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.

August 29, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 65, 91, 125
1 Kings 3:1-15
Acts 27:9-26
Mark 14:1-11

II. Selections
Psalm 91:13
You will tread on the lion and the adder,
the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.

1 Kings 3:5
At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I should give you."

Acts 27:25-26
" ...So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we will have to run aground on some island." [ Paul, to the men on the ship]

Mark 14:10
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray [ Jesus] to them.

III. Meditation: An invitation, two dreams, and betrayal

If you let Solomon ask for whatever he wanted,
surely Jesus would have received that invitation.

Then couldn't Jesus have asked for the power
to trample under foot the lion and the serpent?

Apparently not, for Jesus was betrayed
by the serpent and crucified by the lion.

But Jesus, like Paul, urged his friends to keep up
their courage, though the ship would go aground.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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