Our “going” is our vocation. Our vocation is our station in life. Very often we live in many and various vocations or stations in life all at the same time. We may be a mother or father, brother or sister, aunt or uncle, factory worker or newspaper editor, stock market broker or farmer, teacher or student. And often our vocations change as we move through the various stages of our lives. However, there is one vocation that remains the same:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).We are a chosen race and a royal priesthood. By faith in Jesus, faith He has given to us through the waters of Holy Baptism, faith He strengthens through His Holy Word, we are priests. Now, the priests of the Old Testament offered sacrifices and so we too offer sacrifices; however, the sacrifices we offer today are not blood offerings on the altar. No, today our sacrifices are that we live our lives as living sacrifices as Paul says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). And as Peter says, “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
Today we are priests offering our lives as living sacrifices in our vocations in which we serve God by serving others. The very purpose of our lives is first and foremost to be loved by God because we cannot love except that He first loved us. And then we reflect His love to others, serving Him by our service to others by being priests offering our lives as living sacrifices, and in so doing we bear witness of our faith and give Him glory.
5 of 52 © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)
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