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.

Whom the World Honors--Oct. 12, 2016


The world honors important
people, people such as Herod,
or the ship-owner, or the centurion--
 though these slander, betray friends, and
take up a reproach against their neighbors.
Important people vilified Paul, beheaded John,
crucified Jesus--but vanished like the morning
mist or the early dew, like swirling chaff,
or like smoke from a window.
Paul, John, and Jesus
we remember.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 15; 147:1-11; 48; 4
Hosea 13:1-3
Acts 27:9-26
Luke 9:1-17

Selected Verses
Ps. 15:3
…who do not slander with their tongue,
          and do no evil to their friends,
          nor take up a reproach against their neighbors…

Hosea 13:3
Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes away early, like chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window.
Acts 27:11
But the centurion paid more attention to the pilot and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said.

Luke 9:9a
Herod said, "John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?"  

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