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.

Who Will Roll the Stone Away?--March 28, 2016


O Lord of all the earth,
in this season of Easter remind us
how your power freed us from bondage.
When we worry over how we are going to
move a huge stone that is blocking our way,
remind us of your power to melt mountains.
Teach us the importance of hard work,
but the still greater importance
of your grace.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 97; 145; 124; 115
Exod. 12:14-27
1 Cor. 15:1-11
Mark 16:1-8

Selected Verses
Ps. 97:5
 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
          before the Lord of all the earth.

Exod. 12:17
You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your companies out of the land of Egypt: you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a perpetual ordinance.

1 Cor. 15:10b
On the contrary, I worked harder than any of [the other apostles]--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 

Mark 16:3-4
[The three women] had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"  When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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