THE GENERAL PRAYER – PART IV
[This
month’s edition picks up where the August edition left us in the General Prayer
from TLH page 23.] We pray:
Send forth laborers into Thy harvest, and sustain those whom Thou hast sent, that the Word of Reconciliation may be proclaimed to all people and the Gospel preached in all the world.
We pray this petition in response to the Lord’s
command. St. Matthew writes, “But when He saw the
multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and
scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, the
harvest truly is plentiful, but
the laborers are few. Therefore
pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:36-38) These lost sheep have
no Good Shepherd to care for them, to lead them besides the green pastures of
the Gospel and to the still waters of peace with God. They are a host of people
without Christ and faith so they are without His blessings of forgiveness,
life, and salvation. This is the harvest of the Lord.
Jesus wants us to pray that workers be send into this harvest because Jesus
has compassion on this harvest of lost, unbelieving, sin-sick sheep. He has
compassion on them because He is the Good Shepherd. Hirelings, who care nothing
for the sheep and the harvest only lead them further away from the Lord and
deeper into themselves for their salvation. But Jesus, as The Good Shepherd, truly
cares for the harvest, these lost sheep.
During His earthly ministry Jesus ministered to the lost sheep. He gathered
the harvest briefly. But Jesus would not always walk the earth to gather the
harvest and find the lost sheep. He would ascend to the right hand of God
the Father almighty. Leaving the church on earth (though only leaving
physically), He commands the church of every age to “pray to the Lord of the
harvest to send laborers into His harvest.”
Who are these laborers? They are those whom the
Lord sends to work in the harvest. They are those who labor in preaching the
Gospel and teaching the comfort of the Christian faith to the multitudes. In
Philemon 24 St. Paul calls Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke “my fellow
laborers.” In 1 Corinthians 3:9 St. Paul numbers himself and his companions
among the laborers. “For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, you
are God's building.” Laborers are those who work in the harvest, sowing, planting,
watering, and reaping the harvest of souls with the Holy Gospel.
Laborers do not send themselves. They do not
decide one day, “I think I want to labor in the Lord’s harvest.” It is the
Lord’s harvest so the Lord must send men to labor there. This is why Jesus
commands us to pray, “Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers into His harvest.” St. Paul reiterates this in Romans 10:15, “How
shall they preach unless they are sent?” If preachers are preaching, that is,
working in the harvest, and they have not been called and sent by God, then
they are not working for the benefit of God’s harvest but are working against
it! The answer to Paul’s question of “How can they preach if they are not
sent?” is a resounding, “They can’t!” No one can preach, teach, and administer
the sacraments, in the Lord’s harvest unless the Lord Himself sends that
laborer to work in the harvest. The Augsburg Confession puts it this way:
Of Ecclesiastical Order they
teach that no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the
Sacraments unless he be regularly called. (AC XIV: Of
Ecclesiastical Order)
This is why the church ought never to allow “Lay Ministers” of any kind in
the pulpit, or anyone for that matter who has not been called by Christ through
the congregation. Laborers must be sent by the Lord because the harvest is the
Lord’s.
The laborers must also be send by the Lord because the implement for
sowing, planting, watering, and reaping in the Lord’s harvest is the Word of
the Lord. We pray for the Lord to send laborers:
that
the Word of Reconciliation may be proclaimed to all people and the Gospel
preached in all the world.
The Word of Reconciliation is the Gospel that Christ has reconciled God to
man and man to God, so that whoever is in Christ by faith enjoys the benefits
of that reconciliation. Thus St. Paul writes:
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to
Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing
their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
This ministry of the Gospel, using the Gospel in Word and Sacrament, is the
only farming implement the laborer is given. He is not commanded to ‘gussy up’
the Word, make it “more meaningful” or seemingly “relevant” or “user-friendly.”
The laborer labors only with the Word preached and the Word “sacramented.”
We also pray in this petition for the Laborers
whom God has already sent. It is one thing to send a laborer to work in the
harvest field. It is also necessary that the laborer be sustained. The ministry
is work. It is labor. Like all labors there are hazards. Without the Lord
sustaining the labor, he will faint in the heat of the day or become
discouraged when he does not see the yield he expects. Pastors, like all sinful men, are subject to
the temptations of burnout and looking to external results to measure their
ministry. Against these, and many other temptations which would destroy the
Lord’s laborer, we pray that the Lord sustains those whom He has already sent
into the harvest.
Practically speaking, what we are praying for in
this petition is that the Lord calls men to be pastors, planting within their hearts the desire to
serve His church, and through that desire, brings these men to attend seminary
at St. Ignatius Lutheran Theological Seminary, which is the diocesan seminary. This
is how laborers for the harvest are prepared. If you know of someone who you
think would make a candidate for the ministry, talk to them about it and
encourage them to consider it.
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