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.

Fenced In and Falling--August 21, 2010


I. Readings
Psalms 56, 149, 118, 111
Job 3:1-26
Acts 9:10-19a
John 6:41-51

II. Selections
Psalm 118:13
I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,
      but the LORD helped me.

Job 3:23
“…Why is light given to one who cannot see the way, whom God has fenced in? … ” [Job cursing the day of his birth]

Acts 9:18a
And immediately something like scales fell from [Saul’s] eyes, and his sight was restored.

John 6:42a
[The Jews who complained about Jesus] were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? … ”

III. Meditation

I have wandered blindly,
even though the light—
your light—is all around me.
I have been pushed hard;
I am fenced in and falling.

Can this Jesus
(son of Mary and Joseph)
help me regain my footing…
take the scales from my eyes
and restore my vision?

It happened for Saul;
can it happen for me?
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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