As the Fifth Sunday of Easter bid the Church to sing (Cantate), so does the Sixth Sunday of Easter bid the Church to pray (Rogate). That historic emphasis of the Sunday preceding the Feast of the Ascension derives from the Word and promise of our Lord in the Holy Gospel: “Whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (St. John 16:23-24). The same emphasis on prayer persisted in the days following – the “Rogation Days,” Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, leading up to the Ascension on Thursday. The practice of gathering for prayer in the fields on those days may have originated in response to a natural calamity and the threat of a poor harvest, but then with time it developed into an annual appeal for a fruitful spring harvest.
Connections between the agricultural cycles and seasons and the life of the Church are natural and at times obvious. Our Lord instructs His disciples: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (St. Matthew 9:37-38). In this we find, not only the analogy of the agricultural process for the mission and ministry of the Church, but also the specific command to pray for this work. As we have been reminded recently of the urgent need for more workers in that harvest of souls, let us not be negligent in praying, asking, and calling on the Name of the Lord to meet this need.
Drawing on Psalm 67 (especially v. 6), Dr. Luther picks up on these emphases in his hymn, “May God Bestow on Us His Grace” (LSB 823), which is itself a prayer to the Lord for His rich grace and blessing upon His people. The second stanza concludes with the affirmation, “Thy people’s pasture is Thy Word their souls to feed and nourish, in righteous paths to keep them.” And stanza three similarly confesses, “The land shall plenteous fruit bring forth, Thy Word is rich in blessing.” Thus do we acknowledge that creation continues to bear the life that God bestows upon it by His Word and Spirit, plants and trees bearing seed after their own kinds, animals and human beings fruitfully multiplying from one generation to the next. So, too, by His Word and Holy Spirit the Lord God gives life to His Church, calling sinners to repentance and faith and multiplying His household and family by the gracious adoption of sons.
We pray for the mission and ministry of the Church (and for all other needs and challenges), not as though the Lord would not accomplish His purposes without our prayers, but simply because He has commanded us to pray and has promised to hear us. In this way He teaches us to align our wills with His good and gracious Will, and to echo with our words what He has spoken to us. Not only in Luther’s hymns, but also in the Catechism, we discover that prayer really begins with the Word of God. Along with the Psalms and Canticles of the Holy Scriptures, the best example is the Our Father, whereby the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray by putting the very words we need into our ears, our hearts and minds, and then also onto our lips and tongues. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Holy Triune God teaches us and helps us, even to the extent of praying in us, with us, and for us (Romans 8:26-34).
The emphasis and focus on prayer this week is especially appropriate in connection with the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, especially as it highlights His office as our merciful and great High Priest who ever lives to intercede for us (Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:25). Not only does He pray for us, but we and our prayers ascend in and with Him into the presence of His God and Father. To pray “in the Name of the Lord Jesus” is more than a concluding formula. It is to pray in the faith and confession of Christ Jesus, as those who are baptized in His Name, who share His Cross & Resurrection, “sons of God in Christ” (Galatians 3:26; 4:4-7). Thus, He tenderly invites us to pray as children to our own dear Father in heaven – boldly and persistently – in the sure and certain confidence that He hears and answers our requests in love, for Christ Jesus’ sake. And of course, that is not only the case during this week of Eastertide, but at all times and in all places, laying before the Lord all our needs of body and soul – for this life and for the life everlasting.