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 17, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 31, 43, 143
Jeremiah 13:1-11
Romans 6:12-23
John 8:47-59

II. Selections
Psalm 43:1
Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people;
from those who are deceitful and unjust
deliver me.

Jeremiah 13:11
For as the loincloth clings to one's loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.

Romans 6:17-18
But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

John 8:59
So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

III. Meditation: Obedient from the heart

Jesus faced ungodly people, deceitful and unjust,
who tried to kill him, eventually succeeding.
After his death, you vindicated him,
delivered him, defended his cause.

Make us, who have been slaves to sin,
obedient from the heart to Jesus' teaching;
thus slaves of righteousness, set free from sin.
Through Christ Jesus, make your people cling to you.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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