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.

June 10, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 7, 12, 36
Ecclesiastes 8:14-9:10
Galatians 4:21-31
Matthew 15:29-39

II. Selections
Psalm 36:11
Do not let the foot of the arrogant tread on me,
or the heel of the wicked drive me away.

Ecclesiastes 9:3b
Moreover, the hearts of all are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

Galatians 4:31
So then, friends, we are children, not of the slave but of the free woman.

Matthew 15:32
Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way."

III. Meditation: Lest we faint on the way

Children of the slave, or of the free woman;
arrogant and wicked, or trod upon by them;
even if our hearts are mad and full of evil,
you have compassion for us in our hunger.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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