Soma Faith and Work Summit 2015 | Seeing Seamlessly and Fighting Against Being a Cynic in the City
Dr. Steven Garber
The previous post includes:
This unique and needed summit with a focus on faith and discipleship in the contexts of our God-given work environments continues to help me grow in my consideration of how to share with others what God has saved us for in the here and now.
2015 Soma Faith and Work Summit Main Session 1
Vocation in the Biblical Story and How We Can Impact the World Today
This unique and needed summit with a focus on faith and discipleship in the contexts of our God-given work environments continues to help me grow in my consideration of how to share with others what God has saved us for in the here and now.
Soma Faith and Work Summit 2015 | Main Session 2: Seeing Seamlessly and Fighting Against Being a Cynic in the City with Dr. Steven Garber
Dr. Steven Garber
The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture
The Falls Church Anglican
Falls Church, VA
Vocation: The overarching, bigger view of God's creatively specific lifelong calling for you
Occupation: The more temporary, occupied time for this day's needs
Vocation is integral, not incidental, to the Missio Dei.
What do you see and hear in you and around you that is good and bad, healing and broken? What kind of person are you in light of what you see and hear? How we respond, what we plan to do, and where we think time and the end of all things is going shapes how we live now.
Often the questions we ask are related to the deepest connections to who we are. Saint Augustine wrote that our longings reveal the question, "Will all be made right?" Our actions in life in relation to where we live, how we work, and our attitude to what's been given to us reveal our real answer.
And our ways of knowing and acting out the answer to this question in our vocations are not morally neutral. They are morally directive. Do we see and experience life holistically? Do we connect the "already, not yet" of God's Kingdom come cohesively with what we do in this world today?
For example, in God's Kingdom coming, even all cooking pots have a place and a purpose in God's renewal of all things (Zechariah 14:21).
"Integral" is better than "integration" because integral means we are living all of life with cohesion. Integral assumes coherence. Integration assumes fragmentation.
If Jesus is Lord of all, then it all matters.
We need to see and live seamlessly.
Vocation is integral, not incidental, to the mission of God in the world.
"Greater is He that is me than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4)"
Do we live with such hope that this is reality where we work as well?
When Isaac Watts adapted Psalm 98 into "Joy to the World," as part of his vocation as a songwriter, he looked to the Kingdom coming and wrote the words "He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found."
In taking a good look at our lives, how far do His blessings flow? In our homes?
In our workplaces? In our city? Is the Word of God becoming flesh?
Are we the body of Christ, broken and given for the life of the world?
In answering these questions, we have to also ask another question: Can you know the world and still love the world?
Can you know all the details of the good and bad of your city and still love it?
Can you really know people and still love people?
How do we sustain God's care and love over the course of a lifetime?
Or to begin, what are we going to do about "Peace on earth, good will toward mankind" this week when there seems to be a lot more "not yet" than "now"? The tension in our life's active answer works itself out in three responses:
(1) Cynic: "I know what the world is like,
and I'm going to screw you before you screw me."
(2) Stoic: "I know what the world is like,
and I'm not going to be vulnerable so you can potentially hurt me."
Both of these approaches do not resurrect the heart of God in us, but instead, turn the barometer of our heart down to a less-than-image-bearing response. The third response is the Incarnation's response:
(3) Proximity: "I know what the world is like, and
I'm going to give without expectation of receiving,
I'm going to be vulnerable in order to love
with my heart, soul, mind, and strength."
With our imperfect proximity in this day and age, we can't have an "all or nothing" approach. We don't get perfect or perfected in this life. We will have to make peace with some things going badly or turning out differently than we expected. We are still called to make sign posts to the Kingdom in a strange land. We are still to be transformed by the Word into being known as those with Jesus because of our love and courage in the face of hostility.
We are pilgrims in the wilderness who provide some mercy and some justice for some. All the "to-dos" are "we get tos" in loving God and loving others. They are all part of the living journal of God writing key moments in this world in us and through us. Right now, we live in a world that is both beautiful and broken at the same time. How will we care today?
Recommended Resources:
Christian Mission in the Modern World by John Stott and Christopher Wright
One Thousand Wells: How An Audacious Goal Taught Me to Love the World Instead of Save It by Jena Lee Nardella
"The Two Economies" by Wendell Berry
Reframe 10-Week Curriculum by Regent College
"Seeing Seamlessly" by Steven Garber
"What We're Talking About When We Talk About Vocation" and "Motherhood as Vocation" by Kate Harris
Key Quotes:
The glory of God is the human person fully alive. – St. Irenaeus
Vocation: The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. – Fredrick Beuchner
Everybody has a vocation to some form of life-work. However, behind that call (and deeper than any call), everybody has a vocation to be a person who is fully and deeply human in Christ Jesus. – Brennan Manning
The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. In English we call it peace, but it means far more than just peace of mind or ceasefire between enemies. In the Bible shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as the creator and savior opens doors and speaks welcome to the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things are supposed to be. – Cornelius Plantinga
We are not to be scant and scarce in our good works, or even nominal and mediocre, but abundant and liberal in doing good. We are not simply to do good for some people here and there; we are to do good for all people as often as we can and as much as we can. While we cannot do all the good that is conceivable, the Scriptures do expect us to do a lot of good – that is, to abound in it. – Matt Perman
God’s glory is most multiplied and expanded when all of the rich potential of his creation is unfolded and unpacked into the life–giving institutions that contribute to its flourishing. In a way, you could say that God has commissioned us to be his image bearers in order to help him show off his glory in what he has made. ... And since redemption is precisely the renewal and restoration of creation, then good culture-making is also what we are created for. – James K.A. Smith
– Sully
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