| Readings for November 13, 2011
"For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness." 1 Thessalonians 5
Today's Scriptures point the way to how God calls us, what is expected of us as those who follow God and seek to do his will. The readings tell us something about God, too-the incomprehensible God who we can understand only through the smallest glimmers.
And yet, these readings are problematic:
The virtuous wife in Proverbs is praised at the city gates! She is described as industrious, always providing for the needs of her family and for the wider community. Considering the position of women in traditional Middle Eastern societies, does this woman have any choice in what she does? Is she praiseworthy only because she follows the strict directives of her society? What if, as a wife and mother, she didn't do these things?
In Paul's Letter to the Thessalonians, the clever and resourceful servants invest wisely, increasing their master's wealth, while the master casts the lazy servant into "the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." What does this tell us about God? Does God want us to be busy all the time fulfilling our duties toward other people? Does God mete out severe punishment toward those who do not fully use what has been given to them?
Perhaps we fill all of these roles at times. We are sometimes the virtuous wife, finding our own happiness in helping others. Other times, we are more like the good servant, meeting the requirements of an exacting boss (or partner?). The world has a way of punishing laziness and not being productive with a lack of worldly success.
What about directives that come from our own hearts? Do our own needs always come last? Are virtuous people not meant to think of themselves at the risk of being considered selfish and self-absorbed?
My senior class at Concordia University has been discussing the idea of vocation. How are we called? In Reformation theology, all of life came to be viewed as a sacred calling, contained in the duties of everyday life. This might have been a reaction to the church's view of only vowed religious as having a holy calling, and it elevated the work that one does to being meaning of one's life.
My class is studying Parker J. Palmer's somewhat gentler and more personalized view of vocation in his book "Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation," which I recommend highly for all age groups. Palmer is a Quaker and is famous as a writer and teacher, and a facilitator of life change. In his view, vocation is a gift that comes from within-it is the place of deep joy and wholeness where who we are from the moment of birth is acknowledged and-one might say-is joined together with the will of God. Vocation, then, is not a series of "oughts" and harsh directives from outside ourselves, but that which expresses in an ultimate way who we are meant to be in our very essence.
In a similar way, Teilhard de Chardin suggested that we are meant to find what we do in its ultimate fulfillment in God: "By pressing the stroke, the line, or the stitch, on which I am engaged, to its ultimate natural finish, I shall lay hold of that last end towards which my most interior will tends."
So what does this point to in our relationship with God? I find myself searching here for the loving God who accepts us as we are, freeing us from darkness and the bondage of sin. We are loved by being our truest selves, made in God's image, even without the accoutrements of success. God loves "the least." We are called to live in the light and freedom of the children of God, using our inner direction and gifts as we are-with the goal of reaching their ultimate fulfillment in Christ.
Maryanne Rusinak, Ascension Parishioner
Concordia University librarian and professor
mother of four grown children
Suggested books by Parker J. Palmer: Let Your Life Speak; Listening for the Voice of Vocation, The Courage to Teach, The Active Life, A Hidden Wholeness. He is founder of The Center for Courage & Renewal, see http://www.couragerenewal.org/parker
Quote is from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man
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