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.

September 15, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 97, 112, 135
Job 40:1-24
Acts 15:36-16:5
John 11:55-12:8

II. Selections
Psalm 112:7
[ The righteous] are not afraid of evil tidings;
their hearts are firm, secure in the LORD.

Job 40:1-2
And the LORD said to Job:
"Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?
Anyone who argues with God
must respond."

Acts 15:36
After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Come, let us return to visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are doing."

John 12:7-8
Jesus said [ to Judas Iscariot], "Leave [ Mary] alone. She bought [ the perfume] so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."

III. Meditation: Firm hearts to strengthen one another

Almighty God, with whom no faultfinder can contend,
make the hearts of the righteous secure in you, unafraid of evil tidings,
that through your Spirit your followers may strengthen one another.
We pray in the name of the one whose feet Mary anointed,
the one who, though taken from us, is with us still to give us firm hearts.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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