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.

Separation From Your Love--July 6, 2010


I. Readings
Psalms 12, 146, 36, 7
Numbers 35:1-3, 9-15, 30-34
Romans 8:31-39
Matthew 23:13-26

II. Selections
Psalms 36:1
Transgression speaks to the wicked
      deep in their hearts;
there is no fear of God
      before their eyes.

Numbers 35:34
You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which I also dwell; for I the LORD dwell among the Israelites.

Romans 8:35
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Matthew 23:24
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

III. Meditation

What will separate us from your love in
Christ Jesus our Lord? Nothing, says Paul.

But what about self-righteousness that
strains out gnats while swallowing camels?

What of wickedness that has no fear of you,
to which transgression speaks deep in the heart?

Or defilement of the land in which you also dwell?
Will none of these failings separate us from your love?

Surely your love is for us in our struggle against them all;
but if we block out your love, we make our own separation.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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