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.

December 11, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 33, 85, 94
Amos 7:10-17
Revelation 1:9-16
Matthew 22:34-46

II. Selections
Psalm 85:6
Will you not revive us again,
so that your people may rejoice in you?

Amos 7:10
Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. ... "

Revelation 1:9a
I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance ...

Matthew 22:37
[ Jesus] said to [ the lawyer], " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' ..."

III. Meditation: Revive us again

You have told us to love you with all our heart,
and with all our soul, and with all our strength.

The land is not able to bear all your words, for
such love is to share in Jesus the persecution

and the kingdom and the patient endurance.
Revive us again, that we may rejoice in you.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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