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.

November 09, 2005

I. Readings
Psalms 4, 15, 48
Nehemiah 5:1-19
Revelation 18:21-24
Matthew 15:29-39

II. Selections
Psalm 15:1
O LORD, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy hill? ;

Nehemiah 5:10-11
" ...Moreover I [ Nehemiah] and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us stop this taking of interest. Restore to them, this very day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the interest on money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them."

Revelation 18:23b-24
" ...for your merchants were the magnates of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. And in you was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on earth."

Matthew 15:30
Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them ...

III. Meditation: The invitation list
O God, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Who may sit at your feet? The powerful merchants of commerce, the magnates of the earth, might well expect an automatic invitation. Not so, if on them is found the blood of prophets and of saints, the blood of those who have been slaughtered on earth. None of us who are powerful are welcome unless we first restore the unjust gains we have exacted from the poor and vulnerable. Who, then, will be seated first? The lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others who need to be cured.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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