Deep gladness and the world's deep hunger

FREDERICK BUECHNER • "Vocation"

ized and borne, and whether by the very act of breaking it the law is recogn h ·11 f G d · h "fi

1 sanctified. T e WI O O is t us sancti 1ed in the deed that arises out tru Y · 1 b d 1· · h d f f edom. Precise y ecause we are ea mg wit a eed that arises from o re h .

freedom, the one w o acts 1s n~t tor~ apar~ by destructive conflict, but in- d can with confidence and mner mtegnty do the unspeakable namely stea . , ,

in the very act of breaking the law to sanctify it.

FREDERICK BUECHNER

"Vocation"

Frederick Buechner is a contemporary novelist and theologian whose facil- ity with the English language and whose ability to condense complex is- sues into memorable aphorisms have made many of his theological for- mulations especially quotable. Indeed, his special gift for verbal economy may have encouraged him to produce a kind of dictionary of Christian theological terms in the book from which the selection below has been taken, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC. The term that appeared under the letter Vin that volume was, of course, "vocation."

The conclusion of Buechner's short discussion of vocation is perhaps the most widely quoted formulation of vocation among contemporary American Christians. "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." By "deep · gladness," do you suppose that Buechner means "contentment," or does he mean the kind of joy that can be present even in the midst of suffering? Which of those two understandings would be more consonant with the ideas of vo- cation set forth by the other writers in this anthology?

From Fred . 1973) enck Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper and Row, 'p. 95.

111

VOCABULARIES • Vocation

[Vocation] comes from the Latin vocare, to call, and means the k Wor a is called to by God. Person

There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all di'fi"Ce 11 rent ki d

work and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God r th n s of ' a erth Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest. an of By and large a good rule for finding out is this: The kind of k

usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most :: 0

~ 0

God (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick and

your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work i out ?f · · d th h ' · d · s Writ-mg agarette a s, e c ances are you ve m1sse requirement (b) 0 other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you ha;e p:~:~ bly met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren't helping your patients much either.

Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

WILL CAMPBELL

"Vocation as Grace"

Will Campbell, who lives on a farm in Tennessee, has been upsetting Christian complacencies for many years as a preacher, activist, essayiSt' and novelist. Like Bonhoeffer, Campbell believes that "when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." Campbell therefore has no patience for the idea of vocation as something that simply gives a spiritual gloss to what we have chosen to do for ourselves by ourselves in any case.

In the story that he recounts below, Campbell challenges the conven- tional Christian notion that vocation is a purely individual matter. He sug-

h . ·th others,

gests t at our callings are best negotiated in community WI

andWillD- From William D. Campbell, "Vocation as Grace," in Callings/ ed. James Y. Holloway Campbell (New York: Paulist Press, 1974), pp. 279-280.