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.

January 19, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 27, 36, 80
Genesis 11:1-9
Hebrews 6:13-20
John 4:1-15

II. Selections
Psalm 36:7
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Genesis 11:7
" ...Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

Hebrews 6:13
When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself ...

John 4:1-3
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, "Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John"-although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized-he left Judea and started back to Galilee.

III. Meditation: Rivals
Did you at Babel confuse our language
to confound us, and make us rival one another,
all from fear that we would rival you?

No, you are a God of steadfast love,
who invites all people to take refuge
in the shadow of your wings.

You have no need to fear our puny rivalry;
no one is greater than you,
no one begins to compare with you.

It is we who fear rivals, we who spread rumors
about who is making more disciples,
doing more baptisms, showing more love.

We make our own Babel,
causing you to leave Judea
and return to Galilee.

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