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.

Little We Know--Sept. 26, 2016

[From Oct. 2, 2006 archive]

Little we know:
it is you who gave us
the grain, the wine, the oil;
who lavished upon us silver and
gold that we used for Baal.
How little we know.

And if we do know,
overwhelmed by your largesse,
we send you away, for sinners we are,
and sinners we are wont to be. In silence yet
we wait for you; somehow we sense
from you comes our salvation.

Again the message,
the message of your grace,
a message able to build us up
and give us an inheritance among all
who are sanctified by your grace,
though little we know.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 62; 145; 73; 9
Hosea 2:2-15
Acts 20:17-38
Luke 5:1-11
           
Selected Verses
Ps. 62:1
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
            from him comes my salvation.

Hosea 2:8
[My unfaithful wife] did not know
            that it was I who gave her
            the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished upon her silver
            and gold that they used for Baal.

Acts 20:32
“…And now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified.      [Paul to the Ephesian Elders]

Luke 5:8
But when Simon Peter saw [the catch of fish], he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 

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