SHARONNE PRICE | Read Genesis 21:8-21
The pain of abandonment lls this part of the great saga of Abraham. The story thus far has been laden with dif cult choices: the decision to leave Ur and all its familiarity and then to leave Sodom and Gomorrah to God’s judgment after striving to nd clemency; leaving Lot’s...
God who hears the voice of the abandoned and the homeless, help us to keep our own promises to protect and nurture those who bear the brunt of an unjust world. Amen.
Implicit in the story of Hagar and Ishmael is the threat to Isaac and to God’s promises to Abraham and Sarah. The psalmist captures the terror by unnamed forms of destruction that may threaten an individual or people. Paul raises the specter of that most universal threat—death—but does so within the context of the new life won by Christ’s resurrection. Matthew describes various ways in which the enemies of Jesus threaten his disciples because of their association with him.
• Read Genesis 21:8-21. When have you felt burdened and outcast? What was your experience of God’s hearing you where you were?
• Read Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17. Do you pray in the confidence that God hears and will answer your pleas? If not, how could you learn to pray in that manner?
• Read Romans 6:1b-11. Paul speaks of dying to self and rising with Christ. How has your Christian faith given you a sense of freedom from sin?
• Read Matthew 10:24-39. What makes God’s presence real to you? How does God’s intimate knowledge of you—the number of hairs on your head—make you feel?
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