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 21, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 27, 36, 80
Job 1:1-22
Acts 8:26-40
John 6:16-27

II. Selections
Psalm 36:2
For [ the wicked] flatter themselves in their own eyes
that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

Job 1:1
There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

Acts 8:30
So Philip ran up to [ the chariot] and heard [ the Ethiopian official] reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

John 6:18-19
The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified.

III. Meditation: The ways we respond

Sometimes we turn away from evil;
sometimes in a strong wind and a
rough sea we are terrified of good;
sometimes we do not understand
what is good and what is evil;
sometimes we flatter ourselves
that our iniquity will not be noticed.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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