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.

February 20, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 5, 27, 51
Genesis 42:18-28
1Corinthians 5:9-6:11
Mark 4:1-20

II. Selections
Psalm 5:4
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
evil will not sojourn with you.

Genesis 42:28b
At [ finding the money in one of their sacks] they lost heart and turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

1Corinthians 6:7
In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

Mark 4:17
" ...But [ the ones sown on rocky soils] have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. ... "

III. Meditation: Roots to endure

Though you do not delight in wickedness or evil,
it is better for us to be wronged or defrauded
than to sue brothers or sisters in the faith.
Give us roots to endure, so that when trouble
or persecution arises on account of your word,
we do not fall away or blame our trouble on you.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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