This video was shown at the Lutheran Church Canada convention. Recall that the purpose of every vocation is to love and serve not so much God in isolation but, as He commands, your neighbor. (Luther: “God doesn’t need your good works; but your neighbor does.”) The video thus fit in well with my topic:
Get Service
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Very powerful. Thank you for sharing it.
Nice. Thanks. Also, I was relieved to see at the end that that wasn’t a Canadian accent.
Great message for me, a future Lutheran pastor.
Beautiful. Well done. I have to admit I have half-waiting for a religious tie-in to salvation. Instead it stuck to the point nicely.
Are we allowed to link to this video on Facebook?
Thanks Dr. Veith, I needed to see this.
Bobby L, that’s what I did. You can find it on Youtube, then copy the code.
I wonder, are these Urim and Thummim?
(Sorry– couldn’t resist.) Thanks for sharing with us.
Thanks for showing us the video, Dr. Veith.
It very much helps us to see clearly Christian Vocation in every day life. I very much like how it doesn’t say that these people need to have Christ (even though they certainly do) but it emphasizes that our motive for helping them is that they need help.
What it lacks is the Gospel as motivation for the Christian to do this service. This is assumed by the intended viewer, I suppose. I wonder how this idea could be incorporated into the video and not take away its impact? a way that wouldn’t use the Gospel as the Law?
I could be more clear. The Christian is motivated to serve his neighbor because of God’s service to him. Therefore the Christian services his neighbor.
Convicting and embarrasingly appropriate. It’s not about us, it’s about Christ for us and our neighbor.
You already know the needs of your family, friends, co-workers, church members, and others that you regularly associate with in your daily vocations, BUT
what do total stangers need?
If you had a magical pair of glasses you could know what strangers need. And if you know what they need you will help them.
I think I’d rather know that you were responding to the needs of those God has already placed into your regular orbit. You can’t stand your brother-in-law. You haven’t spoken to your sister in 5 years. You won’t help the men at church fry catfish for the church supper. So, what’s up with all this anonymous sensitivity down at the coffee shop? Let’s try out those glasses on your Mama first. Tell me what she needs. And that girlfriend you won’t marry and her father?
Excellent point, Joanne! This video needs to deal more with vocation and the neighbors we are called to love and serve. It does deal with what Luther called the “general estate,” where the different vocations come together and people interact with each other, as in the realm of the Good Samaritan. But you are right, in that we need to attend to the neighbors in our actual callings.
Joanne, I think the video was actually supporting your position – it used the troubles of strangers to drive home the impact of the troubles everyone faces. Then when he arrived home, he started ministering to his neighbor.
I suspect that having those glasses around family, the impact would not be nearly so strong as being first exposed to strangers. I already have some idea of what my family and friends need, and I would probably not be so heavily impacted by merely seeing them confirmed (or some new ones too).
Having the glasses introduced to him out around strangers made the impact all the more jarring, so when he was exposed to those at home, he was already prepared to act. Though the preparation took place elsewhere, his action was at home.
I think the video is very much in agreement with your comment – reach out to those who are in our area of calling.