God who delays the harvest,
teach us the patience and humility to wait.
We grow impatient with the evil we see in the world
and desire to see it put out of our society, our communities,
and especially our own hearts.
God who delays the harvest,
teach us the patience and humility to wait.
Your time is not our time
and your ways are not our ways.
In your wise and mysterious mercy
you allow weeds to grow alongside the grain.
God who delays the harvest,
teach us the patience and humility to wait.
As your impatient children we at times start yanking on what we think are weeds
without the knowledge of how it might affect the harvest.
Forgive us for the ways we have injured your precious harvest.
Give us the humility to acknowledge the limits of our discernment
and live as members of the harvest
even among whatever weeds we may encounter.
God who delays the harvest,
teach us the patience and humility to wait.
In your name we pray, Amen
Explanation
The middle chapters of Matthew’s gospel reveal a Jesus who defies expectations: Jesus breaks traditions, spends time with and heals the wrong sort of people, and preaches not rousing sermons of rebellion and nationalism, but obscure parables about a coming Kingdom of mercy and forgiveness. In these chapters the devotion and obedience of his disciples and the desperate need of the crowds is set against a backdrop of resistance from religious leaders, puzzlement from John the Baptist and his followers, and his family’s interfering concern for his mental health.
The unexpectedness of Jesus’ kingdom ministry in the gospel of Matthew can guide us in our journey of humility with Jesus in our own daily lives and in the lives of our churches. We don’t always know what to expect about God’s kingdom building work, but Matthew instructs us in the essentials that we need to follow this unexpected Jesus wherever he takes us.
Image: © Bob Harvey and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.