This coming Sunday will be the end of our “Called by the Gospel” annual focus. This year we talked about vocation. We recognized that we are “called” by God to do what we do, no matter if that is being a mom or a student or an employee or an entrepreneur or whatever it is that you do on a regular basis. We reject the notion that our vocations are unimportant to God. If we are important to God, so are the things that we do. If we believe that Christ redeems our lives, we have to believe that Christ’s redemptive power is at work in our jobs. 
Understanding this brings great importance to our work, but it also brings an ease to our work. The Gospel of vocation is that we work out of the grace shown to us on the Cross. So many in our age feel that they must be justified by their work – that their success or failure at their occupation or at being a parent or at anything at all is what gives their life it’s “enoughness”. As Christians, we do not work to justify ourselves because we recognize we have already been justified by Christ. Rather, we work out of the restful place that knows that we are accepted by God already, and so our work can have an attractive playful aspect to it.
Over this past year, it is my hope that this message of the justification of our lives – even in (perhaps especially in) the mundane aspects of our everyday tasks – has been communicated. From “Christmas Calling” our Advent/Christmas sermon series to “Believing the Call,” our last sermon series, I hope you have heard this message repeated here at University Lutheran. I also pray that you have heard it in newsletter articles, Bible studies, and throughout the many different things that we do here at University Lutheran.
In addition to those sermons and the newsletter articles you have received, it has been a special joy and privilege for me to have worked with over 10 people in one-on-one vocational coaching during this focus year. Through this experience, I feel that I have a better understanding of the vocational challenges and joys that members of University Lutheran experience from Monday to Saturday. Thank you for your time and investment and I hope that your investment returned dividends to you.
This coming Sunday we celebrate “Christ the King” Sunday, the annual celebration of the last Sunday in the Church Year. As Americans we are sort of unclear about what it means to have a good king, but we vocationally understand what it means to have a good boss. And while perhaps something is lost in the translation between king and boss, there is more similarity than difference. To end our year of celebrating that our vocations are redeemed, we gather together to sing praises to our boss. While He could have fired us, He kept us. He coached and mentored us. He continued to pay us a salary that is far beyond what we deserve. He promises us job security not as employees, but as family members in a family business. No matter what your vocation or your experience of this past year, I hope that you recognize His grace at work in every part of your life.
Thank you for your time and your investment in His Kingdom along with all of us here at University Lutheran. It has been a joy to explore how we are all “Called by the Gospel” together.