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.

Having Nothing, Possessing Everything--June 6, 2017


Happy are those who find their help  
in you, dear God, their help and their hope.
Happy the households who eat in your presence,
ones who rejoice and give thanks for your blessings.
And happy are we when we can rejoice even in sorrow--
when we have nothing, but are rich in possessing everything.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 54; 146; 28; 99
Deut. 12:1-12
2 Cor. 6:3-7:1
Luke 17:11-19

Selected Verses
Ps. 146:5
 Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
          whose hope is in the LORD their God…

Deut. 12:7
And you shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

2 Cor. 6:8b-10
We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see--we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Luke 17:17-18
Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten made clean?  But the other nine, where are they?   Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"

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