A Meditation for Trinity 18 – Harvest 2026
Collect
Joel 2: 21-27
21 Do not be afraid, land of Judah; be glad and rejoice. Surely the Lord has done great things!
22 Do not be afraid, you wild animals, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23 Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.
Reflection
The Prophet is speaking to a people who are living under threat of famine and drought caused by a plague of locusts. The earlier Chapters of Joel’s prophecy are a call for the people to repent, for they have strayed far away from the Lord, and as a result, the locusts have destroyed the land. Joel calls on them to repent, then the evil doers will be punished and the penitent will be saved. With repentance will come the harvest.
However, given the various enemies of Judah; Babylon, the Medes and Persians, not to mention the corruption of some of its leaders themselves, it is reasonable to understand the prophet referring not to insects but humans, and relevant to New Testament stories of persecution by Greeks, Romans and legalistic religious hierarchies.
Going further, and clearly in our own times, the human locust swarm threatens to destroy everything in its way. We live in a time of the growth of extremist political philosophies and associated leadership to an extent reminiscent of the Nineteen Thirties; climate change and ensuing increasingly severe weather; uncontrolled (and possibly uncontrollable) technological ‘progress’; a society driven by ‘money’ rather than ‘wealth’; and the resurgence of sectarian, racist, misogynistic and unaddressed toxic domestic and gender-based violence.
It is hard to see God’s love for His people in all of this – or is it?
Depends on where we look.
We can withdraw into our comfort blankets and pretend that the locusts will just fly away – or we can choose to be grateful that we have a saviour whose ultimate victory is certain, and celebrate our life as free children of our Creator God.
We do so by giving thanks for the gift of our harvest by decorating our churches, by giving thanks for God’s response to our prayers at ploughing and growing, most of all by giving thanks by living as Christ’s body on Earth and refusing to be silent when we see hatred and injustice in the world around us. We choose love, and the locusts will fail in their intention to destroy the beauty of the earth – instead they will wither and perish
Through Christ, we have a harvest of life. Let us use it for His glory.
Praying Together 16th April 2023
However it may happen, when we see Him, we proclaim Him in the same words as Thomas – ‘My Lord and my God’ and award Him our trust. Forever.
Praying Together Easter Day 9 April 2023
The only way that we know that the victory over death is permanently won is if we accept that the tomb is empty.
Praying Together 2nd April 2023
And just as the donkey is a figure at the beginning of the Gospel story, so a donkey is present at its end.
Praying Together 26th March 2023
We have to ask ourselves if, like Thomas, we are prepared to follow Jesus at whatever cost
Praying Together 19th March 2023
Perhaps, then instead of just giving chocolate and flowers on Mothering Sunday, we might resolve to offer love in return throughout every day of the year
Praying Together 12th March 2023
The story of the woman at the well has been described as one of the most significant to our understanding of the Gospel message.
Praying Together 5th March 2023
This day is all that is good and fair.
It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations to waste a moment on yesterdays.
Praying Together 19th February 2023
If suffering did not exist, we could never know joy. If there was no ‘evil’, we wouldn’t be able to recognise ‘good’.
Praying Together February 12th 2023
Faith means little when God’s plan is the same as our plan. Faith is everything when it isn’t. When we don’t understand, when the things of the world tempt – and often overcome – us. When disaster happens.
Praying Together February 5th 2023
Goddess or Saint? The stories are interwoven, in many cases feeding off each other. But whatever the reality, Brigid’s care for the poor is the common theme – living a life of love and service, for all creation.
Praying Together 29th January 2023
We don’t have to wait for eternity – we can be the body of Christ right here, right now. And then we can begin to take our part in the healing of the Nations.
Praying together 22nd January 2023
The annual Week of Christian Unity seeks to respond to the prayer of Jesus the night before He died, as recorded in John 17,– ‘that they may become completely one’.