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.

September 21, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 32, 130, 139
2 Kings 1:2-17
1 Corinthians 3:16-23
Matthew 5:11-16

II. Selections
Psalm 32:3
While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.

2 Kings 1:13
Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. So the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and entreated him, "O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight. ... "

1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

Matthew 5:14
" ...You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ... " [ Jesus, sitting on the mountain]

III. Meditation: No hiding place

If we are precious in your sight,
if our bodies are your temple,
if your Spirit dwells in us,
then we cannot keep silence,
lest we be groaning all day long;
for we are a city set on a hill,
and the light of the world,
and that cannot be hid.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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