If we reclaim the doctrine of vocation…then the specific ministry of:

The Christian banker or financier will be to find realistic, technically not utopian ways of implementing jubilee amnesty; there are people doing this.

The Christian realtor or developer will find ways to house people according to need; there are people doing this.

The Christian judge will open the court system to conflict resolution procedures, and resist the trend toward more and more litigation; this is being done.

Technical vocational sphere expertise in each professional area will be needed not to reinforce but to undercut competently the claimed sovereignty of each sphere by planting signs of the new world in the ruins of the old. Baptism is one of those signs, and so is open housing. The Eucharist is one, but so is feeding the hungry. One is not more “real presence” than the other.

John Howard Yoder, Body Politics

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