Beautiful people, wonderful snow, and learning to read the story of Jesus

Yesterday I arrived in Arnoldshain just outside of Frankfurt, Germany. I am staying at Martin Niemöller Haus to speak at a conference on faith and work in a digital age hosted by the Evangelische Akademie Frankfurt.

It has been such a stimulating and challenging engagement so far. Prof Torsten Meireis (from Bern Switzerland) and I presented our papers last night.

I spoke about the importance of recapturing the notion of calling and vocation in work life. Luther insisted that God calls every person into the world daily. Up to the point of the Reformation the understanding was that God only called a few persons, such as nuns and monks, and that they were called to 'leave' the world behind. However after the Reformation the vita activa becomes as important for faithful Christian living as the vita contemplativa. The challenge is that slowly and subtly our attention turned from calling to vocation ('roeping tot beroep'). So we formed identity in our vocation - being the parent, being the teacher, being the worker. The notion of vocation is based on 1 Cor 7.20, we are to be faithful to God first. Our work is to be a means to that end, and not the end in itself. The following quote, translated from Prof Dirkie Smit's reflections on calling captures what I said:

God calls everybody, not only a select few, [according to Luther] and God calls them with a spiritual calling, and this spiritual calling is not a calling out of everyday life, rather it comes by way of everyday life, through the place and task in which persons find themselves. That is where they are called to be faithful and to honour God.  (own translation from Smit, 2003:9*)

By the way, the conference and proceedings are being done in German. ha ha! I managed my way through the presentations and the question and answer section with my very basic German! I learnt how to read French and German when I was busy with my graduate studies and did some work on Karl Rahner (in German) and Henri Le Saux (in French). But spoken German is an entirely different thing! My thanks to the participants for their patience!

It was wonderful to make new friends, Dr Gotlind Ulshöfer, Dr Brigitte Bertelmann and Dr Konstantin Broese among others. Such wonderful people!

The snow is lying thick on the ground! I tackled my jet lag yesterday by going for a beautiful walk in the forest in the afternoon. It was an act of 'holy leisure'.

Well, it is time to continue with the conference today, here is a quote that I came across that that may offer an invitation to a new way of reflecting on the story of Jesus:

When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves–that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience.

N.T. Wright

*2003. 6 Riglyne vir prediking oor Christelike roeping. Burger, C., Müller, B. & Smit, D.J. (eds.). Wellington: Lux Verbi