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.

When I Seek My own Glory--Feb. 13, 2016


To you, O God and Father/Mother,
be glory forever and ever.
The glory does not belong to me,
nor is it my role to punish in your stead.
Any glory that comes to us is not of our doing,
but is the gift you have given us through Jesus,
so that we may be one as you and he are one.
Glory comes from love, not from executing
on the nations the judgment we suppose
that you have decreed.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 43; 149; 31; 143
Ezek. 39:21-29
Phil. 4:10-20
John 17:20-26

Selected Verses
Ps. 149:9
…to execute on [the nations] the judgment decreed.
          This is glory for all his faithful ones.
Praise the Lord!

Ezek. 39:21
I will display my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. 

Phil. 4:20
To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

John 17:22-23
"…The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  …"  [Jesus' prayer for his disciples]
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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