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.

August 30, 2005

I. Readings
Psalms 7, 12, 36
1 Kings 8:65-9:9
James 2:14-26
Mark 14:66-72

II. Selections
Ps. 12:8
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among humankind.

1 Kings 9:8
" ...This house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished, and will hiss; and they will say, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this house?' ..." (King Solomon's speech to the people)

James 2:15-16
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?

Mark 14:67-68a
When [ the servant girl] saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, "You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth." But he denied it, saying, "I do not know or understand what you are talking about."

III. Meditation: God, why have you done such a thing?
When on every side the wicked prowl and vileness is exalted among humankind; when the church is in a heap of ruins and everyone passing by hisses and asks you why you have done such a thing, God; will we understand what they are talking about? Will it occur to us that when a brother or sister was naked and lacked daily food, and we in the church (as we warmed ourselves by the fire) said to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet did not supply their bodily needs, then we denied that we were followers of Jesus as surely as did Peter?

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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