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 09, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 22, 105, 130, 148
Jeremiah 5:1-9
Romans 2:25-3:18
John 5:30-47

II. Selections
Psalm 148:3
Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars!

Jeremiah 5:3
O LORD, do your eyes not look for truth?
You have struck them,
but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to turn back.

Romans 3:9
What then? Are we any better off? No, not at all; for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin ...

John 5:36
" ...But I have a testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. ... " [ Jesus to the Jews]

III. Meditation: Faces harder than a rock

The works Jesus did testify you sent him;
sun and moon, all the shining stars,
sing your praise and his;
but we, under the power of sin,
faces harder than a rock,
refuse to turn back.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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