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.

A Swarm of Bees, a Fire of Thorns--Nov. 18, 2017


Jesus, you call us to deny ourselves,
take up our cross, and follow you.

But we are easily deceived,
distracted by competing calls
that surround us like a swarm
of bees, like a fire of thorns,
we leave you and return
to our own fields.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 56; 149; 118; 111
Neh. 13:4-22
Rev. 20:1-6
Matt. 16:21-28

Selected Verses
Ps. 118:12
[All nations] surrounded me like bees;
          they blazed like a fire of thorns;
          in the name of the LORD I cut them off! 

Neh. 13:10
I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them; so that the Levites and the singers, who had conducted the service, had gone back to their fields.

Rev. 20:2-3a
[The angel] seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were ended. 

Matt. 16:24
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  …"



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