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 31, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 25, 40, 84
Nahum 2:13-3:7
Revelation 13:1-10
Luke 12:13-31

II. Selections
Psalm 25:11
For your name's sake, O LORD,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.

Nahum 3:3
Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
piles of dead,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end-
they stumble over the bodies!

Revelation 13:4
[ The whole earth] worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?"

Luke 12:20
" ...But God said to [ the rich man], 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' ... "

III. Meditation: Whose will they be?

We worship the dragon and the beast-
horsemen charging, flashing sword
and glittering spear, piles of dead,
heaps of corpses to stumble over-
we make war to protect our oil,
to enjoy all we have prepared-
fools ...whose will they be?

For your name's sake,
O Christ, pardon our
guilt, for it is great!

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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