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.

December 13, 2006

I. Readings
Psalms 17, 50, 53
Isaiah 6:1-13
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
John 7:53-8:11

II. Selections
Psalm 17:10
They close their hearts to pity;
with their mouths they speak arrogantly.

Isaiah 6:5
And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

2 Thessalonians 1:3
We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing.

John 8:7
When [ the scribes and Pharisees] kept on questioning [ Jesus], he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."

III. Meditation: Yet my eyes have seen the King

We who have unclean lips,
who live among a people of unclean lips;
we who speak arrogantly with our mouths
and close our hearts to pity;
we who do not hesitate to throw a stone,
though ourselves by no means free from sin-
woe to us, for we have lost our way.

Forgive us and remind us-
in the life of Jesus we have seen the King.
Strengthen our faith in him,
make it grow abundantly,
and increase our love for one another.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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