Prayer for Farmworkers Appreciation Day

Photo: Tim Mossholder via Unsplash.

Holy and merciful God, you formed humankind from the dust of the earth and breathed into us life.

You planted a garden and called us to tend it.

You gave us a world to steward and neighbors to love.

On this Farmworkers Appreciation Day, we lift up those who rise before the sun, stoop low in fields heavy with harvest, and labor with blistered hands to feed this nation.

We give thanks for their strength, for the sacred work of their hands, for the dignity of their calling to draw forth abundance from the earth so that all might eat.

And yet, Lord, we confess this nation has repaid their labor with cruelty.

Instead of gratitude, we offer raids.

Instead of protection, we offer threats.

Instead of a path to security, we offer exile.

God of justice, God of the oppressed, let not our prayers be empty words.

Let them be fuel for action, for courage, for resistance.

Strengthen those in danger.

Shield families from separation.

Confound those who weaponize power against the vulnerable.

And stir your church to rise in holy defiance to shelter, to advocate, to love without fear.

For you have said, “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.”

So let us be that people. A people who remember where our bread comes from, who honor those who gather it, and who never forget that Christ himself was a child refugee, a laborer, and a guest in foreign land.

In the name of the Risen Christ, who breaks bread with the weary, and commands us to do the same, we pray. Amen.