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.

March 30, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 27, 102, 126
Exodus 1:6-22
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
Mark 8:27-9:1

II. Selections
Psalm 126:4
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.

Exodus 1:6-7
Then Joseph died and all his brothers, and that whole generation. But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.

1 Corinthians 12:14
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Mark 8:33
But turning and looking at his disciples, [ Jesus] rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

III. Meditation: Human things
Forgive us, God.
We keep setting our minds
not on divine things
but on human things.

We suppose everything is up to us,
everything must be done our way,
as if the whole body is made of a leg,
and we are the leg.

Such a body runs,
but with nothing to guide it
has nowhere to go
and naught to do upon arrival.

We worry about our death,
the passing of our generation,
as if that will mark
the end of the earth.

We forget that you
will still be God,
watching over all you created,
all that you love.

Restore our lives, O bountiful God,
like the watercourses in the Negeb.
Wash the desert with your rains
and let the downpour fill our empty streambeds.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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