Pastor's Message
 
                                                                                          

Blessed Vocations - February Spirit Steps 2012

“For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ ---“writes Paul in his letter to the Romans. He then goes on to say that we have gifts that differ in each of us and that we are to use our gifts for the good of the whole. This is a theme that echoes throughout Scripture.

Each of us is unique with unique gifts. Paul also warns against thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, as he recognizes that all of the gifts are necessary for a healthy functioning body. In other words no gift or gifts are more or less important than another.
There is an old war film; I believe it is Mr. Roberts, in which one of the minor characters is the garbage grinder aboard a submarine. He is a person that is portrayed as having limited intelligence, who doesn’t shower, but who devotes himself to his job of grinding the garbage on the submarine. He knows it is an important job because if the garbage was not ground it would be spotted by the enemy and the position of the submarine would be discovered. In the movie, he gets seriously ill and much brighter men are assigned his job while he is in sickbay. They find the job disgusting and, of course, do not do a good job of grinding the garbage. An enemy ship spots the garbage and the submarine is attacked. They do manage to survive but with a new appreciation for the garbage grinder.

The word vocation comes from the same root word as voice so one way of understanding our vocation is by listening to the voice of the One who created us and discern what that voice is calling us to be or to become. This requires that we spend some time listening and discerning that voice and then being willing to act on what we hear.

In his book, “What Color is Your Parachute” Richard Bolles writes that our vocation, our purpose in life, “can be found where our deepest passions and gifts intersect with the worlds needs.” Hopefully this ideal of vocation is at least partially attained in the “jobs” that most of us have. It certainly can find its complete fulfillment in volunteer work or relationships with family and friends as well as within our faith community.
As a faith community we have always recognized with Paul the importance of all vocations.

As a practice however we have not publically affirmed all vocations. We bless Sunday school teachers; church council members etc. but we have not on any consistent basis provided a blessing for vocations outside of institutional church work. In an attempt to change this practice, we will have a vocational blessing as a part of our worship service on the first Sunday of each month beginning in February 2012. We will choose a different vocation each month to honor and bless. It is our hope that this will, to an even greater extent, enhance our sense of community at Zion.

May you experience God’s blessing in all that you do.

Pastor Bob