Over these past few weeks, since the beginning of September, we’ve laid to rest several pastors within our Indiana District: Rev. Alan Rork († 5 Sept), Rev. Donald Fischer († 16 Sept), and Rev. Raymond Smith († 20 Sept). Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of any of His beloved saints (Psalm 116:15), but humanly speaking, for myself, there is something especially poignant about the death and burial of a brother pastor. In particular, I was struck by the fact that Brother Smith was still an actively serving pastor (although incapacitated by his illness recently), and that he was several years younger than I am. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!
Brother Fischer was given Christian burial this past Saturday, and as it so happened I was at his former parish, St. Peter in Huntington, the next day, as part of its 175th Anniversary celebration. Although I don’t know the exact number, it is safe to assume that the congregation has had more than a few pastors over the course of those many years, men who have faithfully taught the Word of God, preached His Holy Gospel, and administered His good gifts in the Name and stead of our Savior, Christ Jesus. We pastors come and go, while the Lord in His mercy preserves His Church on earth from one generation to the next – in His “foolish wisdom” doing so through our labors!
It was also this past Sunday that my eldest son, Zachary, was installed as a field worker at Faith Lutheran Church in Churubusco, as part of his seminary training. I was not able to be there, but my wife LaRena took some pictures and shared them with me. Simply seeing those pictures gave me such a profound sense of nostalgia and a poignant awareness of the passing of time – and yet another reminder of my own mortality. It was thirty-five years ago – when Zachary was just an infant! – that I began my own field work at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Decatur, Indiana. As quickly as those thirty-five years have passed, another thirty-five will see me returning to dust.
We pastors are men of mortal flesh and blood, sinful and imperfect like all those who have gone before us, both finite and flawed in this body and life. The Ministry of the Gospel does not rest or depend upon us and our capacities; yet, we are called and ordained to carry out the work of the Lord in the preaching and administration of His good Gifts. And as we have heard again recently from St. James (in the three-year lectionary) and from St. Paul’s first Epistle to St. Timothy (in the daily lectionary), the Lord has established high standards and expectations for the pastoral office, with respect to the aptitude, character, doctrine, and life of those who aspire to it.
Such standards are appropriate and necessary because of the seriousness and significance of the sacred ministry we are given to serve. But such things are also sobering – and rightly humbling – for those of us who bear the Office, because we know that of ourselves we surely are not worthy, nor are we able by our own reason and strength to carry out the duties and responsibilities of the Holy Ministry. We know the devil seeks to use those weaknesses to undermine the work we do.
My dear brother pastors, whatever your age or infirmity, take heart and be of good courage and good cheer! The Lord who has called and ordained you to the Office of the Holy Ministry is also with you in the work He has given you to do. He knows your frame, that you are but mortal; and He knows your heart and mind – and your sins – even better than you do. Yet, He loves you, has mercy upon you, and daily and richly forgives your sins, even as He delivers and distributes His grace, mercy, peace, and forgiveness through you and your labors in His Name. Whatever your own shortcomings and personal inadequacies may be, the “earthen vessel” that you are carries and conveys the divine gifts of Christ Jesus, and bestows eternal treasures and blessings upon His people under your care, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting of body and soul.