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COncordia
ournal
volume 39 | number 2
J
Spring 2013
The Human Face of Justice
Called to Milk Cows and Govern
Kingdoms
HOLLIS and the Holy Spirit
Weaving Reflection into Civic Life
Concordia Seminary
801 Seminary Place
St. Louis, MO 63105
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COncordia
ournal
J
(ISSN 0145-7233)
Issued by the faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, the Concordia Journal is the successor of Lehre
und Wehre (1855-1929), begun by C. F. W. Walther, a founder of The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod. Lehre
und Wehre was absorbed by the Concordia Theological Monthly (1930-1974) which was also published by the faculty
of Concordia Seminary as the official theological periodical of the Synod.
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On the cover: Looking down upon the baptismal font in the LeBien Baptistery from the narthex of the Chapel of the Resurrection, Valparaiso
University, Valparaiso, Indiana (photo courtesy of Valparaiso University).
Copyright by Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri 2013
www.csl.edu | www.concordiatheology.org
publisher
Dale A. Meyer
President
Executive EDITOR
Jeffrey Kloha
Dean of Theological
Research and Publication
EDITOR
Travis J. Scholl
Managing Editor of
Theological Publications
EDITORial assistant
Melanie Appelbaum
assistants
Carol Geisler
Theodore Hopkins
James Kirschenmann
Matthew Staneck
Michael Tsichlis
David Adams
Charles Arand
Andrew Bartelt
Joel Biermann
Gerhard Bode
Kent Burreson
William Carr, Jr.
Anthony Cook
Timothy Dost
Thomas Egger
Jeffrey Gibbs
Bruce Hartung
Erik Herrmann
Jeffrey Kloha
R. Reed Lessing
David Lewis
Richard Marrs
David Maxwell
Dale Meyer
Glenn Nielsen
Joel Okamoto
Jeffrey Oschwald
David Peter
Paul Raabe
Victor Raj
Paul Robinson
Robert Rosin
Timothy Saleska
Leopoldo Snchez M.
David Schmitt
Bruce Schuchard
William Schumacher
William Utech
James Voelz
Robert Weise
Faculty
All correspondence should be sent to:
CONCORDIA JOURNAL
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cj @csl.edu
commitment
Im Nate, and this is my part.
You recognize right away that this is a place
that takes faith seriously, that faith is an
important part of campus life here.
1.888.GO.VALPO valpo.edu Valparaiso, IN 46383
Nate will be one of the emcees at the
National LCMS Youth Gathering, July
1-5, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas.
Spring 2013
COncordia
ournal
J
CONTENTS
volume 39 | number 2
EDITORIALs
101 Editors Note
102 Five Questions with Two Presidents: On Vocation
106 The Communion of Saints: Four Perspectives on
Lay Vocation
ARTICLES
117 The Human Face of Justice: Reclaiming the
Neighbor in Law, Vocation, and Justice Talk
Leopoldo A. Snchez M.
133 Called to Milk Cows and Govern Kingdoms:
Martin Luthers Teaching on the Christians
Vocations
Robert Kolb
142 HOLLIS and the Holy Spirit: A Journey
Toward the Redemption of the Historians
Vocation
Ronald K. Rittgers
151 HOMILETICAL HELPS
175 BOOK REVIEWS
Weaving Reflection into Civic Life: Resources for
Reflective Reading on Leadership, Service, and Vocation
Elizabeth Lynn
editoRIALS
COncordia
ournal
J
Editors Note
101 Concordia Journal/Spring 2013
The image on the cover portrays the LeBien Baptistery in the Chapel of the
Resurrection at Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, Indiana). Walking its spiral staircase,
whether for work, study, or daily prayer, one can nearly hear the lines echo across the
rippling water.
So use it well! You are made new
In Christ a new creation!
As faithful Christians, live and do
Within your own vocation,
Until that day when you possess
His glorious robe of righteousness
Bestowed on you forever!
(All Christians Who Have Been Baptized, LSB 596, v. 6)
In the almost three-story space above the font floats a spiraling bronze sculpture,
an image of the overflowing blessing of God through water and word. To walk that
staircase is to be reminded that our life and our work revolve around and find their
center in the daily washing of baptism, of the way the sound of its water calls us to die
and to rise into a certain kind of life, lived out in myriad ways because of the myriad
gifts God gives through it.
The theme of this issue of Concordia Journal is lay vocation, what in Lutheran
circles is so well known as the priesthood of all believers, or the ministry of the bap-
tized. The topicone of the touchstones of Lutheran theologyis always relevant to
the church, since the people of God are always called to all the myriad walks of life that
make for healthy community and good society in Gods creation. We share one voca-
tion with many locationsin our work and our living, in our families and in our com-
munities, in our leading and in our serving.
Valparaiso University is a logical partner with which to explore these issues
from a variety of vocational perspectives. Valparaisos Lutheran history (the Lutheran
University Association purchased it in 1925) has been centered in a mission of educating
people of faith for lives of leadership and service, preparing people for professions of
law, nursing, medicine, business, engineering, and other fields with a deep formation in
the liberal arts and humanities. The collaboration between people at Concordia Seminary
and Valparaiso University found within these pages is evidence of how we can fruitfully
reflect on that sense of baptismal calling and how we can live that life together.
Because it really is as simple, and as complex, as Martin Luther makes it out to
be when, near the end of The Freedom of a Christian, he writes: a Christian lives not in
himself, but in Christ and in his neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in
Christ through faith, in his neighbor through love.
Travis J. Scholl Brian T. Johnson
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis Valparaiso University
Five Questions with Two Presidents: On Vocation
102
Editors note: As the title makes explicit, we posed five questions to Dale A. Meyer, President of
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and Mark A. Heckler, President of Valparaiso University, regard-
ing vocation, the ministry of the baptized, and the roles their respective institutions play in such matters.
Here are their answers.
1. How do educational institutions like seminaries and universities cultivate a
sense of vocation?
Dale Meyer: Unlike a university where students prepare for various vocations,
our seminary is focused on the calling to be pastors and deaconesses. The calling is
rooted in baptism, but how the seminary cultivates that sense of calling is, I think,
changing. There was a time when going to seminary largely meant getting Bible
knowledge and correct doctrine into your head and developing pastoral skills from
classroom and homework assignments. Today learning has to be set in a much
larger context, not just on campus but in real life settings. We are very intentional
about exposing students to life and ministry situations that are different than those
in which they grew up. Immersion trips to urban, ethnic, rural, innovative church
plants . . . these experiences change the way students learn theology on our old
Gothic campus. Hopefully these experiences fuel their passiontheir callingto
take the gospel to where people really are.
Mark Heckler: As a university that is Lutheran in character and ethos, Valparaiso
University responds to a call from God to serve as a witness in the world through
the pursuit of truth and from a position that stands under the cross of Christ. Our
institutional calling therefore compels us to attend to the intellectual, social, physi-
cal, and spiritual dimensions of our students lives.
We begin to cultivate vocation from the moment we communicate to a pro-
spective student and his or her family, when we talk about the value of the Valpo
experience. Here, we tell prospective students, you will discern your gifts and
consider how best to put them to use for the sake of the world. During our stu-
dents first year, the Valpo CORE course engages them in common readings and
discussion on our Lutheran understanding of vocation. This reflection continues
throughout their Valpo education: through the academic major, through co-curric-
ular activities, internships, and learning through service. At graduation, we reflect
on and celebrate the personal journey each student has taken, and how they have
become purpose-driven, thoughtful leaders, conscious of their gifts, and eager to
serve both church and society.
2. How have the histories of these two institutions contributed to this cultivation?
Meyer: Well, I suspect history would show that its always been a struggle for
Concordia Seminary. Transplanted from Germany to America, worshipping God
in German amid English speakers, then dropping the German language because
of the wars, understanding what unionism meant in the twentieth century and
now in the twenty-first, the decline of mainline denominations, Americas spiritual
eclecticism, and on and on. Gods word never changes but the contexts in which we
present law and gospel requires different nuances as time passes. Thats a challenge
to cultivating a sense of vocation in students. Its easy to forget that todays students
come from different times than the faculty comes from. Were challenged to excite
them to the same mission that summoned us decades ago. Without losing our heri-
tage, history shows us we have to adapt.
Heckler: Valparaiso University was purchased in 1925 by a group of business-
men who were members of the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod. Their work was
reinforced by the University Guild, a large group of LCMS women who created
a national fundraising network to support the new university. They imagined a
university designed to prepare Lutheran young people for vocations in the world
engineering, business, law, and other professionsin contrast to those institutions
designed to prepare pastors and church workers. It was an innovative idea, and one
that took some time to mature, given the decades of war and economic turmoil that
followed the universitys Lutheran founding. At the same time that it built its wide
array of liberal arts and professional degree programs, Valparaiso University chose
to maintain a large and active theology department to nurture and deepen the insti-
tutions understanding of vocation regardless of academic discipline or profession
while attending to the formation of students pursuing church vocations.
3. How do strategic plans and efforts at the institutions understand and shape
lay vocation?
Meyer: Two things jump into my mind. The first is that weve done an inadequate
job in the church with the priesthood of all believers. People get the idea that
theyre doing the priesthood if they are on a board at church, read the lessons, or
perhaps even help distribute communion. That strikes me as defining the vocation
of the laity as some mini-version of the pastor. Pastors are respected for the work
they do, but the pastors vocation is just one of many that God uses to advance his
good purposes in the world. I hope we can teach our students that they are not a
special clergy caste, but rather that they are shoulder-to-shoulder with the laity in
the work of the church. As one friend put it, Its not the Great Ordination but the
Great Commission.
Second, the seminarys new strategic plan is going to be more intentional about
offering resources to the laity. Were already in the business of making our theo-
logical resources available to all the baptized, not just to pastors. For example, each
year about one million of our offerings on iTunesU are downloaded. Seminary pro-
fessors are constantly writing and speaking about how to apply Gods word to the
issues of the day. Were going to become more intentional about putting their work
Concordia Journal/Spring 2013
103
into resources that are appealing and helpful to laity living out the priesthood of
all believers.
Heckler: Valpo spends considerable time and intellectual energy in an ongo-
ing conversation about what it means to be called to use ones God-given gifts in
service to the world, and how to foster thoughtful reflection and discernment in our
students, who are Lutheran and non-Lutheran, Christian and non-Christian. Our
mission is focused on preparing graduates who will lead and serve in church and
society. And our strategic planthe result of two years of conversation involv-
ing more than a thousand faculty, staff, students, alumni, pastors, and community
leadersaims to deepen and strengthen our Lutheran identity and ethos even as
we become a more diverse institution. A key component of the strategic plan is the
new Institute for Leadership and Service, located in a new addition to the Chapel of
the Resurrection. Here, students will explore their sense of calling while engaging in
and reflecting upon their learning through service experiences where they put their
talents and their academic knowledge to use throughout the world to improve the
lives of people in need. In our strategic plan, we envision the day when every stu-
dent will have a significant, life-changing experiential learning opportunity grounded
in service to humanity.
4. How would you define vocation, particularly as it applies to laypeople, and
how have you seen it lived out in your institutional leadership?
Meyer: Vocation is calling. Follow me, Jesus said, and he doesnt permit us to
negotiate where we go or the conditions of our following. You are not your own;
you were bought at a price (1 Cor 6:20). Laypeople who know they are Christ-
followers get into positions and places that no clergy can enter. On the line in the
factory, in the board room, at the club . . . Laypeople who are not ashamed of being
Christian often have more credibility in real-world places than preachers do. In
my own stewardship of the presidents office, Ive come to see that the vision for
the churchs progress in the world often comes from lay people. Theyre out in the
real world, they have the Spirit, and so I take seriously their suggestions about the
direction of Concordia Seminary.
Heckler: Three components come to mind: grace, gifts, and gratitude. God knows
me and sees me, in my sinfulness, in my moments of doubt, in those times when I
do not trust him and venture forward on my own. It is amazing that, in spite of our
wanton and willful ways, God has been merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love. God has made a promise to all of us, that in spite of our sinful ways,
he will never leave us nor forsake us. God has bestowed us with unique talents and
abilities. And, more than all of this, God has given us the possibility of salvation
through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! What a
gift!
104
What can we possibly do in return for such generosity? Perhaps like the shep-
herd in the Christina Rossetti poem (In the Bleak Midwinter), I feel called to
give him my heart. I feel called to commit my life to serve God through higher
education, because God takes mercy on me, because God is generous, because I
have been saved through Jesus Christ. To serve as a college president is a great
responsibility, but it is an extraordinary blessing. Each day begins with gratitude,
seeks redemption, works toward reconciliation, and ends with Gods grace.
5. What texts or experiences have led to your own understanding of vocation
and the ministry of the baptized?
Meyer: Oh my, there are so many. The prophets and the apostles give us page
after page of Gods inspiration to seek and to save the lost. One non-biblical pas-
sage that has impressed me greatly comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He wrote, I
discovered later, and Im still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by
living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. One must completely
abandon any attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, or a
converted sinner, or a churchman (a so-called priestly type!), a righteous man or
an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one. By this-worldliness I mean living
unreservedly in lifes duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and per-
plexities. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking
seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the worldwatching with
Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith; that is metanoia [repentance]; and that
is how one becomes a man and a Christian (from Letters and Papers from Prison,
to Eberhard Bethge, July 21, 1944).
Heckler: I was raised in the Church of the Brethren during the Vietnam War, so
much of my Christian identity remains rooted in issues of peace and social jus-
tice, moderation in that which is good and abstinence from that which is harmful.
Service was and is at the heart of the Brethren church and some of my earliest
memories of idealized role models are associated with young adults who served in
Brethren Volunteer Service or were conscientious objectors to military service and,
thus, lived out their Christian principles through working in hospitals and other
forms of voluntary service. Yet, for me, this link between ones work in the world
and faith in God remained elusive for decades. My wife and I became Lutherans
as adults precisely because Lutherans understand this idea of serving God through
ones work, that one can be called to many roles in life beyond ministry, and that
in living out ones calling in the world, we glorify God by using our God-given gifts
in service for the sake of the world.
Concordia Journal/Spring 2013
105
The Communion of Saints: Four Perspectives on Lay Vocation
106
The editorial team of Concordia Seminary and Valparaiso University formulated the following
questions to submit to a roundtable of thoughtful leaders from a variety of professional backgrounds.
Their perspectives represent a myriad of ways of envisioning how vocationthe priesthood of all believ-
ersis lived out in daily life.
The questions: What writers, texts, or experiences have contributed to your understanding of lay
vocation? How does your understanding of calling relate to leading and serving in church and society?
What follows are some personal working hypotheses Ive formed about dis-
cerning ones calling in life as a Christian layperson:
1. Solomon was right.
2. Work precedes the fall.
3. Its easy to get the wrong ideas in Sunday school.
4. I shouldnt expect too much.
5. We should talk about this more.
First, a caveat: Its obviously impossible to know whether my reflections below
represent what others think. I speak as a layperson but cannot speak for all laypeople.
I do know that I have genuinely thought all these thoughts. Im sure the theologically-
trained eye can catch some rookie mistakes here. Nevertheless, I ask that you read
with charity, and I welcome anyone to set me straight on the details.
Second, some context.
I was born in the rural Midwest where both of my parents were parochial
schoolteachers. I began my career in the nonprofit world, later picked up an MBA
from a good school, and spent the better part of two decades in corporate America,
much of it in the New York City marketing and advertising world. Since last summer,
Ive worked for Concordia Seminary. Throughout, Ive been active in congregations
as a Bible study leader and some elected roles. Ive been married for 20 years and have
two daughters.
For me, the word vocation conjures up the entirety of career, family, and
what I spend my life doing. To be frank, though, I quickly zero in on the career
piece. Ive had several jobs, and Ive been blessed to be truly energized by each one. I
think thats very rare. I have a fantastic marriage, and thats also rare. But even so, the
concept of finding my calling has been very unclear.
Concordia Journal/Spring 2013
107
So, here are my working hypotheses on vocation.
1. Solomon was right. Vanity, vanity! At some level, its all meaningless
but that also means that many vocational options are morally equal
before God. I see a freeing sense of possibility in Solomons leveling all
human pursuits under the sun to the same status: across a wide range of
human endeavor, no type of work enjoys higher moral status before God
than another.
Corollary: One of Gods greatest gifts is a job you like. There is nothing
better for a man than to enjoy his work, for this is his lot. In my college
years, those words struck me as a mid-life rant of despair. Now Im middle-
aged myself, and I notice that nothing better also suggests that it is the
very best that God may have in store for youthat beyond which nothing is
better to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see,
is from the hand of God (Eccl 2:24).
2. Work precedes the fall.
Whatever part of work now reflects a fallen creationthe thorns and the
drudgery, perhapsthe charge to subdue and rule (Gn 1:28) is part of
Gods perfect plan. Gods first command was to get busy. Work is good.
Corollary #1: Ambition to achieve falls within Gods perfect design for us.
Forming this thought has involved one of my lifes biggest struggles. I grew
up thinking the church equated ambition with greed or pride. Probably I just
wasnt catching the nuances, but I thought that success in business was primar-
ily valuable in Gods sight only to the extent that it led to something else such
as time or resources to dedicate to family or to holy activities.
But if work really existed in Eden, it may be okay to have career ambi-
tion. Already in Genesis 1, God sets ambitious goals for humankind and
challenges them to care for the world. Pursuing career success can be, by
itself, part of being the person God made me to be.
Corollary #2: Some jobs that seem to reflect Gods will the most may
actually have not been part of his original plan for creation.
Consider these two jobs: police battling crime, and social workers rescuing
abused children. The value of these jobs is enormous, but their value derives
from the broken, fallen state of things. If we believe that Christs death and
resurrection ultimately sets aright what was broken by the fall, then many so-
called less important jobs suddenly take on new light.
3. Its easy to get the wrong idea from Sunday school about your calling
in life (although I want to humbly acknowledge that what-they-were-
teaching and what-I-heard may be two different things!).
Consider the following:
108
The Bible is full of dramatic stories of God calling people to do stuff.
God wanted these people to know his specific will for them.
Some of the people in these stories quickly figured out what God want-
ed them to do, and some of them didnt. Life usually went well for those
who figured out what God wanted them to do and did it.
So far so good. The above summary fits a wide range of Sunday school
figures: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Saul, David, Samson, Balaam,
Jonah, the disciples, and Paul.
The wrong idea works like this: we leap from the presence of so many
great stories in Scripture to the conclusion that God routinely allows people
his people, anywayto have full confidence that they know the exact plans he
has for them. This leap is illogical and simply not consistent with the biblical
record. But Ive spent a lot of my life thinking it was true, and beating myself
up inside wondering why my sense of Gods call was less than exact.
As I see it, these conclusions are truer to Scripture:
Clearly perceiving a divine calling in ones life is the exception, not the rule.
For most, the clear sense of calling is an episode in a life, not the pat-
tern of the whole life.
Those holy heroes of faith who clearly found their calling were gener-
ally not looking for it, so much so that many disbelieved it at first.
All this leads to my fourth working hypothesis:
4. I shouldnt expect too much. Or better, I shouldnt expect what God
does not promise in his word.
The idea that God has a plan for your life may not be taught in your
church, but weve all heard it. It is widely accepted, and it is very attractive,
especially when we laypeople show up in church hoping for answers and
meaning. Properly understood, God surely has a plan for my life, but Ive
found that as vocational guidance this concept has slippery slopes that can
lead to guilt and despair. Overthinking vocation may actually keep me from
discovering it.
Finally, heres a parting request from my side of the lectern to those of you whose
vocation involves helping people like me grow in Gods grace:
5. Weclergy and laypeopleshould talk about this more . . . even if you
dont think you have a fully formed theology of vocation.
The world today is radically different from the one in which most of us
attended Sunday school and even more radically different from the time when
our core doctrinal positions were worked out. Its just possible that the church
has some catching up to do on describing what Gods calling looks and feels
like today. This may be true for church workers as much as for lay people.
Concordia Journal/Spring 2013
109
In my case, Ive spent vastly more Sunday mornings hoping to have the
sense of Gods calling that I imagined my pastor must have, than even being
curious about the way the guy at the other end of the pew may have been
sorting out his faith. Fortunately, I finally went over to meet that guyseveral
of them in fact. Four men in a small Lutheran church met every Saturday for
donuts and a chapter of the Bible, to kick around how their lives were going,
and to pray for each other. They welcomed me in when we relocated for my
job. None had been raised Lutheran, but each had felt his life was transformed
when he came to understand Gods grace through the Lutheran lens. I knew
vastly more Scripture than anyone else, but I quickly saw that I lacked the
charity and wisdom that they possessed. Over time and in no spectacular way,
they showed me much about the difference Gods grace can make in everyday
affairs, what kinds of inner transformation one can experience from knowing
Jesus, and how to find and express Gods calling in my life in my various roles
at work, home, and the community.
I have many unanswered questions about vocation, but Im confident of
this: as God puts us together in congregations, we can do more to help one
other sort through big and small vocational questions, through life priorities
and practical decisions. If youre a church professional, Id challenge you to take
the lead to talk about how youve experienced Gods calling, and to ask us to
tell you whats similar and whats different for us. Encourage us to read books
on the topic, even if they were published outside our own denomination. And
dont worry if you dont have all the answers. We probably can learn a lot from
each other.
Phil Ebeling
Philip Ebeling is the executive director of communications at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.