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 27, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 63, 100, 122
Esther 9:1-32
Acts 20:1-16
Luke 4:38-44

II. Selections
Psalm 63:1
O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Esther 9:6
So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, slaughtering, and destroying them, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.

Acts 20:3b
[ Paul] was about to set sail for Syria when a plot was made against him by the Jews, and so he decided to return through Macedonia.

Luke 4:40
As the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to [ Jesus]; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them.

III. Meditation: Cure our desire for revenge

O God, you are our God. You lay your hands on all who seek to be healed. When enemies plot to harm us, and we in hate respond with the desire to strike them down and slaughter them, make us thirst for you more than we thirst for revenge. Then our dry and weary world of warfare will be watered with your refreshing grace. In the name of him who taught us to forgive our enemies.

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