I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.

January 01, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 8, 98, 99
Genesis 17:1-12a, 15-16
Colossians 2:6-12
John 16:23b-30

II. Selections
Psalm 8:3-4
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them? ;

Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. ... "

Colossians 2:6-7
As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

John 16:26-27
On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

III. Meditation: What are human beings?

How could the one whose fingers established
the moon and the stars in their courses
be mindful of us, care for us?

With the whole universe to occupy you,
we do not expect your concern
over how we live our lives.

But you do care, you are mindful of our lives,
and you command us to walk with you-
even that we be blameless.

You know us better than we know ourselves;
you know we cannot be blameless.
Why ask the impossible?

You teach us to ask, too; to ask in the name of Jesus.
You call us to live our lives in Christ Jesus,
rooted and built up and thankful.

Why? Because you love us.

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