Institute for Rural and Small-Town Ministries August Newsletter

Jesus said, “for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).

Jesus concludes the first section of his Sermon on the Mount with this parable. Indicating that the Lord God is impartial. His justice is not man's justice, and his mercy is not man's mercy. As soon as we imagine that we have figured God out. He surprises us so that we have no recourse but to stand in awe. We cover our mouths in humility as Job did and rightfully praise His wisdom and His wonders.

Isaiah uses the same rainy image. But here, Isaiah's concern is the fruitfulness of God's Word. We would hope for an even distribution of the Word of the Lord throughout rural and small town America. Even as we would hope that the Lord would shed His mercy and grace across the globe.

Just as Amos declared, the Lord roars from Zion (1:2). The word of the Lord goes out from our pulpits and altars. Christ’s word and promise provide resilience when frustrations mount while we work our fields. It bears fruit in laughter at home, justice in our markets, peace in our towns, truth in our schools, generosity among neighbors and forgiveness binding all together.

In our confirmation and membership vows, we promise to make “diligent use” of the means of grace. "Diligent use” is what our pastors and teachers have in mind when they talk to us about discipleship. Household or Family Discipleship involves the skills and habits that rehearses the Word of the Lord delivered and received in the Divine Service and puts it into practice daily. If the Lord sends the rain on the just and on the unjust and if the Lord promises that Word of the Lord like rain to be fruitful and accomplish that which the Lord purposes, then discipleship is irrigation.

You may have a Lutheran Study Bible handy. It is a study Bible because it surrounds the Lord’s Words with helpful comments, prayers, cross references, even essays from mature Christian leaders, but it is not called a study Bible because it studies itself. Discipleship describes that skill and habit of reading, marking (paying close attention to), learning and inwardly digesting the Lord’s words recorded on the page.

If we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that promise is with us always. Discipleship is the skill and habit of remembering that promise finding confident footing in Christ because we have been sealed with the name of the Lord. Daily Prayer beginning with the sign of the cross grounds us in our Lord’s baptismal promise, His name, His forgiveness, His shed blood washing me clean, granting his freedom to freely forgive, and live in peace with family, friends, and neighbors.

One of the prayers provided in the Lutheran Service Book for the close of the Sacrament of the Altar pleads that God the Holy Spirit would “evermore rule our hearts and minds,” and in this way the Son exercises His reign over his people and through His people. Discipleship gathers the good gifts of the Lord and makes “diligent use” of the means of grace in alignment with the enriching, expanding, and fruitful Kingdom of God. Discipleship is irrigation.

So we work and pray just as hard for the Word to reach every heart, mind and soul among our family, friends and neighbors as we pray for it to reach the four corners of the earth.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Is 55:10–13). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

August – Blessing of First Fruits

Background and Purpose

Deuteronomy 26 provides a liturgy for First Fruits. The Lord had taught Israel through His gift of Manna in the wilderness that they could count on Him for daily bread. They were not to look to other gods for their provision. False gods and mythologies surrounding Israel offered alternative explanations of the fruits of the earth often involving sexual immorality in defiance of the Lord’s gift of marriage or child sacrifice if defiance of the Lord’s gift of family. In contrast to these false ways, the Way of the Lord is trust in His promise and thanksgiving for His provision. Moses warned Isarel that they would be tempted to forget the Lord once the Manna stopped and they enjoyed the “routine” of the Lord’s generous provision. The Liturgy blessing First Fruits recognizes that our Lord is the gracious provider of all good gifts from above. The enemy still tempts us to sacrifice the people closest to us, our marriages, our families, to secure worldly things for ourselves apart from the Lord’s promise.

The Blessing of First Fruits writes “Give us this day our daily bread” in large letters across our hearts and sets this teaching as a communal memory in the minds of members for all generations to cherish. At the source of blessing, the ground, we remember the source of all these gifts, our Lord God and Heavenly Father.

The first taste of a new season’s produce arrives with a promise of more variety and quantity to come. WE recognize the end of a fast from fresh food and from a dwindling amount of last year’s harvest. So “first fruits” are sacred. The best portion is offered as a thanksgiving to the Creator by sharing with those most in need and with each other as a blessing from God.

As preparation for this blessing, each person should bring the “first harvest/first fruits” of his or her labors, the first fruits of this growing season. Then all gather around for the blessing rite.

652 Father, We Thank Thee

1 Father, we thank Thee who hast planted
Thy holy name within our hearts.
Knowledge and faith and life immortal
Jesus, Thy Son, to us imparts.
Thou, Lord, didst make all for Thy pleasure,
Didst give us food for all our days,
Giving in Christ the Bread eternal;
Thine is the pow’r, be Thine the praise.

2 Watch o’er Thy Church, O Lord, in mercy,
Save it from evil, guard it still,
Perfect it in Thy love, unite it,
Cleansed and conformed unto Thy will.
As grain, once scattered on the hillsides,
Was in this broken bread made one,
So from all lands Thy Church be gathered
Into Thy kingdom by Thy Son.

Text: © The Church Pension Fund. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110003563

Opening Prayer

Let us pray: Almighty Father, our Compassionate Creator, You call us to rejoice in Your gracious gifts of the earth. Help us to listen to You attentively as we offer You the first fruits of our labor in Your garden. Help us to know Your ways. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Song of Praise: Psalm 67 (Petition for a Bountiful Harvest)

Response: Let the people praise you, O God; let us all praise you.

May God be gracious to us and bless us;
may his face shine upon us.
So shall your way be known upon the earth,
your victory among all the nations.

Response: Let the people praise you, O God; let us all praise you.

May the people praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May the nations be glad and rejoice;
for you judge the peoples with fairness,
you guide the nations upon the earth.

Response: Let the people praise you, O God; let us all praise you.

The earth has yielded its harvest;
God, our God, blesses us.
May God bless us still;
that the ends of the earth may revere our God.

Response: Let the people praise you, O God; let us all praise you.

Reading: Deuteronomy 26:1-11 (Thanksgiving for the Harvest)

When you have come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you as a heritage, and have taken possession and settled in it, you shall take some first fruits of the various products of the soil which you harvest from the land the Lord, your God, is giving you; put them in a basket and go to the place which the Lord, your God, will choose as the dwelling place for his name.

There you shall go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, “Today I acknowledge to the Lord, my God, that I have indeed come into the land which the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” The priest shall then take the basket from your hands and set it in front of the altar of the Lord, your God.

Then you shall declare in the presence of the Lord, your God: “My father was a refugee Aramean who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as a resident alien. But there he became a nation great, strong and numerous. When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us, imposing harsh servitude upon us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our cry and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression.

Then the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and outstretched arm, with terrifying power, with signs and wonders, and brought us to this place, and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now, therefore, I have brought the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, Lord, have given me.”

You shall set them before the Lord, your God, and you shall bow down before the Lord, your God. Then you and your household, together with the Levite and the resident aliens who live among you, shall celebrate with all these good things which the Lord, your God, has given you.

(Quiet Reflection, or people may share their thoughts.)

Closing Blessing

(All may extend their hands in prayer, with palms opened to the Lord.)

O Bountiful Giver of gifts, you provide what we need for abundant living. You give us the strength of our bodies so we can work in your vineyard, providing for ourselves and those you have placed in our care.

We offer you thanks for these gifts, the first and best of what we have, so we will never forget that You, dear Father, are the true source of all good gifts. May they nourish us and others. Make all who see and partake of them marvel at their beauty and usefulness.

Make us always mindful of the times and seasons You direct. Our work has not been without difficulties, but we rejoice that trouble of every kind has been overcome with your help.

Come, Lord of first fruits, Lord of rejoicing. Join in our celebration as we taste the joy of your immeasurable love. We pray to you, who have given us these fruits of the land. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

IRSTM Petitions for the Prayer of the Church - August

August 3, 2025

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 13 C

All is vanity, O Lord, without Your Word and Spirit. Guard our hearts against pride and arrogance and a life rich in things but poor in spirit. Grant to us wise hearts, that we may love rightly all that You have made and use them all for Your purpose and glory. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Or:

For Your Word and Spirit, that our hearts may be guarded against pride and arrogance and may be wise to love rightly all that You have made, being used for Your purpose and glory, let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

August 10, 2025

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 14 C

Almighty God, increase our faith in Your wise ways and Your gracious will. Preserve us from reliance on our own plans and natural powers, that we would ever trust in You and be counted righteous in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Or:

For faith in the wise and gracious will of God, that He would make us always thankful for the fruits of the earth and His care for us in both body and soul that we would always turn from false belief in our own plans and natural powers, let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.

August 17, 2025

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 15 C

Keep us always attentive in humble faith to Your gracious providing hand. Never let us grow weary of receiving Your discipline for our lack of faith, but always strengthen us by Your Spirit through the Word and Sacraments to call upon You in the day of trouble. Guard Our faith even when we are sorely pressed down, for You are our Father, forever and ever. In testing, set before our eyes the victory of the Cross of Jesus, Your beloved Son, our Savior and Redeemer.

August 24, 2025

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 16 C

O Lord, as we work in the harvest fields remind us to always anticipate Your great harvest. We give You thanks for all the saints who have gone before us, who planted Your Word in our haerts and minds. Grant that we would die to ourselves and enter with Christ to join with all the angels in festal gathering and to be numbered with the first fruits who are enrolled in heaven, perfected in the righteousness of Christ and abiding forever in His new creation. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

August 31, 2025

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Proper 17 C

O Lord our God, at the creation of Adam and Eve You instituted and blessed marriage as the lifelong union of a man and a woman, and You commanded that it be held in honor by all, as a sacred sign of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Grant Your blessing, therefore, to all husbands and wives, and to all who have pledged themselves to be united in holy matrimony according to Your Word, that their lives together in Your name may be sanctified by Your Holy Spirit in all wisdom, purity, self-sacrifice and love. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Merciful God, You call on us to practice brotherly love, to show hospitality to strangers and to remember all those in need. We come to You confident that You will not leave us nor forsake us, but will grant us all that we need for this body and life. Bestow on us the full riches of Your grace for all the situations and circumstances in which Your people dwell. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Remembering that here we have no abiding city but that heaven is our home, give us Your aid, that we may by true faith and godly life prepare for the coming of our Savior, multiplying Your mercy by loving our neighbor in need and loving You with all our body, soul, strength and will; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Learn more about Concordia University, Nebraska's Institute for Rural and Small-Town Ministries.