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.

That We May Walk in Your Paths--Nov. 30, 2016


Loving God, do not let us close our hearts to pity,
or speak arrogantly, or drive away the needy.
Surely it must displease you when we try
to entrap those who displease us
and then hand them over
 to the authorities.

God, teach us your ways,
that we may walk in your paths.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 50; 147:1-11; 53; 17
Isa. 2:1-4
1 Thess. 2:13-20
Luke 20:19-26
           
Selected Verses
Ps. 17:10
[My enemies] close their hearts to pity;
     with their mouths they speak arrogantly.

Isa. 2:3 a-b
     Many peoples shall come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
     to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
     and that we may walk in his paths." 

1 Thess. 2:15
…who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone …

Luke 20:19-20
When the scribes and chief priests realized that [Jesus] had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people.  So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor. 

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