English (engelska)

The calling is about being a co-creator and fellow human being. Luther argued that the calling is there in all our duties and responsibilities. Everyday life is important and God is in the midst of what is happening.

To be needed, to mean something, to make a difference. Who doesn't want to experience this? And to belong, to feel like the right person in the right place. Then and there, life feels meaningful. The idea that every person is called, cried out to or sought out by God is about just that. That God wants us to be part of the creation that is ongoing.

Co-creators – that is what people are called to be. In Martin Luther's time, a vocation belonged primarily in the context of religious life. The call to a convent or to become a priest was what was emphasized.

Everything has to do with God

Martin Luther interpreted vocation differently. He said that the entire world, all of society and every place had to do with God. God does not belong to certain special places. God is great and is constantly creating new things everywhere through his creation, particularly through human beings. When the Bible says the God created and saw that it was good, it is still true. Luther opened up the idea of what was holy, so that even gray, dreary everyday life can have streaks of holiness. God is in the middle of everything and asks for us wherever we are.

The idea of vocation is a consequence of what it means for God to want good things for people. Luther says that we should thank God, no more, no less. Then we can express our gratitude in the form of attention, care and support for fellow human beings, especially the neighbour who is in a vulnerable position.

This strengthens the relationships between people, so they will support each other when there is a need. We do this through our normal tasks and our usual roles. Working as a shoemaker, broker, police officer or truck driver, staying home as a mother, grandfather or child, spending free time as a football coach, class parent, volunteer in the visitors' service, party organizer or adult on the playground. All types of work. Luther believed that all responsibilities and all tasks that people have and get at home, in their family, work and society can best be understood as callings.

A calling is to take life seriously

The idea of a calling is an idea that takes life seriously. It is an idea that helps us take ourselves seriously and give humanity its own value, while at the same time emphasing that humanity  does not just come of itself, we work for it and it gets stronger every day. We are there for each other and God is there and watching us with warm, encouraging eyes.

Cecilia Nahnfeldt

Martin Luther realised one day that a good relationship between God and man is not something we can achieve by ourselves. He concluded that God's freely flowing relationship to us, righteousness, is a gift that God bestows on people completely free through faith.

Luther had studied intensively. He wrestled with whole books of the Bible and with individual Bible verses when, as a professor at the University of Wittenberg, he was preparing his lecture series on Psalms, Galatians, Romans and Hebrews. One day it suddenly happened. The scripture opened up to him in a new way.

Luther's insight is usually called his Reformation Discovery. No one knows exactly when it took place. But regardless of when the discovery took place, the event came to characterise Luther's life and theology in a very profound way. In the publication On the Freedom of a Christian from 1520 Luther summarises what he had concluded.

A two-fold freedom

Luther's main point in the book is that a Christian has a two-fold freedom through faith in Jesus Christ. The first freedom is closely connected with Luther's Reformation Discovery, his insight that a person is only redeemed by faith, not by their own deeds. Luther emphasises that when a  person hears the Gospel, which is the joyful and liberating message about  Jesus Christ, God can awaken a faithful trust in her that leads to her being freed from sin, guilt and death.

The simplest way this can be explained is that Jesus and the person, through faith, are united as one. Jesus takes over the distinguishing characteristics of the person that separate her from God and the lead to her death: evil, sin and guilt. The person in turn shares Christ's divine characteristics: righteousness, immortality and love. This exchange is sometimes called the blessed exchange or the happy exchange. The exchange means that Jesus takes the person's sin and guilt while the person in turn is given new life and new possibilities for life through Jesus.

Be a christ for others

The second freedom that a Christian has involves her, through faith, receiving Christ's love, says Luther. Christ's love awakens in her the desire to live as God wants. God wants us to love one another. A  Christian is liberated through faith to act lovingly towards her fellow human being. She wants to and can be a Christ for others. She tries to help others, not for God to like her and reward her with the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, but because God gives her this through faith. The love that she receives from God becomes a driving force that makes her try to do good towards others.

Karin Johannesson

God does not require anything in return, Martin Luther discovered. He became convinced that God wants to liberate people and give each and every one new possibilities.

Grace has to do with power. Grace is God's way of exercising power, and with the word grace, Martin Luther most clearly expresses his concept of God. The desire for a gracious God was what drove Martin Luther in his search. A search for a God who does not punish, but liberates, as we would rather say today. Luther was looking for that kind relationship of faith to live in and a church that allowed such a faith.

Martin Luther was a biblical theologian and in reading biblical texts, he found God to be full of grace. In Lutheran theology this is called the Reformation discovery: God grants both forgiveness and peace, unconditionally. It's about just receiving it.

Everything is grace – you are called to freedom, not to be a slave to any system. This went against many viewpoints in Luther's time and became the basis for his criticism of monastic life, the sale of indulgences and other ways in which the church put conditions on what qualified as religious life and true faith. Martin Luther said that this interfered with and prevented people from a relationship with God in their lives that really was by grace. That there was absolutely no requirement for certain beliefs or the right deeds. Ethical requirements have to do with human relations. The relationship to God is different.

Liberating instead of punishing

Grace is the absence of demands. But is difficult to define freedom in relationships, because we perceive relationships as something that sets conditions. Often freedom in relationships is something we are unaccustomed to. God is free, which means that the relationship with God is different from the relationships between people. Luther often turned to imagery for help. In theology, we often think of a person standing in a courtroom who is guilty, but God as the judge unexpectedly acquitting the convicted person. It is a ruling by grace.

In this image God is shown as someone who exercises a power different from that of imposing penalties.  A liberating power.  A surprising power. One that believes in giving new opportunities after all. When that happens a person stands there surprised and amazed. God wants a relationship and gives faith as a gift to a person. Martin Luther said that this picture of God is overwhelming. Life is opened up in an unexpected direction. God surprises. The totally unexpected happens. That God wants to be with me, despite everything that should prevent it. That is grace. A loving way to use power to give life.

Cecilia Nahnfeldt

Everything is grace. God grants us forgiveness and peace, unconditionally. Together we keep faith alive in daily life. But it is only you who can find your own way. No one else can live your life for you.

It is only you who can find your own way, because only you are in your particular place. No one else can live your life for you. You cannot learn through the mistakes of others, even if you can learn from them. You can't get peace and harmony from others. But you can learn how to read a map and use a compass, or how to find your way using a mobile phone. You can understand how to deal with the consequences of your actions and how you can regain peace when chaos breaks out.

This is a basic theme of the Reformation. You can't surrender your life or your faith to experts. It is not priests who keep faith alive, but all believers together. It is all of us, who wrestle with the misery of existence and rejoice in the good things of life, in constant flux, who can help each other find the right way.

Meaning well, but doing wrong

Another central idea of the Reformation is that people mean well, but do wrong. It is necessary, but not sufficient, to teach people to read, so they can see for themselves how things are. Everyone needs both a compass and help developing the ability to choose the right map. So yes, it is a risky project, the thing we call "the universal priesthood" – that everyone can and should be priests to each other and guide one another in faith and in life. But the alternative is worse – that you don't have anything else to rely on than what experts say and you have nowhere to turn if you see that something is wrong.

You don't need to be afraid

You don't need to be afraid of a judgmental God! Life is serious and you should keep high ideals, but nothing can stop God's restoring and forgiving love when you need it. You can trust that God wishes you well. This is a liberating approach which could also characterise our common life. It makes a difference if many of us trust that the world ultimately rests in the hands of a good God. It gives us reason to hope even when things look bleak. It’s possible to start over again. There are paths to justice and peace, even though we meet resistance.

Cristina Grenholm