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.

October 26, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 23, 66, 108
Jonah 1:1-17a
1 Corinthians 10:15-24
Matthew 18:15-20

II. Selections
Psalm 108:4
For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Jonah 1:3a
But Jonah set out to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

1 Corinthians 10:24
Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.

Matthew 18:20
" ...For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." [ Jesus to his disciples]

III. Meditation: Flight to Tarshish

When even two or three of us are gathered
in your name, you promise to be present, too.

But we are like Jonah, ready to flee to Tarshish
to escape your presence when you ask us not
to seek our own advantage, but that of others.

Your steadfast love is higher than the heavens
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
How can we be so faithless and unloving?

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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