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.

August 07, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 26, 116, 130
Judges 8:22-35
Acts 4:1-12
John 1:43-51

II. Selections
Psalm 130:3
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?

Judges 8:27
Gideon made an ephod of [ the gold] and put it in his town, in Ophrah; and all Israel prostituted themselves to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

Acts 4:9
" ...if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed ..." [ Peter before the Council]

John 1:46
Nathanael said to [ Philip], "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

III. Meditation: Marking iniquities

We are quick to condemn, eager to mark iniquities-
as Nathanael was ready to condemn all who came from Nazareth,
as the Council was ready to condemn Peter and John for healing-
but who has not taken a precious thing and created a snare from it?
If you should mark iniquities, who could stand?

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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