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July 18, 2017

Unexpected Grace

ELMER LAVASTIDA ALFONSO   |   Read Genesis 28:16-19

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Lectionary Week
July 17–23, 2017
Scripture Overview

This week’s texts depict a broad span of settings of God’s activity, from Jacob’s encounter in solitude to the broader context of creation itself in Romans. The texts also tell of God’s commission of human agents, weak and inadequate, to carry out divine tasks. Jacob may not be totally aware of God’s plans for him, but the reader knows. Paul declares that the people in whom the Spirit of God dwells are very much in tune with the pain of creation. They also long for God’s nal deliverance. Just at the point of the reluctance of God’s agents to carry out the tasks, the parable from Matthew about the wheat and weeds gives hope. God will take care of the weeds in God’s own time. Psalm 139 is a moving statement on the ubiquitous nature of God’s presence.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

• Read Genesis 28:10-19a. When have you “wakened” to acknowledge that you were in a holy place? What did you do to memorialize the place?
• Read Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24. Do you regularly take time in a set-aside place for an intimate relationship with God? If not, what steps could you take to ensure that relationship?
• Read Romans 8:12-25. Do you feel close enough to God to call God “Abba”? Why or why not?
• Read Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43. What are you doing to discourage the growth of evil in your life? How does your garden grow?

Respond by posting a prayer .

Genesis 28:16-19

16 When Jacob woke from his sleep, he thought to himself, The LORD is definitely in this place, but I didn’t know it. 17 He was terrified and thought, This sacred place is awesome. It’s none other than God’s house and the entrance to heaven. 18 After Jacob got up early in the morning, he took the stone that he had put near his head, set it up as a sacred pillar, and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He named that sacred place Bethel, though Luz was the city’s original name.

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible. Used by permission.

This division of the Genesis text allows us to distinguish two moments of the event—one where God takes the initiative and a second one where Jacob is the protagonist. It seems that verses 16 and 17 occur just as Jacob wakes from sleep, but dawn has not arrived. He gains...

O God, thank you for accompanying me each hour of the day and night. May I be sensitive to your presence so that I can truly discover you and worship you in my own Bethel experiences. I shall pour oil on those altars. Amen.


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