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.

May 06, 2010


For Once We Were Aliens

I. Readings
Psalms 47, 147:12-20, 68, 113
Leviticus 19:26-37
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Matthew 6:25-34

II. Selections
Psalms 47:2
For the LORD, the Most High, is awesome,
a great king over all the earth.

Leviticus 19:34
The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

2 Thessalonians 1:11
To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith…

Matthew 6:27
“…And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of
life? … ” [Jesus to the crowds on the mountain]

III. Meditation

Awesome God, exercise your rule over the whole earth,
where so many of your children are treated as aliens.

Exert your power to free them. Repress our
preoccupation with, and our worry over,
our own security; instead let us trust
the security that only you provide.

Make us worthy of your call,
we pray; and fulfill by your
power every good resolve
and every work of faith.

O show us how to
love the aliens.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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