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.

The Land Cries Out--September 10, 2010


I. Readings
Psalms 51, 148, 142, 65
Job 29:1; 31:24-40
Acts 15:12-21
John 11:30-44

II. Selections
Psalm 51:1
Have mercy on me, O God,
      according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
      blot out my transgressions.

Job 31:38-40
“…If my land has cried out against me,
      and its furrows have wept together;
if I have eaten its yield without payment,
      and caused the death of its owners;
let thorns grow instead of wheat,
      and foul weeds instead of barley.”
The words of Job are ended.

Acts 15:14
“…Simeon has related how God first looked favorably on the Gentiles, to take from among them a people for his name. … ” [James at the Apostolic Council]

John 11:44b
Jesus said to [those present at the raising of Lazarus], “Unbind him, and let him go.”

III. Meditation

Thorns grow in our
lives instead of wheat,
foul weeds instead of barley.

The land cries out against us,
and the furrows weep together
over our pollution of the earth.

Have abundant mercy upon us,
and blot out our transgressions.

Look favorably on us;
unbind us, and let us go.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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