All the Hats We Wear

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”  1Peter 4:10

Using our God-given gifts and talents to freely serve others extends God’s grace and his Kingdom ever further out into the world.  God could spread manna on the ground to satisfy our daily needs but he doesn't. He allows us to help each other, each using his own God-given calling, vocation, gifts and talents to create a culture that benefits all and connects us interdependently. Have you ever thought how many people are involved when you do something as simple as, say, make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Including the workers who made the fridge, probably hundreds.

The reformers noticed this and encouraged us to see the invisible world that lies behind our service and various vocations. Luther remarked in his LARGE CATECHISM: “Our parents and all authorities—in short, all people placed in the position of neighbors—have received the command to do us all kinds of good. So we receive our blessings not from them, but from God through them. Creatures are only the hands, channels and means through which God bestows all blessings.”  Because we rarely think of these helpers as divine agents, Luther frequently calls them the “mask of God.” John Calvin in his INSTITUTES similarly observed that “God’s providence does not always appear naked, but by employing means, God is, as it were, "dressed.” So we act as God’s “clothing,” making Him visible, when we faithfully practice our vocations.

The banner shows all kinds of hats, representing all kinds of vocations (football player, businessman, nurse, fireman, policeman, etc.), and overlapping to suggest a procession led by the head with the crown of thorns---even Jesus had a vocation which he faithfully performed till the end. The head at the bottom, turned toward the viewer represents man, at once cursed by the Fall to eke out his living by "the sweat of his brow" yet also blessed with a vocation. The exclamation at the top of the banner (You help me see God and I cry tears of joy) gives thanks poetically for this, God's post-lapsarian act of redemption which mitigates the curse.