Daily Readings - Mon Jul 30 2018

¹This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water."²So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist.³Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time:⁴"Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks."⁵So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me.⁶Many days later the LORD said to me, "Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there."⁷So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.⁸Then the word of the LORD came to me:⁹"This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.¹⁰These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt-completely useless!¹¹For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'

Matthew

Chapter 13

³¹He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.³²Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."³³He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."³⁴Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.³⁵So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."

Sermon

In today’s readings, we encounter two powerful images from Scripture that invite us to reflect on God’s work in our lives and in the world. The first reading from Jeremiah describes a prophetic action where God instructs Jeremiah to bury a linen waistcloth by the Euphrates River. When he returns later, the cloth has rotted and is useless. This symbolizes the corruption and stubbornness of God’s people, who have turned away from His words and embraced false idols. Jeremiah’s message is one of warning: just as the waistcloth clings to the body but becomes worthless, so too can our relationship with God become meaningless if we do not listen to His voice and remain faithful. In the Gospel, Jesus offers two parables about the kingdom of heaven: the mustard seed and the leaven. These images remind us that God’s work often begins small and unnoticed but grows to have a profound impact. The mustard seed, though tiny, becomes a tree that shelters birds, and the leaven transforms an entire batch of dough. These parables encourage us to trust in God’s power to transform even the smallest and seemingly insignificant aspects of our lives. While Jeremiah’s reading speaks of judgment, Jesus’ parables speak of hope and the transformative power of God’s kingdom. Together, these readings challenge us to reflect on our spiritual state. Are we like the rotting waistcloth, clinging to sin and stubbornness, or are we allowing God’s kingdom to grow within us? Let us ask ourselves: Where are the small, hidden places in my life where God might be at work? How can I cooperate with His grace to let His kingdom grow? May we embrace the hope of transformation and the call to live as faithful disciples, trusting that even in darkness, God’s light can shine through.