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Proper 7

Preaching
Proper 7 | Ordinary Time 12 - A
Genesis 21:8-21
Jeremiah 20:7-13
Elizabeth Achtemeier
Preaching and Reading the Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
God has a way of humbling our pride. We consider ourselves in the Christian Church to be participants in the covenant people, chosen by God through Jesus Christ, to be the wild branches grafted into the root of Israel (cf. Romans 11:17-24), and thus heirs of all of the promises that God gave to Israel (cf. Galatians 4:4-7). As we heard last week, we are a special people, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. And that's pretty great. But lest we think we are better than anyone else, we encounter this story about Hagar and her son, Ishmael, in our Old Testament text for the morning.
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