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 Land Cries Out Against Us--Sept. 14, 2012



Our Creator God, abundantly you have watered
earth's furrows and have blessed its growth;
but surely the land cries out against us,
and all its furrows weep together.

If we but keep silence and listen
to the sound of the weeping,
we will be greatly disturbed
in spirit and deeply moved.

This good earth, which you have
worked signs and wonders to give us,
day by day we kill by burning fossil fuels,
causing devastating heat and flood and drought.

So the land cries out,
and the furrows weep.
God, have mercy on us.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 51; 148; 142; 65
Job 29:1, 31:24-40
Acts 15:12-21
John 11:30-44

Selected Verses
Ps. 65:10
You water [the earth's] furrows abundantly,
      settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
      and blessing its growth.

Job 31:38
"…If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept together…" [Job]

Acts 15:12
The whole assembly kept silence, and listened to Barnabas and Paul as they told of all the signs and wonders that God had done through them among the Gentiles.

John 11:33

When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.

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