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 19, 2007

I. Readings
Psalms 17, 50, 53
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Titus 1:1-16
Luke 1:1-25

II. Selections
Psalm 53:4
Have they no knowledge, those evildoers,
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon God?

Zephaniah 3:15b
The king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more.

Titus 1:15a
To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure.

Luke 1:4
...so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.

III. Meditation: To know the truth

It is not a simple matter to know
the truth concerning the things
about which we have been instructed.
For example, it is not true that
all things are pure, but neither
is it the case that nothing is pure.

Of this much, though, we can be sure-
evildoers who do not call upon you,
who eat up your people as they eat bread,
have no knowledge. And this much more
we know-when you are in our midst,
we shall fear disaster no more.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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