Pray for Rain (Snow)

by Rev. Tom Tuura

Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church

Throughout my ministry I've served in predominantly agricultural parishes.  From a country church literally twelve or so miles out in the country in Polk County Minnesota way up in the northwest corner of the State, to a suburban church in Dekalb Illinois, a college town of 40,000, and several parishes in between.  All have had at least a few families with ties directly to the land.

Not being a farm boy myself, the son of a school teacher (shop, industrial arts), I grew up in a small town in north eastern Minnesota where I picked up my mechanical skills.  Back in the sixties, the thick hilly pine and hardwood forests around me did not lend themselves to much more than small dairy operations which were in decline even then.  Life was hard in the north east part of the state.  The local industries were the paper and other milling, manufacturing, logging and mining.  It was much poorer than the agricultural locales (a fact my grain farmer friends like to dispute).

So when I would be taking prayer requests for church on Sunday morning and would repeatedly hear someone say, “Pray for rain for the farmers.” I initially didn't grasp it's significance.  Oh I understood the scientific and biologic relationship of H2O to plant/animal life and prices.  In secular thought, rainfall is an arbitrary phenomenon.  But the public Sunday prayer was the direct reliance upon our heavenly Father for the things basic to everyday life—not arbitrary at all—our “daily bread”. 

First its recognition of God's provision.  Not every farmer has faith to rely on God for this, any more than anybody else in our world, but those requests came from people who very emphatically did.  I think there may be a lot of people who don't grasp it's significance.  You see there is a tremendous spiritual truth here.  It is Jesus' words in the prayer He taught, “Our Father who art in heaven...”  We are indebted to Him for our life, our breath, our entire being.

It is much more than H2O biology and money.  According to Wikipedia and the United States Census Bureau, it took till 1804 for the world to reach the first billion mark.  Think of it.  The second billion was reached 123 years later and the third, about the time of my birth.  Today we are at seven billion.  World population was probably not an issue to our parents and grandparents—period.  It will be from now on.

And these seven plus billion people have to eat.  They have to eat off the same, or dwindling tillable acreage.  Pray for rain.  The question is do we pray and serve an active loving God who provides us with all good things for our good, and thank Him for it, or do we look to science and genetics and believe in an arbitrary planet with it's cruel randomness?

God is the provider of all good things.  He permits storms and hurricanes, yes even like Sandy and Katrina, as part of our fallen world system, but shows His love and compassion through God's people, the church, and the beautiful flowers, sunsets and the rainbow that follows.

We are obligated to humbly acknowledge this and thank Him for his loving care in worship and thanksgiving.  Like the godly men and women of past generations, we must realize that it is God who gives us these things.  Pray for rain.

Second it's an observation of God's judgment. This is where it gets controversial.  There is a common biblical term that is overlooked.  It's the term “land”.  The land was, and is, in Scripture both literal and a metaphor.  The imagery of the promised land is both.  But from beginning to end, it is conditional. 

Blessings in the land are always conditional upon obedience as in the commandment, “Honor thy Father and Mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord Thy God giveth thee.” (4^th Commandment)  And when the reader (Israel or the church) is disobedient, unthankful, or just plain rebellious, there are consequences: pestilence, drought and famine.  And that is just for starters.

Billy Graham is entirely correct in stating on several occasions in that our nation is in need of repentance.  We must heed the words of our Lord Jesus in his letters to the seven churches of Revelation.  That's why our I'm advocating that during Lent we pray for a spirit of revival in our souls, and land, which will bring about cleansing and a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit...and rains. 

Would to God that we would realize our need and turn to Him in repentance.  2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from heaven forgive their sin and heal their land.”

That's my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit  Pastor Tom Tuura