i.The vocation to salvation

In both Jewish and Christian thinking although one might intuitively think that ideas about creation precede conceptions of salvation, because this seems to follow a pleasing chronological order, in fact the reverse is the case. Ideas about creation appear to have been shaped by the experience of redemption (Gerhard von Rad, 1975, pp.136-139). The concept of creation arises by asking: How is the God experienced in salvation related to the rest of the world? Thus, for the Hebrew Bible, creation presumes exodus. One of the most sophisticated interpreters of this connection is Second Isaiah. Thus in Isaiah 51:9-10, utilising imagery from the Babylonian creation myth, Exodus and creation are seen in one purview – overcoming the chaos and threat of water – leading to hope for the creation of a new exodus rooted in the consistent faithfulness of God. For the New Testament, the experience of Jesus as saviour leads to reflection on his relationship to creation. In an astonishing short period of time, twenty years perhaps after his death and resurrection (assuming Col 1:15ff is an early hymn quoted by Paul) we read this: “…by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth…all things were created by him and for him.” (Col 1:16)

That creation is conceived as a result of soteriological experience means that, in biblical perspective, creation is also seen as a soteriological act. Creation, we might say, is the first act of salvation. And so creation is always for the sake of something beyond itself; to this degree creation is in actuality an eschatological concept.

Elsewhere (see Vocation and creation) we shall consider how creation and vocation come together. But the logic just expounded means that to understand the origins and nature of vocation we need to begin with salvation; we need to begin with the call, the vocation, to salvation.

God desires that all should be saved (1 Tim 2:4, c.f. 2 Pet 3:9).There is then a single vocation to salvation that encompasses all humanity. This calling is essentially creative, that is, it is a call to go beyond what is given, what is a human possibility. Thus God calls the foolish and weak, the lowly and despised, “the things that are not in order to nullify the things that are” (1 Cor 1:26-31). And God calls the transient those destined to nothingness for “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things thing as that are not as if they were” (Rom 4:17). God calls us to be conformed to the likeness of his Son (Rom 8:28-30) which is the inner content of salvation. Thus we are called to hope (Eph 1:15-19), to freedom in love (Gal 5:13) and into God’s kingdom and glory (1 Thess 2:12).

As those who point to the things of God in the university, chaplaincy is there to witness to the way in which all proximate hopes, all desires for a good future and the opening up of possibility – which is part of the essential gift of education – are undergirded by a universal call to discover one’s perfecting completion in God. Hope in time makes sense for creatures who are called to hope in eternity. Whenever the language of vocation is invoked, these resonances are present whether recognised or not.