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.

November 04, 2008

I. Readings
Psalms 42, 102, 133
Zephaniah 1:14-18
Revelation 14:14-15:8
Luke 13:1-9

II. Selections
Psalm 133:1, 3a
How very good and pleasant it is
when kindred live together in unity! ...
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion.

Zephaniah 1:18
Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them
on the day of the LORD's wrath ...

Revelation 15:4a
" ...Lord, who will not fear
and glorify your name? ... "
[ Those who had conquered the beast and its image, singing beside the sea of glass]

Luke 13:3
" ...So [ the man] said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' ... " [ Jesus' parable]

III. Meditation: A tree to be cut down

Kindred who live together in unity
are like a dew on the mountain.
Where is our unity when we
fight for silver and gold
that will not save us?

Then like a tree that bears no fruit,
like a tree that wastes the soil,
we are a tree to be cut down,
for we do not fear and
glorify your name.

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