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 31, 2005

I. Readings
Psalms 5, 29, 82
Nehemiah 6:1-19
Revelation 10:1-11
Matthew 13:36-43

II. Selections
Psalm 82:5
They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk around in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Nehemiah 6:8
Then I sent to [ Sanballat], saying, "No such things as you say have been done; you are inventing them out of your own mind" ...

Revelation 10:9
So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth."

Matthew 13:37-38
[ Jesus] answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one ..."

III. Meditation: Shaken to the foundations
Sometimes we have the sense that those who lead the nations lack both knowledge and understanding, that they walk around in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. The reports they give us seem to have been invented out of their own minds. By comparison your word is sweet as honey in our mouth, though it ends up bitter in our stomachs. Sow your good seed in our world, Lord Jesus.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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