A Gentle and Gentling God
- davidwperk
- May 30, 2024
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Thursday, May 30, 2024
Proper 3, The week of Trinity Sunday
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 968)AM Psalm 37:1-18; PM Psalm 37:19-42
Prov. 21:30-22:6; 1 Tim. 4:1-16; Matt. 13:24-30
Today we celebrstr the Feast of Joan of Arc. (See below.)
Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 13:24-30
24 He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” 28He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’
David’s Reflections
The lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke gave us these lines:
We all fall. This hand here falls.
And look at others: it's in everyone.
And yet there's one who holds this falling
infinitely gentle in his hands. *
Jesus’ parable in today’s Gospel presents us with a nonretaliatory, gentle image of God. As Rilke puts it, God “holds this falling infinitely gentle in his hands.”* The farmer has been victimized by an enemy who sowed wild wheat in the wheat field. Only when the wheat began to head out did the difference appear. The farmer would not allow his workers to try weeding out the wild wheat; that would have uprooted much good wheat in the process. The farmer allowed both to grow to full maturity, when his workers then could cut the wild wheat and bind it in bundles to be used for fuel, prior to the harvesting of the good wheat. Like Rilke’s leaves, we all fall by behaviors similar to that of the farmer’s enemy. This may not have been sound agricultural practice, but Jesus’ parables often contain that kind of content as part of their alternative reality.
Not one hint of retaliation comes through in anything the farmer says or does. He has no interesting in getting even with his enemy. Jesus compares this to how God’s kingly rule responds to enemies and adversarial behaviors. God does not retaliate or seek to get even. Rather, in gentleness, God seeks to
minimize the damage and salvage the wheat.
In fact, gathering the bundled wild wheat for burning may be a reference to using it for fires. Imagine baking bread with the wild wheat intended to sabotage the wheat crop. Could this be an allusion to how God’s saving purposes are not thwarted by evil but only furthered? As Paul said in Romans 8, “God works in all things for good.” (my translation)
Would that we could take a page from Jesus’ teaching about God’s gentleness and incorporate more of that gentleness into our own lives. Imagine how much emotional and physical violence would be avoided were we to emulate the farmer, the one who showed no interest in violence and whose behavior reminds us of the gentleness of God.
Give thanks with me that, in Rilke’s words, God holds all this falling infiinitely gentle in God’s hands.*
* Rainer Maria Rilke, "Herbst/Autumn," translated by Robert Detweiler in his work, Breaking the Fall: Religious Readings of Contemporary Fiction (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1995).
© David W. Perkins, 2024
Collect of the Day, Trinity Sunday
Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP 228)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Joan of Arc, visionary (died 30 May 1431 CE)
Collect of the Feast of Joan of Arc
Holy God, whose power is made perfect in weakness: we honor you for the calling of Jeanne d’Arc, who, though young, rose up in valor to bear your standard for her country, and endured with grace and fortitude both victory and defeat; and we pray that we, like Jeanne, may bear witness to the truth that is in us to friends and enemies alike, and, encouraged by the companionship of your saints, give ourselves bravely to the struggle for justice in our time; through Christ our Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Guidance into the Future
O God, who has made us creatures of time, so that every tomorrow is unknown country, and every decision a venture in faith. Grant us, frail children of the day, who are yet blind to the future, to move toward it in the sure confidence of your love, from which neither life nor death can ever separate us. Amen.
(Reinhold Niebuhr, cited by Elizabeth R. Geitz, Calling Clergy: A Spiritual and Practical Guide Through the Search Process (New York: Church Publishing, 2007), p. xii.)
Collect for Justice
Gracious and liberating God:
Lift us beyond the burdens of pain and guilt,
Build our memories into life-giving resolutions,
Give us the vision of a new creation,
Strengthen us to act for justice and human dignity
And set all free. Amen.
(Offered at the conclusion of a service at Westminster Abbey honoring those in the abolitionist movement that ended slavery. 28 March 2007)
A Prayer for Light
Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 816-817)
Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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