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.

No Gods, or the True God--March 27, 2017


The gods we make for ourselves to worship--
fame, fortune, excitement, revenge--are no gods.
When we see the signs that you have done, Lord Jesus,
and we know that you have come into the world for us,
and we experience the new life in the Spirit,
then we know the true God.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 119:73-80; 145; 121; 6
Jer. 16:1-21
Rom. 7:1-12
John 6:1-15

Selected Verses
Ps. 121:1-2
I lift up my eyes to the hills —
          from where will my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
          who made heaven and earth.

Jer. 16:20
 Can mortals make for themselves gods?
          Such are no gods!

Rom. 7:6
But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

John 6:14
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

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