One of the first things we ask people when we meet them is ‘What do you do?’ Usually what we mean by that is what job they do. Jobs take up a large part of our lives for many years and are often a neat box into which we can fit people. You can tell a lot about a person, we reason, from the job they do.

I am increasingly frustrated, however, by our culture’s obsession with putting people into boxes and also by this assumption that any job, or anything we do for that matter, is the thing that defines us. More and more I believe that who we are is the thing that defines us, not what we do. And more and more I believe that what we do for the vast majority of our adult waking hours is not simply a job but is actually a vocation.

A job is an assignment to do work that can be quantified and evaluated and measured. It’s usually fairly easy to see if a job has been done or not; it can even be easy to see if the job has been done well or badly. But a vocation is not a job in that sense, although often it will involve doing specific tasks. A vocation is a calling, a sense of the divine in the mundane. I believe all of us should live life with that sense of calling and divine guidance.

Most of us, however, prefer the job description to the idea of calling, because at heart it is easier to live under law than under grace. Do not misunderstand me: it is not better to live that way, nor is it more fulfilling. But it is a lot easier to have a ‘to do’ list that can be neatly ticked off at the end of a day than it is to wrestle with the question ‘what have I actually achieved today in the things I’ve done?’ It’s easier to list all the dishes we’ve washed or the shelves we’ve stacked or the books we’ve marked or the number of plants we’ve tended than it is to know if we have responded to the nudge of God to spend time listening to a colleague’s woes or helped someone through our fellowship. Jobs are visible and it is easy to see if we have done them or not. Calling is invisible and not at all easy to evaluate.

I have been meditating on this for weeks, especially in the light of considering my vocation as a teacher and seeing this shift as God closes some doors and opens others. The workshop ‘Imagine Church’ clarified my long-held view that all Christians need to see their work as vocation; it is not helpful to have any kind of sacred/ secular divide in our thinking, for God is over all and in all. As I have been reading Eugene Peterson’s memoir ‘The Pastor’ this week, I was relieved (and pleased) to see that this tension between jobs and vocation is something he has also faced. “How do I keep the immediacy and authority of God’s call in my ears when an entire culture, both secular and ecclesial, is giving me a job description? How do I keep the calling, the vocation, of pastor from being drowned out by job descriptions, gussied up in glossy challenges and visions and strategies, clamoring [sic] incessantly for my attention?” (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Pastor’ P 165)

Job descriptions are easy to write. It can be a useful thing to do, to evaluate what you actually do in the course of a day and to see that with fresh eyes. I have been helping Florentine to adjust to her new job as a French teacher and that is an eye-opener, for so much of what I took for granted about the job is new to her and she is having to adjust to its demands slowly. But no job description can ever truly summarise our calling and it cannot be allowed to define us. We are so much more than the sum of all we do. Don’t let the mundane drown out the Voice calling daily to take up His cross and follow Him; don’t focus on what you do more than on the daily challenge to become more like Christ.

Last week as we studied 1 John 1:5-6 TNIV, we looked at the vast statement ‘God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.’ We discussed the idea of dazzling, blinding light and how God often uses the symbol of fire to represent light, as in the pillar of fire which led the Israelites by night during the wilderness wanderings. We discussed how darkness is the absence of light and how light seems to dawn gradually at times. Light brings clarity to situations and often seems less frightening than the darkness simply because we can actually see where we’re going!

As always, a Bible study triggers ongoing musings and thoughts. I was reminded of Martin Luther King’s profound quotation: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” I also thought about Plato’s statement: “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” John echoes that thought in his gospel, saying ‘Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.’ (John 3:20-21 TNIV) Sometimes the darkness actually seems safer than the light, for the light reveals all our sin.

As we reflect on light and darkness, we see that God’s light is holy, revealing His purity and goodness. Phil Wickham has written a song called ‘Holy Light’ which captures this idea well:
“God who reigns over earth and sky,
Flood this world with Your holy light.
Start a fire that will never die;
Flood this world with Your holy light.” (‘Holy Light’, Phil Wickham)
‘Holy Light’, Phil Wickham

Steve and Katuska have sent the following update from Mozambique:

‘We’re getting ready for the school Christmas talent show: the boys are practising In the Bleak Midwinter, singing in time to the rhythmical creaking of our ceiling fan, on a regular sunny afternoon, in temperatures of 36 Centigrade. They’ve just collapsed into fits of laughter and decided to try Good King Wenceslas instead.
Our patch of suburban Maputo is a sandy rectangle with the school on one half and the housing on the other. A dry wind blows across it most days, and thunderstorms sometimes batter it at night. There are coconut palms, lemon and mango trees and hopeful attempts to grow grass. We live some way from the city centre, but the alternative would be impossibly high rents, traffic pollution and noise; OMS and the school moved out here two years ago, and overall it was a good decision.

We’re pleased to detect that we’re all making some progress in Portuguese, including the boys, who have it in their school timetable. Mozambicans are very forgiving, and we can get the subjunctive tenses all tangled up and still be understood, but we do have a very hard time making phone calls. We’ve had some opportunities to preach already; and we can be called on at a moment’s notice to take some part in a service, so we have to be wide awake for the whole two hours or more.

In our prayers we give thanks for you and for your partnership in the gospel. We do look out eagerly for news from home, so any updates are always gratefully received. When you remember us in prayer, please pray for:
* safety on the roads, which can be very dangerous;
* for security generally in Mozambique, as the political situation feels very tense;
* for our work as we both prepare to teach at the seminary in the New Year.’

Tonight’s sermon was from Hebrews 3:7-19 TNIV and offer us four key reminders to making spiritual progress.

Listen to God
The first step in making spiritual progress is to hear God’s voice. Every work that has a lasting impact has its origins in God. We will only achieve lasting, eternal significance if we first of all listen to God. So often, we are full of good ideas and want to be doing things – often good things – but for us to do works that will have eternal significance, those works must have their origins in God rather than in our own good ideas. ‘You reveal and we respond.’ (‘King of Wonders’, Matt Redman et al). The only principle that works in the kingdom of God is this one of God initiating and us hearing His voice and responding to it. That’s why prayer and worship have to be fundamental to everything a church does; social action flows from this listening to God’s heart and responding to Him. Acts 13:1-3 TNIV shows us what can happen when people hear God: the missionary work of Paul and Barnabas flowed from the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to the church. God can speak in a loud voice or in a gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:11-12 TNIV), but the key thing about hearing the Shepherd’s voice (John 10:4 TNIV) is listening! Listening to God is not always easy; discerning His voice from the many which clamour for our attention is not easy. But hearing God speak to us will always revolutionise who we are and what we do.

Believe
Hearing God’s voice is only the first step to spiritual progress. The next step is to believe what He says and then to act on it: ‘When you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness.’ (Heb 3:7-8 TNIV) When God speaks, we have a choice. We can believe what He says or we can look at things with our natural eyes and doubt His motives and His ability. This recurring phrase about not hardening our hearts refers back to the wilderness wanderings of Israel, when, despite God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt and miraculous provision of manna, water and resources in the desert, reacted predominantly with doubt and unbelief. Hardening your heart does not happen ‘accidentally.’ We always have a choice set before us: to believe (and act on) what God has said or to listen to our own doubts, the doubts of other people, or the voice of the enemy. The question is not so much ‘to be, or not to be’ (in the words of William Shakespeare), but ‘to believe or not to believe’! It is our response to that question which will determine our spiritual progress. James reminds us, ‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.’ (James 1:22 TNIV).

Encourage
The next step for us to take if we are to avoid a hardening of our hearts is to learn the daily value of encouragement. ‘But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.’ (Heb 3:13 TNIV) Encouragement is the method we can use to ensure we keep on believing God, rather than falling into the trap of hard hearts. On our own, we are likely to falter. We are likely to shrink back and give up. Charlie Cleverly says ‘encouragement is the oxygen that keeps us running through the challenges life presents.’

Numbers 13 and 14 show us the two reactions we can have to the same situation. Most of the spies did not believe God could deliver the land to His people and their discouragement was pervasive. Only Joshua and Caleb believed God was mighty enough to do what He had promised. Discouragement is contagious, but faith and encouragement can also spread like wildfire! When we believe, we can encourage others to believe. The writer to the Hebrews says, ‘we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.’ (Heb 10:39 TNIV) We are told to ‘encourage one another’ (Heb 10:25 TNIV) and to ‘consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.’ (Heb 10:24 TNIV) Encouragement literally means ‘to give courage to‘. There will be many times on the journey of life when we need encouragement. That is why God has put us in a body, in a family; why we are not meant to go it alone all the time.

Hold Firm
The final step to making progress is to hold firm to the end. We hear God, believe Him, holding on to His promises even if we cannot see how they can actually be worked out. We encourage others to hold on. But the last step that is required is often the hardest for us to do. We have to hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. We have to persevere. We have to keep on believing. We have to keep on praying. We have to keep on working. We must not give up. Hebrews 10:36 TNIV says ‘You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.’ (see also James 1:12 TNIV). Don’t allow the difficulties and trials we are currently experiencing to overshadow the hope we have of what God can and will achieve if we do persevere. Paul urges us to keep our eyes on the end goal (see 2 Corinthians 4:8-18 TNIV and Gal 6:9 TNIV.)

Kevin spoke from Luke 18:35-43 TNIV this morning. The last time he spoke was on the healing of the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19, but this time we looked at the healing of the blind beggar. There are common themes of mercy and praise in both stories.

We are not told if the blind man required assistance to arrive at his regular place of begging or not, but this was clearly his ordinary way of living. An encounter with Jesus was about to change all that. Any encounter we have with Jesus will change us and we are hungry for more, no matter what we have already experienced.

Clearly, the blind man, when hearing all the commotion and being told that it was because of Jesus of Nazareth, had heard something of this man already, for he addressed Him as ‘Jesus, Son of David’. One commentary reminds us that he was blind and could do nothing to improve his situation. He recognised, however, that the Messiah could do something about him and therefore begged Him for mercy – a change to his normal begging for money and food! He was desperate to catch the ear of Jesus, but was rebuked by people for making such a noise. We need to be people who point others in the right direction and who are not stumbling-blocks. In effect, these people were telling the blind man to ‘sit down and shut up’, but his persistence paid off.

In ice hockey, a play who fouls another is sent to the ‘sin bin’ (a penalty box where a player sits to serve the time of a given penalty, for an offence not severe enough to merit outright expulsion from the contest.) Quite often he will deny any knowledge of the offence and will complain about the punishment until he is told to ‘sit down and shut up!’ If we want something from God, however, we need to overcome opposition that tells us to sit down and shut up and we need to persist in approaching God.

Jesus asked the man ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ (Luke 18:40 TNIV) This profound question cuts through our materialistic longings and reminds us that God is eager to pour out His blessings on us. He is so generous that He frequently asks us this question. The man’s response (‘Lord, I want to see’) shows us that we can be honest with Jesus and articulate to Him all the deepest longings of our hearts. Years of begging were brought to an end by the healing Jesus brought to the man. He received his sight instantly and praised God for this healing, causing others to praise God too. He was no longer a beggar, but was now a follower who opened his heart to the One who had opened his eyes.

When God works in our lives personally, it evokes praise in us. We need to be a thankful people whose response to God’s working in our lives is to stand up and praise!

As you know, Garry and I were in London last weekend at the Worship Central Conference. Podcasts of the talks and workshops are available to watch and listen to here. So, if you would like to hear some of the teaching or want to know more about the kind of things that happened, you can listen and learn from these free podcasts.