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 25, 2005

I. Readings
Psalms 7, 12, 36
Lamentations 1:1-12
Revelation 4:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9

II. Selections
Psalm 7:12-13
If one does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and strung his bow;
he has prepared his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.

Lamentations 1:8
Jerusalem sinned grievously, so she has become a mockery; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans, and turns her face away.

Revelation 4:1
After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."

Matthew 13:3
And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. ..."

III. Meditation: Fiery shafts
We know about sinning grievously-and the consequences. If we do not repent, you whet your sword; you bend and string your bow, and your arrows are fiery shafts. Or do we direct the deadly weapons at ourselves? The world mocks us, sees our nakedness, and despises us. We groan, and turn our face away. And then we look. There in heaven a door stands open, and a voice says, "Come up here." And another voice-perhaps it is the same voice-says, "Listen! A sower went out to sow. ..."

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