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 28, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 81, 116, 143
Esther 7:1-10
Acts 19:11-20
Luke 4:14-30

II. Selections
Psalm 116:11
I said in my consternation,
"Everyone is a liar."

Esther 7:4a
" ...For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. ... " [ Queen Esther to King Ahasuerus]

Acts 19:13
Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims."

Luke 4:28-29
When they heard [ Jesus' words], all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.

III. Meditation: How good people are treated by bad people

Good people are persecuted by bad people-
lied about, destroyed, killed, and annihilated.

Bad people try to make profit from what good people have done.
Bad people are filled with rage when good people speak the truth.

Perhaps what happened to Jesus should not surprise us.
And have we not some share in mistreating good people?

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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