“What’s Your Vocation?”

Isaiah 6:1-8

2 Peter 1:2-11

November 21, 2004

There comes a point in our life when we must make a decision about the course that our life will take and the best way to use the life we have been given. For some that decision is made early in life. For some that decision is made later in life. Some people, young and old, have yet to make that decision at all. Over the last four weeks, we have heard stories about people confronted with making that very same decision, a decision that would set them on a course of life very different from what they expected. Abraham was a called to go to the Promise Land. Jeremiah was called to be God’s mouthpiece. Lydia was called to the Christian faith and started the first church in Europe. Paul was called to be Christ’s witness and servant. Each of them had to make a decision about the direction and purpose of their life. Their stories are the story of the Bible itself, the story of faith, the story of the God who calls individuals, people, and even nations to make a decision about their course of life, a course of life different from what they expected it to be.

When I talk about our course of life, what I’m really talking about is our calling in life, our purpose and direction, our vocation. Sometimes our vocation is in tune with our career choices, sometimes it is not, but each of us has been called to a vocation whether we are young or old. The trick is trying to figure out what our vocation in life is. Sometimes our vocation is easier to discern than at other times. Sometimes we have no idea and wander through life without any real sense of purpose.

I was like that in my later teenage years, especially when I was preparing for college. I had no clue about what my course of life would be. The whole idea of being called was a foreign concept to me. As I understood things, I was to pick out some occupation to do and major in that career in college, get a job in that occupation, and live happily ever after doing that work of that occupation. Of course, the only problem was that I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had no sense of purpose or direction, no sense of vocation, so I wandered through the first two years of college uninspired and uncertain about my future.

My first two years of college majors reads like a program for a job fair. I had so many majors my parents didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I first tried accounting, but then I took Accounting 101 and soon realized that to be an accountant you actually have to do well in accounting. Then I tried engineering, but soon found out that it involved taking math higher than high school calculus. I tried majoring in agriculture. Do I need to say anything more? I even went to the Air Force and Navy recruiters hoping I could go fly airplanes, but they have this big stick up with the whole eyesight thing, and my 20/900 vision didn’t quit qualify. Fortunately, I found a major that fit my interests, so I transferred to Georgia State University and graduated with a degree in Aviation Administration.

I thought I was all set. I had my occupation in line, and I was prepared to spend the rest of my working life in the transportation industry. But God had other plans for me, other plans that changed the course of my life, that changed the purpose and direction of my life, and gave me a sense of fulfillment and joy that I would have never been able to discover if God had not called me from my occupation to serve in this vocation.

The word vocation is so often used synonymously with occupation that it is easy for people to miss the difference. The American Heritage Dictionary defines occupation as an activity that serves as one’s regular source of livelihood; an activity engaged in especially as a means of passing time. Vocation, on the other hand, is defined as a regular occupation or profession especially one for which a person is specially suited or equipped. Doesn’t seem like much of a difference. But theologically and spiritually, there is a huge difference.

An occupation is what we do to earn money to live on. We can have several different occupations throughout our life, changing them from time to time as it serves our best interests. We can even retire from an occupation. But, a vocation is what we do to give glory to God, it is our calling in life, it is the specific way in which we serve in the kingdom of God. Our vocation does not change. Before we even have an occupation, before we were even born, we are called to a vocation. Even after we retire, we are called to a vocation. No matter what occupation we do, our vocation stays the same. It does not matter if we are working in a business, a factory, at home, or in the church; it does not matter what our income level is, what our job title is, or what kind of work we do; it does not matter if we are working, between jobs, or retired, we are called to the same vocation – to witness to and build up the kingdom of God, to be faithful and obedient, and to serve our Lord with passion and love and energy.

The difference is perspective. If we see our work as just an occupation, then our perspective is from a purely financial point of view. But if we see our work as the way in which we embody our devotion and loyalty and faithfulness to the God who calls, then our work becomes our vocation and we see our work from the point of view of the kingdom. This is why our vocation never stops, why we cannot take a break from it, why we cannot retire from it, and why we cannot leave it for someone else to do, because vocation is about all of us being called to do God’s will through God’s work for God’s purpose.

The call of Isaiah is one of the most familiar of all the call stories in the Bible. In this call story, Isaiah, himself, is giving us a first hand account of his encounter with the God who is larger than life in all of God’s glory and majesty. Isaiah served as a prophet to the people of Judah for 40 years, and during this 40-year period Isaiah served as a spiritual advisor in the royal court. A career political official, Isaiah spent much of his professional life speaking out about faithfulness, obedience, and judgment. Now, after years of service, Isaiah finds himself retired from the political scene, but not from his vocation as a prophet. Even in retirement, Isaiah writes down his words for all to read. He continues to speak out to the people about faithfulness, obedience, and judgment. Looking back he retells for us readers his divine calling to a vocation that is God-inspired, a divine calling to a vocation that continues even after his political career has ended.

For Isaiah, it is God’s open call for someone to go and speak God’s word that set him on a new course of life, toward a purpose and direction that superceded all other occupations. In his divine encounter, he realizes that the glory and majesty of God has set everything about life in its proper perspective. Life itself is a testimony to the God who creates, forgives, redeems and calls. Swept up by the experience of seeing God’s very self, Isaiah cannot do anything but volunteer to serve this great big awesome God, who has cleansed him and equipped him for the work of the kingdom. Isaiah may no longer be in the occupation of a court official, but he will forever be in the vocation as God’s prophet to the people.

Brothers and sisters, faithfulness and obedience are not measured by the routine work of the day, but by the way in which we live out our vocation as God’s chosen people. How we use the gifts and capacities we have been given matters. Too many people miss their vocation because they have not realized that their gifts and capacities are given to be used. Too many people miss out on living a life of true fulfillment and joy because they have no sense of vocation, no sense of what it means to serve the living God in all areas of life. Too many people disconnect their faithfulness and obedience from their work and even their life outside the church.

The great tragedy is that too many people forget that the purpose of their whole being is to glorify God and enjoy God forever. Instead, they are consumed by the trappings of the world, and live life by the old adage, “another day another dollar.” But life is so much more than this, life is to be so much more than this. Faithfulness and obedience, our gifts and capacities are to be expressed in our work regardless of what that work is, where we are called to work, when we are called to work, and to whom we are called to serve.

Just think about how this country might be changed, how this world might be changed, if people could see clearly that their work and their whole life is their opportunity to serve God and one another. The world needs pastors, but it also needs ministers and prophets, teachers and counselors, disciples and evangelists, healers and helpers. Just think about what kind of impact would be felt if God’s people everyone, when they hear God’s summons to do God’s will through God’s work for God’s purpose, were ready and willing to answer, “Here I am Lord, send me.” Amen.