In the
medieval church, the Sacrament of Holy Orders entered those who were
really “sold out” for the Lord into “full-time Christian ministry.”
Christians were separated into “secular” and “religious” callings, as
though those who decided to work for the church or Christian ministries
were somehow more spiritual than those who engaged in “worldly”
vocations. Luther records, “Whoever looked at a monk fairly drooled in
devotion and had to be ashamed of his secular station in life.”10 To be
sure, not all believers are ministers; God has called some to hold
offices in his church. However, those who are not are no less committed
to God in their secular vocations.
Against this “sacrament,” the
Reformers launched their biblical notion known to us as “the priesthood
of all believers.” This doctrine insists that the milkmaid has as
God-honoring a calling and contributes as much as any priest, though in a
different way. One need not be a monk (i.e., an employee of a Christian
organization). Christians ought to be involved with the world, as salt
and light. “For the right faith,” urges Luther, “does not make people
give up their calling and begin a ‘spiritual’ one, like the monks do.
They imagined that they were not truly Christian unless they appeared
different outwardly from other people.”11 Each Christian, whatever his
or her calling, serves God, and that person’s calling—whether making
shoes, practicing law, dressing wounds, caring for children, or plowing
the fields—is a ministry to the community on God’s behalf. What a
revolutionary idea! It can be again. If even a pagan ruler can be
described as ministering on God’s behalf (see Rom. 13:4), surely
believers can see their secular work as fulfilling an important task in
God’s world. We still need pastors, elders, and deacons, but these are
special offices, not special people in the kingdom. Through these
officers the whole body is equipped by the Spirit to grow up together
into its Head and to brings its witness and service to the world.
The
Reformation produced great artists who were liberated from the almost
exclusively religious themes commissioned by the church. Until that
time, the best way to make a living as an artist was to create images of
God that are expressly forbidden in the second commandment. The
Reformation shifted the emphasis from the church to the world.
Ironically, the demand that art serve the interests of religion, piety,
and worship downplayed the goodness of creation, the common realm of
culture, and secular vocations. Yet the Reformers argued that you did
not need to justify such cultural activity in terms of its evangelistic,
moral, and devotional usefulness. A cobbler could glorify God, said
Luther, by making a good shoe and selling it at a fair price.
J. S.
Bach’s chief ambition was to represent the Reformation in music both in
secular as well as in church scores. In fact, he signed all of his
compositions (secular and religious) with the Reformation slogan Soli
Deo Gloria, “To God Alone Be Glory.” Rembrandt, the Dutch master,
brought the reality of this world to the canvas. Medieval artists
consistently depicted the light in a scene emanating from heavenly rays
or from the halos of the biblical heroes and saints. But for Rembrandt,
and for many of the Protestant painters, there was natural light. For
instance, in medieval paintings of the Nativity, the source of the light
was Christ and the holy family; in Protestant baroque art, the source
of light was more often a beam of light coming in through the window
from the sun or moon. These subtle differences marked a shift in the way
people looked at the world and their place in it.There was a tremendous
sense among the Reformation’s adherents that this world is terribly
important, too. To be sure, heaven is the believer’s ultimate hope, but
it is in this world where God has chosen to reveal, act, redeem, and
restore. As one hymn puts it, “This is my Father’s world.”
Where are
today’s Bachs, Handels, Miltons, Rembrandts, Dürers, Cranachs, Herberts,
and Donnes? Some of them might be found working two or three jobs to
put food on the table. Others have been intimidated by well-meaning but
ill-informed brothers and sisters who are convinced that unless artists
are producing something useful for the church (i.e., an evangelistic
tract, shirt, or bumper sticker or a church bulletin), art is a waste of
God’s time. Once again, the “full-time Christian ministry” thing, which
the Reformers knew as “monkery,” is the criterion for determining the
legitimacy of a Christian’s work. Painting, singing, playing an
instrument, composing, writing, directing, acting, sculpting—these
activities are callings which require no evangelistic justification. All
God requires of a Christian is the very best, most creative, and most
profound work he or she can produce. The response of one young man in a
study of the evangelical subculture by Randall Balmer captured the new
monasticism. This man gave up his calling to make films for what he was
convinced were godly reasons:
I said, “Lord, all I want to do
is what You want me to do. If You want me to make church movies for the
rest of my life, then praise God, hallelujah, I’ll make church films. I
just want to do what You want me to do. I don’t want to make theatricals
if You don’t want me to.” The time came when I had to make a decision,
so I got down on my knees. In the end, it wasn’t difficult. All I had to
do was choose God first, and the rest would fall into line. I told
them, No, I wouldn’t do it.12
In the church I used to pastor, we
had a member who had trained some of Hollywood’s leading actors and
directed the graduate drama studies at Yale and Stanford. When he came
to Southern California to an evangelical college, he had a dream to help
Christians fulfill their callings. But he soon learned that, unlike the
serious students he was used to, many of his students now were bent on
using drama in church or in evangelistic ministries. For many, the
thought of actually going into Hollywood and acting on a “secular” stage
wasn’t even a passing fancy. My friend was hounded for doing “worldly”
plays, until, eventually, he realized the dream was not to be, at least
not yet, not here.
Of course, liberating the laity with this
“priesthood of all believers” includes all callings. The band Loverboy,
mentioned earlier, sings about “working for the weekend.” Too many
Christians work for the weekend; in fact, I know many who feel guilty if
they don’t do some volunteer “Christian work” on the side. But
Christians are called by God to work for the week! The Reformation is
credited with the Protestant work ethic, sometimes called the Puritan
work ethic. You see, if you are a priest—not only on Sunday, but
throughout the week, and not only in the church, but at work or at
home—what you do during the week is not a job but a calling. This term,
calling, appears again and again in the Reformers’ writings. Calvin
writes, “The Lord bids each one of us in all life’s actions to look to
his calling.” This is necessary, he says, because we are fickle and
require a steady vocation. We ought not to transgress our calling, he
says, and meddle where we have neither the calling nor the expertise:
Each will bear and swallow the discomforts, vexations, weariness, and
anxieties in his way of life when he has been persuaded that the burden
was laid upon him by God. From this will arise also an impressive
consolation: that no task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey
your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious
in God’s sight.13
Luther argued that God is more impressed with
the milkmaid, milking her cow to the glory of God, than with all the
lavish and pious exercises of the monks.
Unfortunately, Christians
don’t have the best reputation in some circles of employment. My dad,
himself a devout Christian, used to say he would prefer to hire a
non-Christian or to take his car to a non-Christian mechanic because of
past experiences with believers who did not take their work in this
world very seriously. In my area, we have the Christian Yellow Pages, a
phone book with ads for Christians in business; I remember overhearing a
businessman at church one day cynically remarking to his wife, “Honey,
grab one of those; I’ve got to see who I won’t do business with.” What a
tragedy! There are horror stories of employers who want to strangle
Christian employees who read the Bible, pray, or evangelize on company
time. And sometimes these brothers and sisters don’t even put their
effort and energy into the job when they are working. The Protestant
work ethic has deteriorated even in Christian circles, it seems. But God
expects Christians to think hard, to work hard, and to play hard during
the breaks he has provided for our refreshment.
When Christians
begin to see that it is as godly to be a businessperson, lawyer,
homemaker, artist, garbage collector, doctor, or construction worker as
it is to be a missionary, evangelist, pastor, youth leader, or employee
of a Christian organization, they will once again become salt and light.
Once a young Christian woman realizes it is just as spiritual to sing
for the Metropolitan Opera as it is to sing in the church choir, we will
begin to see a new generation of liberated Christians calling attention
to their Maker and Redeemer.
The doctrines of the Reformation
produced leadership in the arts, in education (Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale,
Brown, Rutgers, and Princeton were founded by Reformed believers), in
industry, and in the crafting of democratic states. When all believers
become priests once again, we will see the end of full-time Christian
ministry as a separate and superior calling.
Horton, M.
(2011). Putting Amazing Back into Grace: Embracing the Heart of the
Gospel (pp. 216–220). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. |
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