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July 8, 2023

Continuing the Miracle

Kayla Craig   |   Read Matthew 11:16-19

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Lectionary Week
July 3–9, 2023
Scripture Overview

The reading in Genesis shifts our attention from Abraham to his son Isaac. When Isaac comes of age, Abraham sends a servant to find a wife for him. When the servant meets Rebekah, her kind hospitality convinces him that she is the one. Isaac marries her, and the reading in the psalm celebrates nuptial love as a symbol of God’s love. Paul in Romans reflects on the human condition. We desire to do what is right, but we fall short over and over again. What is the solution? God delivers us through Jesus Christ. In Matthew, Jesus emphasizes his intimate relationship with God and invites all who are weary to enter into Christ’s rest.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

Read Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67. Which of these or other biblical stories model for you the relationship between God and humanity?
Read Psalm 45:10-17. How have you seen God at work in the way loving relationships have transformed you?
Read Romans 7:15-25a. How might participating in Com- munion in times of strife or sin help you be reconciled to God and others?
Read Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30. The life of faith holds many ironies. How do you hold together the seeming opposites of Jesus’ and John’s focus in their ministries? of seeking to be yoked to God when your burden is too heavy?

Respond by posting a prayer .

Matthew 11:16-19

16 “To what will I compare this generation? It is like a child sitting in the marketplaces calling out to others, 17 ‘We played the flute for you and you didn’t dance. We sang a funeral song and you didn’t mourn.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 Yet the Human One came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved to be right by her works.”

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

The liberating love of a God who enters into covenants with us and makes a way for miracles in the mundane—who brings heaven to earth and has been weaving a sacred love story since before time began—frees us to live in a new way. We are no longer bound by...

O Jesus, friend of sinners, I belong in you. Thank you for making a way when there was no way. Help me find worth in you alone when the world does not understand your liberating love. Give me wisdom as I live in your upside-down kingdom. Amen.


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