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.

Not a Call to Prophecy, but to Life--Dec. 12, 2017


Jesus, I think I have never heard behind me
a loud voice, calling me like a trumpet  
to go and prophesy to your people.
But when I read your words,
how I should love God
(all my heart, soul,
and mind), and my
neighbor as myself,
then my heart tells me that
you are speaking directly to me--
to hear these words has consequences.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 33; 146; 85; 94
Amos 7:10-17
Rev. 1:9-16
Matt. 22:34-46

Selected Verses
Ps. 85:8
 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
          for he will speak peace to his people,
          to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. 

Amos 7:15
"…and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'  …"  [Amos to Amaziah]

Rev. 1:9-10
I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.  I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet… 

Matt. 22:37-39
[Jesus] said to [the lawyer who tested him], "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  …"

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