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.

September 12, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 42, 102, 133
Job 29:1-20
Acts 14:1-18
John 10:31-42

II. Selections
Psalm 102:26-27
[ The heavens] will perish, but you endure;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You change them like clothing, and they pass away;
but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Job 29:15-16
" ...I was eyes to the blind,
and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy,
and I championed the cause of the stranger. ... " [ Job]

Acts 14:15
"Friends, why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. ... " [ Paul to the crowd in Lystra, after the healing of a lame man]

John 10:38
" ...But if I do [ the works of my Father], even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." [ Jesus to the Jews gathered around him in the temple]

III. Meditation: You whose years have no end

Enduring God, God who will not perish
though the heavens wear out like a garment,
we come to you as mortals.

As Jesus was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame,
as he was father to the needy and championed the cause of strangers,
be in us, that by your presence we in his name may do your works.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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