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.

May 15, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 26, 116, 130
Ezekiel 37:21b-28
1 John 2:18-29
Matthew 10:16-23

II. Selections
Psalm 130:5
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope ...

Ezekiel 37:27
My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

1 John 2:24
Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father.

Matthew 10:22
" ...and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ... " [ Jesus to the twelve as he sent them out]

III. Meditation: Wait, hope, abide, endure

A long, long time your people have waited-
waited for you to make your dwelling place
with them, waited for you to be their God.

Waited, and hoped. Hoped in your word.
Hoped in you, and for hoping, been hated.
Been hated; but still endured, abiding still.

Help me, then, to endure to the end,
to abide in the Son and in the Father,
as I wait for you and hope in your word.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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