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.

April 20, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 49, 96, 138
Daniel 3:1-18
1 John 3:1-10
Luke 3:15-22

II. Selections
Psalm 49:8-9
For the ransom of life is costly,
and can never suffice
that one should live on forever
and never see the grave.

Daniel 3:17
" ...If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. ... " [ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to Nebuchadnezzar]

1 John 3:2a
Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.

Luke 3:17
" ...His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." [ John to the people, speaking of the one who was coming after him]

III. Meditation: After the winnowing fork

We will not live forever; all will see the grave.
We are your children now. What will we be? ;

Chaff doomed to burn with unquenchable fire?
Are you able to deliver from the furnace blaze? ;

When you clear the threshing floor, will we all
be gathered safely into your granary as wheat? ;

What we will be has not yet been revealed, but
surely, even then we still will be your children.

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