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.

August 13, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 103, 117, 139
Judges 11:1-11, 29-40
2 Corinthians 11:21b-31
Mark 4:35-41

II. Selections
Psalm 103:4
...who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy ...

Judges 11:7
But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Are you not the very ones who rejected me and drove me out of my father's house? So why do you come to me now when you are in trouble?"

2 Corinthians 11:23
Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman-I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.

Mark 4:38
But [ Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and [ the disciples] woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

III. Meditation: Crowned with steadfast love and mercy

Our style is to restore our relationship
with a person we have rejected
only if we need that person's help.

Your way is to crown us
with steadfast love and mercy,
redeeming our lives out of grace.

Our suffering is nothing compared to Paul's,
yet we conclude you are unconcerned
about our pain and peril. Forgive us.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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