign of God's love for the church and the world. Marriage is a sacred vocation in service to the in-breaking of God's kingdom.
"Ultimately God is responsible for the existence of evil." You make a good heretic, Kevan. But, you support it nicely.
I look back at Genesis, where God said everything was "good," so one may wonder, such as I, how could evil exist when everything was "good," as you seem to suggest? To follow your train of thought, God, being beyond time, saw the end of time, when the covenant, and our current, incomplete vocation, will be complete. God, in His omniscience and omnipresence, saw all of salvation history, beginning and end, and it was called "good!" How's that sound?
Brock,
Thanks for your question. In creating, God deems creation 'good'. Notice though that God does not say 'perfect' or 'complete'. These are the Greek-influenced notions of 'good'. We need not assign this definition to the Genesis account.
The point, in fact, is that creating is not a one time event in the past. Rather, God continues to create. When God begins creating, Holy Spirit broods over the waters, bringing order (right relationship) by separating the waters of chaos. Since God continues to create, the waters of chaos continue to exist. God promises never again to let these waters flood and destroy creation. But nevertheless, the waters of chaos are real and their effects are felt.
So when I say that God is responsible for evil, that means that God isn't done yet, and that God takes responsibility for bringing creation to fulfillment in which the waters of chaos no longer present a threat.
Creation, indeed, is 'good' because God is present in it, bringing its covenant to fulfillment. Even though our vocations are un-perfectable by us, God works within the space in which we fail to perform our vocation, to bring the kingdom of God even and precisely there.
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