For there will always be some who will suffer these temptations. They should be cheered up and strengthened by the voice of the pastors in this manner: “In like manner, have confidence, my son; believe that you have been baptized, that you have been pastured and fed in the Lord’s Supper and absolved by the laying on of hands, not mine, but God’s, who has said to you: ‘I forgive you your sins; I promise you eternal life.’ “

-Martin Luther, Lectures on Genesis (LW 6, p. 132).

By grace! On this I’ll rest when dying;
In Jesus’ promise I rejoice.
For though I know my heart’s condition,
I also know my Savior’s voice.
My heart is glad; all grief has flown
Since I am saved by grace alone. (CW 384, st. 5)

Pretty much sums it up, huh?

“Lord Jesus Christ, my Redeemer! You have bequeathed to your dear church here on earth, and to her faithful servants, the holy office of the keys with its attached promise that the same thing which is bound and loosed here, should also be bound and loosed in heaven. For such gracious means I give you eternal honor, glory and praise. And since I—a poor, enslaved sinner–need this comforting releasing key, and so that I might not be held under the chains of this hellish jailor, I ask from the bottom of my heart that you would grant this to me through my Christian confessor, and for the sake of your blood and death, graciously release me from all my sins, grant me your Holy Spirit, that I receive the Holy Absolution in true repentance and undoubting confidence, good intentions, brotherly love, and thankfulness, and finally, be saved eternally. Amen.”

From: Evangelical Lutheran Treasury of Prayer (Gebets-Schatz), 1884. #298

There’s a line in the movie Lonesome Dove when the Hat Creek Cattle Company is about to drive their cattle herd through its first dust storm. One of the cowboys says to another (I can’t remember who), “Well, I reckon this is where we find out if we was meant to be cowboys or not.”

I find myself thinking of that line every time I find myself in a situation that seems to require a higher level of pastoral expertise than I imagine myself being capable of.  It may be a phone call that requires me to give pastoral counsel on the fly, for a situation I’ve never even dreamed of. Or the visit to a member’s home that brings to light an aspect of their life that no one else knows about. It could be a trip to the emergency room or to the county detention center, when I have no clue what condition this particular soul is in—until I walk through the door.

But I keep riding into these storms, wondering to myself how I’ll find my way out. I think that this is where I’ll find out if I was meant to be a pastor. I get there and I may stumble around for a while, but usually Jesus’ words find their way to my lips. Then things seem to become more clear. Then I know that, ready or not, Jesus has called me to do this work on his behalf. He has called me to serve these people as their pastor, which means sometimes stepping into unknown places, and into a world entirely different than the one I know.

Yesterday was Assignment Day at the Seminary. We watched the call service via the internet with the upper grade students. Our teacher’s brother was being assigned. As I think back to those days, I realize that we were well prepared to enter into the pastoral ministry. By the time a candidate’s name is read, he’s ready to go, ready to be a pastor. But I find that there is a whole lot more preparation that goes on every day, with every visit, every phone call. I find that I am constantly learning what it means to be pastor, to these people, at this time, in this place.

Recently I have had the chance to think about what makes pastoral care—especially to the sick and the dying—such a privilege. Over the last few months, I have been privileged to serve at the bedside of a dear Christian man named Vernon Haverstick. I must have seen him a couple dozen times in the hospital, and several times at his home as the end of his life drew near. To me, it seems like a perfect example of why this work is such a privilege. But what makes it so?

It is a privilege to get to know some of the most amazing people. If you read Vern’s obituary, you’ll see that he has quite the list of accomplishments. He did some very important work. That work was highly respected by many people, especially in northeast El Paso. He was highly intelligent, playfully witty, and genuinely kind. And many people saw that in him. That was evident from the 200+ people who showed up yesterday for his funeral. I count it as a privilege to have had the chance to get to know him by serving as his pastor.

But perhaps what makes it all even more of a privilege is just how encouraging these visits were to me. It is always encouraging to see examples of faith in the midst of adversity. It is a joy to see faith’s fruits ripening as someone patiently and joyfully bears whatever cross Jesus sends him. It is a beautiful sight to see a Christian cling tightly to Christ even as “every earthly prop gives way.”

But, for a pastor, the most encouraging thing of all, is to see Christians find Christ where Christ has promised to be. It is an encouragement to see that there are people who truly treasure Christ, his Word, the means of grace. So much of the time pastors deal with people who think their faith is fine, but have little time to listen to Jesus and his Word. There are many things which are important to them, but the means of grace, they could take it or leave it. If they make it to church, great. If not, that’s fine, too. Vern was in the hospital the week before Christmas, and I was not expecting him to be strong enough to get to church on Christmas. But there he was. I asked him how he was doing on the way out of church. “Terrible pain,” he said. But it didn’t stop him.

I loved the way Vern would eye my communion set, or my Pastor’s Companion as we would visit in the hospital. And if I took too long to get to it, he would say, “I know you have something in there for me, pastor. I know you don’t come without some devotion prepared. What do you have for me today?” It was a privilege to open the case, to open the book and give to him what Jesus had prepared for him.

That’s just scratching the surface of this privilege. It is the profound honor of being able to bring Christ to souls such as this. To be able to assure someone of their status before God because they have been baptized into Christ. To handle the body and blood of Christ, and to place it on the tongue of a dying man who knows full well that because Christ lives and is present in this sacrament, he too shall live eternally. I have a front row seat for Jesus’ saving work, to watch God’s grace applied to individuals. This is the heart of Lutheran pastoral ministry—a pure privilege.

It’s the same thing that I get to do on a regular basis in public worship, and Bible classes and catechetical classes. But being able to serve souls one-on-one, individually—in private confession and absolution, the sick room, the death bed—is a unique privilege.

In the last few days I got to see Vern, our conversations were not long. I spoke, read, and sang. He listened and prayed along. One night, after he had called me back into the room while I was about to leave, all I could make out was, “Schlaf gut.” Another night, “Thank you, pastor.” I don’t remember my response. I didn’t say it then, but someday I think I would like to say, “Thank you for the privilege.”

You might ask the question, then: why two books? Especially if they basically contain the same material, and have the same purpose? Actually, I usually only carry one of them with me at a time. But i have found that each of the volumes has certain advantages over the other one in different areas.

The CW volume is, in many ways, more valuable because it is a companion volume to our synod’s hymnal. The language is the same as that in our hymnal. It uses the NIV for the Scripture sections. Many of the rites are the same as that in our hymnal. For my regular shut-in visits, I use a mini-booklet that includes a printout of the mini-service that we use to adorn the celebration of the sacrament with someone who is homebound. I would say that in general, this book is my default choice. It has a good selection of rites that would be useful outside of church. It has a good number of prayers, scripture texts, and hymns.

The weakness of the CW volume is found in some of the real strengths of the LSB Companion, by comparison. Here are a few:

• Pastor’s Prayers of Preparation: There are 11 pages of prayers specifically for the pastor as he prepares to function as Seelsorger in various situations. The CW version also has pastor’s prayers, but they are less specific.There is a Daily Prayer based on the Lord’s Prayer, a couple prayers by Aquinas, and several others, but all of them are much more general than I’m looking for. The LSB version has prayers for preparing for specific pastoral acts, which I find quite useful.
• Resources for Pastoral Care: This is the largest section of the book, and the section I find the most valuable. It lists resources—psalms, prayers, readings—by the particular situation in which a pastor might find himself and those whom he wishes to serve. It pretty much has every situation you can think of. And some you wouldn’t have, but you would be glad for this book if it ever came up. The CW book has many of these same resources, but they’re spread out in different sections. There is a rite for ministry to the sick and homebound. There is a section for devotions, which are not terribly useful. There is a section for prayers by situation. Then there is the scripture reading section, and the hymn section. If I’m visiting someone who is sick, the CW Companion is not that useful to me. If I already know what I’m going to read with them, and have to dig around for it, I might as well just use my Bible (which I often have anyway). When visiting the sick, the layout of the LSB Companion is much more useful to make use of the resources that are there, and all of the resources for a particular situation are all in one place. This is especially useful when the situation isn’t exactly what you thought it was. Perhaps you call on someone who is sick, but you find that they are really struggling with depression or even despair. Most pastors can probably think on their feet well enough to adjust their conversation and guidance from the Word of God, but it may also be useful to have some help. The LSB Companion is, in my opinion, better designed for this kind of help.
• Texts in German and Spanish: This strikes me as the kind of thing that is useful in a situation which you weren’t expecting. And while I can function pretty well in German, I would be unable to speak much more than a few memorized hymns and prayers. And my Spanish has a long ways to go at this point. But I can imagine  a few situations where having just a few texts at hand (Lord’s Prayer, Creed, Benediction, etc) in these languages could come in handy.

One of the downsides to the LSB volume is that, like other CPH publications, it uses the ESV. I’ll save an evaluation of the ESV for another time, but the fact is that I have grown so accustomed to the NIV that I struggle to make good use of the ESV sections. Many of the rites are usable, but not those which I use in conjunction with the hymnal. There are hymn stanzas in the companion, but the translation is different often enough to make it awkward.

So what do I do? Lately, I’ve been keeping both books close at hand. In general, I take my CW companion on all regular shut-in calls or any situations when I know what I’m dealing with. But for sick and hospital calls, I like the flexibility of the LSB resources. I feel like I’ll have better luck finding what I’m looking for if I need to quickly thumb through the book to find a good prayer for this or that.

Another way I have used it is to prepare for my calls. I’ll use the LSB book to look up the situation I think I’m dealing with and use that to form my devotions and prayers. In that case, I might not even bring it along. But I probably will, just in case. I’ll probably keep both volumes close at hand, and use each for its advantages.

What I would really love is to have one book which was the best of both worlds (or books). My best chance of that will probably have to at least wait until 2023, when the next WELS hymnal is scheduled to be published. Hopefully we won’t have to wait 11 years after the hymnal this time. (CW was published in 1993, the Pastor’s Companion in 2004.) But I am also hopeful that some of these content and organizational benefits and advantages of the LSB Pastoral Care Companion might somehow be incorporated into a new companion.

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who watch or work or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, give rest to the weary, pity the afflicted, soothe the suffering, bless the dying–and all for your love’s sake. Amen.

I have used this prayer on many evenings. But I can’t think of another time when I have been able put names and faces on nearly every phrase of the prayer.

To me it strikes me as an amazing demonstration of the excerise of their faith, in their hour of need to be concerned, not so much about their own needs as the needs of others.

It makes it a joy to serve them, to also remind them that that is exactly the way their Savior is.