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.

March 06, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 27, 102, 126
Exodus 1:6-22
1 Corinthians 12:12-26
Mark 8:27-9:1

II. Selections
Psalm 27:2
When evildoers assail me
to devour my flesh-
my adversaries and foes-
they shall stumble and fall.

Exodus 1:22
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live."

1 Corinthians 12:12
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

Mark 8:33
But turning and looking at his disciples, [ Jesus] rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

III. Meditation: Divine, not human, ways

Set our minds on divine ways, not on human ways,
that we may be members of the one body in Christ,
lest evildoers assail the body and devour the flesh,
as Pharaoh tried to devour the children of Israel.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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