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.

The Chief Cornerstone--Sept. 18, 2010


I. Readings
Psalms 56, 149, 118, 111
Esther 2:5-8, 15-23
Acts 17:16-34
John 12:44-50

II. Selections
Psalm 118:22
The stone that the builders rejected
      has become the chief cornerstone.

Esther 2:7
Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his cousin, for she had neither father nor mother; the girl was fair and beautiful, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai adopted her as his own daughter.

Acts 17:33-34
At that point Paul left them. But some of them joined him and became believers, including Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

John 12:44
Then Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. … ”

III. Meditation

Mordecai watched over his adopted daughter;
even greater is your concern for us, Lord Jesus.

Some reject, some accept your loving care.
Our rejection or acceptance does not change
who you are, for you are the chief cornerstone.

When we accept you, we accept the architect
who designed the entire structure of our being.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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