Vocational Balance in the Ecclesia

Eric Brinkert is a Ph.D. fellow of the Christ School of Theology at the Institute of Lutheran Theology who as adjunct faculty teaches ethics at Christ College and the Christ School of Theology as well as at Tillamook Bay Community College in Tillamook, Oregon. In his ongoing series of articles for Verba Vitae Substack across 2026, Eric explores the notion of vocation and the balance it provides for a faithful Christian lifestyle and mindset. This fifth installment concerns our relationship as a beggar before God and how God’s love and care comes to us through the Church (the Ecclesia) as it provides for our spiritual needs and guides us in discerning his Word and living as his people. Each Christian is placed throughout their life into certain offices within the Ecclesia, an important part of spiritual discernment that leads to a Christian’s vocational balance and forms one’s entire relationship with her/his Lord.

by Eric Brinkert

In his book Ordinary Saints, Robert Benne instructs that the Christian life is marked by the filling and spilling of one’s spiritual cup (46-47, 50). This filling takes place in the church, the Ecclesia. It is true that the spiritual cup is filled through one’s vocations in each of the three estates, but God is ultimately the one that the Christian depends on to fill his or her cup. Whether that be directly receiving God’s Word and Sacrament in the Divine Service, or through the outpouring of those whose cups are also being filled in the Ecclesia, God is ultimately the source of all the good gifts that sustain and nourish his creatures. When the cup is poured out in service in and to one’s community, that is merely a distribution of that which God has given each of his creatures to give to others. But to give, one must first receive. This is why God established the Ecclesia before either the Oeconomia or the Politia, and why God establishes the relationship between himself and the human being as the primary relationship in creation. Vocational balance starts with a right prioritization of relationships, with the fundamental relationship being the relationship between the human being and their creator, God, the one who fills and sustains our spiritual cups.

Within this right relationship with God, the Christian, along with Martin Luther, acknowledges that before God they are merely beggars. That is, human beings are first and foremost reliant on God, and God is the single source of all the good that we receive. This is what Christians confess in the first article of the Creed, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” In this article, Luther explains in his Small Catechism, the Christian confesses that “I believe that God has created me and all that exists; that he has given me and still sustains my body and soul” (SC II:1-2). God’s gifts that sustain the soul come in the person of the Holy Spirit, who is at work in the Ecclesia, as Luther further explains in the Large Catechism, where he writes “God has caused the Word to be published and proclaimed, in which he has given the Holy Spirit to offer and apply to us this treasure of salvation” (LC II, 38). The third article of the Creed illustrates God’s creative work that fills one’s spiritual cups through the work of the Holy Spirit within the gathered community of believers, which is the Christian church, where the Christian receives the forgiveness of sins and the promises of the resurrection and life everlasting. So first and foremost, it is within the Ecclesia where one receives the gifts of life, true life, in Christ, just as Adam received the gift of life first and foremost in Eden, in the Ecclesia, before God created the Oeconomia.

From this we can see why Martin Luther stresses the ordered priority of the estate of the Ecclesia in his lectures on Genesis, stating that in Genesis 2:16-17, “Here we have the establishment of the church before there was any government of the home and of the state; for Eve was not yet created…” (LW 1, 103). Unlike Genesis 1, Genesis 2 is very detailed about the order in which God created his human creatures. It distinguishes that Adam was created and lived alone before Eve was created. There is significance here for both the Ecclesia, as well as for the Oeconomia, which will be discussed in a subsequent essay. But the significance of Adam being created first and living alone in the presence of God is to show the priority of the estate of the Ecclesia and to highlight that the fundamental human relationship is the relationship between the human being and God. Had the Ecclesia been created simultaneously with the Oeconomia it would indicate dueling priorities, but in creating the Ecclesia first, with the singular relationship between the one and only human being and the one true God, God clearly directs that the primary and fundamental relationship, the relationship that shapes all other relationship and leads to vocational balance, is the relationship between the human being and God.

Furthermore, Luther adds another layer of meaning to the establishment of the Ecclesia before the Oeconomia as he continues his lecture on Genesis 2, noting that: “The church was established first because God wants to show by this sign, as it were, that man was created for another purpose than the rest of the living beings. Because the church is established by the Word of God, it is certain that man was created for an immortal and spiritual life…” (LW 1, 104).

It is in these first pages of Genesis, as illuminated by Luther’s lectures, that a biblical vision of a Christian anthropology begins to crystalize. It is possible to see here what would inspire Wolfhart Pannenberg’s anthropology, upon whose work these essays rely for framing Christian anthropology, and who writes in Jesus—God and Man that “Openness to God is the real meaning of the fundamental structure of being human, which is designated as openness to the world in contemporary anthropology…” (193). And that “openness to God is the radical meaning of that human ‘openness in relation to the world” (344). This anthropology, drawn from the Bible and God’s created order, informs a vision of human flourishing and vocational balance that is grounded in the primary relationship in creation, the relationship between the human being and God.

This is important to note because it indicates that life is not made complete in vocation, that is in one’s earthly toil, but in the “immortal and spiritual life” that God intends for each of his creations, which is rightly distributed through his church, that is, in the body of Christ on Earth. This shows the clear distinction between the justifying work of Jesus, which is the first order good in the world, and the second order goods that God works through the vocations of his creatures. This does not diminish one’s vocations as Godly work, but it places one’s vocations in their proper context and clarifies that human fulfillment, or human flourishing, comes through God and being that which God created each person to be.

And so, God created the church as the first of the orders of creation, to prioritize the relationship between the human being and God. In discussing the characteristics of the Ecclesia, Luther makes two notable and contrasting comments about this first estate. Commenting on Genesis 2:16-17, Luther writes that “the church is established without walls and without any pomp” (LW 1, 103), indicating that in creation, the church was no mere institution or physical place, but that it permeates the existence of God’s human creatures. However, in his comments on Genesis 2:9, Luther writes that God “now builds [Adam], as it were, a temple that he may worship Him and thank the God who has so kindly bestowed all these things on him” (LW 1, 94). This comment serves two purposes. First, it indicates that while the Ecclesia is more than a place or institution, the church always had some of the characteristics of our postlapsarian church institutions, which is a gathering of God’s human creatures for the purpose of worship and to receive the good gifts that God has prepared for his human creatures in Word, and later in the Sacraments as well. Second, Luther uses this as a bridge between the prelapsarian church and the postlapsarian church, writing that: “Today in our churches we have an altar for the administration of the Eucharist, and we have platforms or pulpits for teaching the people. These objects were built not only to meet a need but also to create a solemn atmosphere. But this tree of the knowledge of good and evil was Adam’s church, altar, and pulpit. Here he was to yield to God the obedience he owed, give recognition to the Word and will of God, give thanks to God, and call upon God for aid against temptation” (LW 1, 94-95).

Here it is demonstrated how the institutional church is envisioned, even in creation, as the place of corporate worship, and it is possible to connect this vision of the Ecclesia in Genesis to the role of the Christian church in the world today. Just as in the Ecclesia in Genesis, God continues to call his human creatures together as a body to worship, hear his word, and receive his good gifts, this is what the postlapsarian church continues to do as it gathers, albeit largely within our institutional frameworks, to receive God’s good gifts and to distribute those gifts throughout God’s creation.

Today, the Ecclesia exists not only in the postlapsarian state, but also in the light of the empty tomb, that is the resurrection. As Luther noted above after the resurrection, in addition to the Word of God, the church has been given the Eucharist to administer as another instrument through which God pours out his gifts to his human creatures through the Ecclesia. Furthermore, as Luther teaches in his Small Catechism, in John 20, Jesus also institutes the Office of the Keys, which is the “special authority which Christ has given His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinner…” (CPH, 220). Therefore the church, the assembly of God’s people on Earth, have been entrusted with a precious gift to share with God’s creation. The Christian’s vocational callings within the church are all in the service of spilling their cups in sharing this gift with those outside the church. For, as Luther notes in his explanation of the Third Article of the Creed: “We believe that in this Christian church we have the forgiveness of sins, which is granted through the holy sacraments and absolution as well as through all the comforting words of the entire Gospel…. But outside the Christian church (that is, where the Gospel is not) there is no forgiveness” (LC II, 54, 56).

It is every Christian’s vocation within the church to share the gifts of God’s gospel and forgiveness, and the life that it brings, with those who have not yet received this gift. The preached word, the sacraments, and the Office of the Keys are ways in which God uses the Ecclesia to pour out his good gifts in filling the cups of his human creatures. God furthermore uses the congregation in the Ecclesia as instruments of spilling their cups, distributing God’s good gifts, in and to their communities. This spilling starts in the congregation of the local body of the Ecclesia, the parish church. As Robert Kolb notes, “Luther’s third estate was that of the church, the congregation of those who join in faith for public worship and praise, for mutual edification and support” (6). To reiterate, part of the function of the Ecclesia today is for mutual edification and support within the congregation. Robert Benne underscores this, and more, in Ordinary Saints, as he highlights “six major aims of the church” (207), which are instruments of the filling and spilling of one’s spiritual cups in Christian life. These include:

• Ministry of word and sacrament—God filling the Christian’s cup with his gifts.
• Worship and study—which prepares the Christian to spill their cups which have been filled by God’s good gifts.
• Christian community—spilling out one’s cups in love for those in our congregation.
• Evangelism—bringing God’s gifts out of the church to fill the cups of neighbors in the community.
• Service—spilling out one’s cups in love in and to their community. And,
• Ecumenical concerns—coming together as one church to spill their collectives cups in service in and to their community (207-216).

According to Benne, these major aims of the church are the key characteristics of the Ecclesia in the postlapsarian and post-resurrection church. These aims of the church are notably done in community, empowered and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Returning to his explanation of the third article of the Creed in the Large Catechism, Luther writes that “the Holy Spirit carries on his work unceasingly until the last day. For this purpose he has appointed a community on earth, through which he speaks and does all his work” (LC II, 61). This community on Earth is the church.

It is within this framework of the church that each Christian finds their individual callings or responsibilities, that is, their vocations, within the Ecclesia. As Robert Kolb also writes, “in this sphere God assigns some to the office of preaching and administration of the Sacraments, while He assigns others to other specific responsibilities in the church, and charges all with the responsibilities of witnessing and mutual care” (6). It should be noted here that within the Ecclesia, each Christian has their own vocations and each person has also been created with gifts and talents that God uses in fulfilling the responsibilities of those vocations. This is to highlight that the office of the clergy is not the only office, or vocation, within the church. In many cases it might be the only paid position within an institutional church body, but each Christian still has an office, or offices, set aside for them in the estate of the Ecclesia. Paul notes this in his first letter to the Corinthians, writing “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues” (12:28). Paul uses similar language in his letter to the Ephesians, where he writes, “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (4:11-12).

Recognizing that each Christian is placed into offices within the Ecclesia is an important part of the discernment that leads to vocational balance. It is true that pastors have a unique calling within the Ecclesia, but the majority of the work of the church and of being the church, falls to the laity, in the vocations like Paul mentioned above such as teaching, healing, helping, and administering. These are the mundane offices within the church through which God works to advance his Kingdom on Earth. It can be tempting to defer all of the responsibilities of the Ecclesia to the one man on the payroll, but that is not the vision for the church. That is in fact an example of individualism creeping into the church, and this way of thinking contributes to vocational imbalance. To avoid vocational imbalance within one’s callings in the Ecclesia, one must discern the givenness and giftedness of their place in the church. And, to avoid vocational imbalance as the body of Christ placed into a community, that is, to avoid vocational imbalance as the church, the local parish must likewise discern the givenness and giftedness of their place in their community. This will be the topic of the next essay in this series.

Bibliography

Benne, Robert. Ordinary Saints: An Introduction to the Christian Life. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.

Kolb, Robert. “God Calling, ‘Take Care of My People’: Luther’s Concept of Vocation in the Augsburg Confession and Its Apology.” Concordia Journal 8, no. 1 (1982): 4–11.

Killian, Edward. “We Are Beggars: Martin Luther’s Final Words and the Heart of the Gospel.” 1517, February 18, 2025. 1517 article.

Luther, Martin. The Small Catechism With Explanation. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986.

Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 1: Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 1-5, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999).

Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 2: Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 6-14, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999).

Pannenberg, Wolfhart. Jesus – God and Man, Second Edition. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1977.

Tappert, Theodore G. ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959.