The problem with thinking bi-vocationally

If you've ever done this you can smell this image

For summer reading I have been going through Creeds of the Churches, one of those books that you skim through while in seminary because you already know it all, but are finally capable of appreciating once your finished (almost in my case) and realize you didn't have a clue your first time through. While reading the Lutheran confessions this week I read the following definition while in the section titled Articles About Matters In Dispute, In Which Account Is Given Of The Abuses Which Have Been Corrected. Under the section regarding monastic vows Luther writes concerning the Christian life:

"For this is Christian perfection: that we fear God honestly with our whole hearts, and yet have sincere confidence, faith, and trust that for Christ's sake we have a gracious, merciful God; that we may and should ask and pray God for those things of which we have need, and confidently expect help from him in every affliction connected with our particular calling and station in life; and that meanwhile we do good works for others and diligently attend to our calling."
(Creeds, 96)

For whatever reason that quote led to the following thoughts. When considering my future in ministry I have generally come to accept that a season, if not a lifetime, of being bi-vocational will be necessary. The term bi-vocational means basically that I would take a "regular" job in addition to working in "ministry" mostly so that we can make ends meet while pursuing that which God has put in our hearts to do. While in seminary I have already been in a sense bi-vocational because I have worked full time while completing my degree. At first that meant cashiering at Whole Foods and for the past couple of years I have been property manager at the magical Swissaire Apartments.

One reason (among many) that Luther raged against monastic vows was that they had they effect in his day of leading the common man to believe that the religious life was beyond their grasp. Luther writes, "When the common man hears that only mendicants are perfect, he is uncertain whether he can keep his possessions and engage in business without sin" (Creeds, 97). As I read this I thought about how similar the culture of the monastery is to our modern culture of the ministry. Those called to the ministry are holy/religious, the one's with a vocation, while the common person simply exists in a necessarily inferior spiritual/religious state, and ultimately without a vocation.

This division between the ministry as the only truly sacred/religious life, and the experience of the common person as somehow profane/irreligious, is one reason behind talking about being bi-vocational, and for that reason I am increasingly convinced that all such talk is more harmful than helpful. (in the spirit of Luther I should probably say something more like..such talk is repugnant, utterly detestable, and of the most pernicious and damnable character fit only for the devils) If I am thinking bi-vocationally the inevitable result is that one vocation will ultimately be revered over the other. One will be considered a divine calling, while the other will be that particular suffering that I must endure to provide for my more profane needs such as food and shelter. In my experience such a dualism necessarily leads to discontent and stress while performing one's so-called profane vocation. Such discontent then leads to many other forms of vice because when I am on the clock at my profane vocation being spiritual or religious is perceived as not necessary or even possible.

So then what is the solution? The solution is to receive all that God has provided as one's spiritual vocation. Both the one called to the ministry and the common man have received their particular calling and station from God and therefore both have a "spiritual vocation". For me what that means is that clearing a clogged sink is as spiritual as studying/writing papers now, and preparing sermons and organizing ministry activities in the future. I don't want to be bi-vocational, I want to be vocational. I want to be as diligent with the mundane aspects of my life as I am with the sacred. I want to learn to receive everything as part of one glorious and beautiful whole. It's not a case of either or, either I am doing the work of the ministry or I am working to pay the bills. It's not a case balancing two distinct vocations, one sacred the other profane. It's about discovering the dignity and significance of all that God has given one to do and to receive it as a unified whole not creating any false separation between the sacred and profane.