The Texts for Sunday, July 6th, 2014

First Reading: Zechariah 9:9–12

⁹Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!

Lo, your king comes to you;

triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

  ¹⁰He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

and the war-horse from Jerusalem;

and the battle bow shall be cut off,

and he shall command peace to the nations;

his dominion shall be from sea to sea,

and from the River to the ends of the earth.

  ¹¹As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

  ¹²Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;

today I declare that I will restore to you double.

— The word of the Lord.

Second Reading: Romans 7:15–25a

¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.  ¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.  ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.  ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.  ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.  ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,  ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?  ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

— The Word of the Lord.

Gospel: Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30

¹⁶But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

¹⁷'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we wailed, and you did not mourn.'

  ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon';  ¹⁹the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." 

²⁵At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants;  ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.  ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."