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 19, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 6, 119:73-80, 121
Jeremiah 16:1-21
Romans 7:1-12
John 6:1-15

II. Selections
Psalm 6:6
I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.

Jeremiah 16:10
And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, "Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?" ...

Romans 7:11
For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.

John 6:2, 5
A large crowd kept following [ Jesus], because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ... When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?"

III. Meditation: Couches drenched by weeping

The crowd followed Jesus to watch
him do signs of healing for the sick.
Instead, he gave them bread to eat.
You are not to be taken for granted.

Yet sometimes we, or ones we love,
really do need healing, not bread.
Weary with moaning, beds wet,
tear-drenched, we turn to you.

God, why this great evil against us?
What sin have we done to deserve it?
Has sin so deceived us that we cannot
recognize the enormity of our iniquity?

And is it in your nature to punish
sin by assaulting us with sickness?
The answers are difficult to discern,
but we dare not take you for granted.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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