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.

December 08, 2005

I. Readings
Psalms 18:1-20, 62, 126
Amos 9:1-10
Revelation 2:8-17
Matthew 23:13-26

II. Selections
Psalm 18:20
The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.

Amos 9:9
For lo, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the ground.

Revelation 2:9a
"I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. ..."

Matthew 23:24
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

III. Meditation: A pebble in your sieve
O God, if you rewarded me according to my righteousness; and according to the cleanness of my hands you recompensed me, how small would be my reward and my recompense! If you shake the world in your sieve, surely I will be retained with the pebbles as the grain falls through to the ground. You know who is rich in righteousness, and you know my poverty. You know how I have been a blind guide, straining out gnats and swallowing camels. God have mercy.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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