Even if you are not fond of those historical mental games, this one has significant truth to it. Martin Luther provided a couple of key concepts during the Protestant Reformation that led centuries later to the modern labor movement.
Luther redefined “vocation” in Europe and by extension the western hemisphere. Vocation, said Luther, is a God-given calling for every Christian. The Roman Catholic church at that time understood vocation as being church vocations, going into the priesthood was the highest calling, but the diaconate and orders like monks and friars and nuns were also vocations someone might be called into. Then there was everyone else. Sure, some were pretty important, like monarchs, but one was only “called by God” into religious vocations; everyone else just had an occupation. There was a ranking in society based on your standing, and an aristocrat was morally better than a peasant, and everyone knew… and stayed… in their place.
Luther upended that, citing a more biblical view that God calls everyone into their work. God places the challenge to do any task, any occupation, in the service of others and for the glory of God. If you are a blacksmith or baker, be the best blacksmith or baker you can be, doing it with all the care and diligence and spirituality as a monk scribing a Bible. God calls butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers just as clearly as priests and bishops. So your daily business is holy, just as holy as what a monk or nun does, just as holy and accountable to God as what a pope does. It’s all a calling. It’s all a calling from God. So follow your path well.
This of course, elevated secular vocation to the level of religious callings, beginning not just the flattening of all vocations to the same level— no longer was a priest “better” than a blacksmith or a lawyer— but set the intellectual underpinnings for the labor movement. All work is god-given and in a sense holy and to be valued. The factory owner was no “better” than the spinner or seamstress or machinist, and if you are equal in God’s sight, why should you be ranked in human estimation?
When you add in a few more ideas from the enlightenment like the notion of social contract, modern economics, and moral philosophy, our protestant theology of vocation is a significant part of our culture now, leading to the power of the labor movements in the U.S., organizing, days off, collective bargaining, benefits, and all the rest we take for granted. This coming Monday is more than a day off, so pause to reflect on how that sabbatical from labor is rooted in the protestant notion of Sabbath. In a real way, this holiday is a holy day, too.
In Christ,
David
Texts for Sunday
From the Hebrew Bible Jeremiah 2:4-13From the Epistles 13:1-8, 15-16
From the Gospels Luke 14:1, 7-14
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