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.

September 11, 2005

I. Readings
Psalms 19, 81, 113
1 Kings 19:8-21
Acts 5:34-42
John 11:45-57

II. Selections
Ps. 81:5c-6
I hear a voice I had not known:
"I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket. ..."

1 Kings 19:9
At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there.
Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Acts 5:36-37
For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and disappeared. After him Judas the Galilean rose up at the time of the census and got people to follow him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.

John 11:49-50
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed."

III. Meditation: We know little or nothing at all.
How little we understand about what we are doing here. How much we do that accomplishes nothing except to create harm for ourselves and others. How little we know of what you have done for us-how the death of one man for the people saved all from destruction. We know nothing at all.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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