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.

May 23, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 51, 65, 142
Proverbs 8:1-21
2 John 1-13
Matthew 12:1-14

II. Selections
Psalm 51:3
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.

Proverbs 8:14
" ...I have good advice and sound wisdom;
I have insight, I have strength. ... " [ The voice of wisdom]

2 John 6
And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning-you must walk in it.

Matthew 12:2
When the Pharisees saw [ Jesus' disciples pluck heads of grain to eat on the Sabbath], they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath."

III. Meditation: To love and to walk

The Pharisees knew all your commandments-
all but the ones about loving you and neighbor.

To walk according to your commandments is to love;
to love is to walk according to your commandments.

We know our transgressions; our sin is ever before us;
we neither have loved nor walked the commandments.

Give us wisdom and insight to know, and strength to do.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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