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 07, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 5, 27, 51, 147:1-11
Jeremiah 3:6-18
Romans 1:26-2:11
John 5:1-18

II. Selections
Psalm 147:3
[ The LORD] heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.

Jeremiah 3:10
Yet for all this [ Israel's] false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, says the LORD.

Romans 2:4
Or do you despise the riches of [ God's] kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

John 5:6
When Jesus saw [ the man who had been ill thirty-eight years] lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"

III. Meditation: Only in pretense

O God of kindness, forbearance, patience:
you heal the sick and brokenhearted,
and bind up their wounds.

Surely your kindness should lead us to repentance;
yet we do not return to you with a whole heart,
only in pretense.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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