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.

July 27, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 46, 67, 93
Joshua 24:1-15
Acts 28:23-31
Mark 2:23-28

II. Selections
Psalm 46:9
[ The LORD] makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.

Joshua 24:13
I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and towns that you had not built, and you live in them; you eat the fruit of vineyards and oliveyards that you did not plant.

Acts 28:23
After [ the Jews in Rome] had set a day to meet with [ Paul], they came to him at his lodgings in great numbers. From morning until evening he explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.

Mark 2:27-28
Then [ Jesus] said to [ the Pharisees], "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."

III. Meditation: Dare we ask?

You have given us land on
which we have not labored;
we live in towns we did not build,
eat fruit from farms we did not plant;
dare we ask you to make wars cease
if we had a hand in starting them?

We may be no more persuaded now
by Paul's logic than were the Jews
in ancient Rome; are we to claim
Jesus as Lord of our Sabbath
when we observe no day?

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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