The scheme for July and August can be found here

Prov 26-27; Matt 20; Psalm 86

Not getting what we are expecting is also a running theme through the gospels. As we remarked yesterday, the Gospel is a great reversal. We see this plainly in the embodiment of the gospel, Jesus Christ. The eternal son of God, who empties himself and becomes nothing.

Not getting what we are expecting is of course two sided – we may end up with far more or indeed far less . . . and of course it is also a matter of our hearts

So the workers who slave all through the heat of the day, receive a days wage, but comparing themselves with others and the wage They receive -think themselves harshly done by. They cannot rejoice in the generosity of God (much as the elder brother cannot). To pick up a common theme in Matthew – ‘they have received their reward’.

Perhaps there is a very profound truth here – that to some degree it is how we see that determines our joy – or lack of it.