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.

October 18, 2005

I. Readings
Psalms 28, 54, 99
Lamentations 1:1-12
1 Corinthians 15:41-50
Matthew 11:25-30

II. Selections
Psalm 99:4
Mighty King, lover of justice,
you have established equity;
you have executed justice
and righteousness in Jacob.

Lamentations 1:7a
Jerusalem remembers,
in the days of her affliction and wandering,
all the precious things
that were hers in days of old.

1 Corinthians 15:48-49
As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Matthew 11:25-26
At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

III. Meditation: A contrast in images
We bear the image of perishable, fallible humanity; you call us to bear the image of him who is eternal and divine. Not with all our earthly wisdom and intellectual effort can we penetrate this mystery. We can know it only as you make it known to us, as babes receive their mothers' milk. You love justice, yet you love us who are unjust, who show no equity in dealing with the world's poor and oppressed masses. Fill us with more of your justice and righteousness, lest we suffer the fate of Jerusalem, which wasted your precious gifts and could only remember them with great lamentation.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)