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.

March 11, 2010

We Seek Your Face

I. Readings
Psalms 27, 147:12-20, 126, 102
Genesis 46:1-7, 28-34
1 Corinthians 9:1-15
Mark 6:30-46

II. Selections
Psalm 27:8
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me.

Genesis 46:4
“…I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again; and Joseph’s own hand shall close your eyes.” [God to Jacob in a vision of the night]

1 Corinthians 9:1
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

Mark 6:32
And [Jesus and the apostles] went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.

III. Meditation

Are we not free?
Are we not followers?

Have we not seen you—
seen at least a glimpse of your love?

We seek your face;
do not hide your face from us.

We seek your face, even if we must
go to a deserted place to find you.

You will go down with us to Egypt,
and you will bring us up again after our eyes are closed.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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