Imagine What Is Possible by Stephan Bauman

Author:Stephan Bauman [Bauman, Stephan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60142-751-9
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2015-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

And he appealed to everyone to do great things:

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.15

In the New Testament the word whoever (whosoever in older translations) is used more than a hundred times by Jesus, Paul, and others: “Whoever believes …,” “Whoever wants to be my disciple …,” Whoever acknowledges me …,” “Whoever does these things …,” “Whoever aspires …” With the constant use of this gender-neutral pronoun, God invites all. Everyone. Us. Them. You. Me.

No one is left out. Everyone is called.

Why? Because calling is essential to the nature and character of God. His unconditional love necessitates an invitation to all who bear his image. He is committed to our becoming, our formation, but also to our vocation, our purpose.

The idea of calling in the Bible is nuanced, however. Some texts refer to our identity, our calling as the people of God, while others refer to our calling as a vocation, even specific responsibilities and tasks. Os Guinness distinguishes between primary and secondary callings. “First and foremost we are called to Someone,” he says, namely God. This is our primary calling. Our secondary calling is to specific tasks and responsibilities.16

This nuance regarding calling prioritizes our identity, who we are, versus our utility, what we do. Calling is not a class system, split between sacred and secular, clergy and laity. The sixteenth-century Reformation took care of this heresy even though we often slip back into it. Martin Luther proclaimed all forms of work as honorable, even saying “when a father … washes diapers … God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling.”17 “To be a farmer, a craftsman, or an artist [is] just as much a vocation, a calling from God, as to be a preacher,” said Tim Keller. He added:

If the Holy Spirit is not only a preacher that convicts people of sin and grace … but also a gardener, an artist, and an investor in creation who renews the material world, it cannot be more spiritual and God-honoring to be a preacher than to be a farmer, artist, or banker.18

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