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.

Set Apart to Serve--September 15, 2010


I. Readings
Psalms 15, 147:1-11, 48, 4
Job 42:1-17
Acts 16:16-24
John 12:20-26

II. Selections
Psalm 4:3
But know that the LORD has set apart the faithful for himself;
      the LORD hears when I call to him.

Job 42:3b-c
“…Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
      things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. … ”
[Job answers the LORD]

Acts 16:17
While [the slave girl who had a spirit of divination] followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”

John 12:26a
“…Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. … ”
[Jesus to Philip and Andrew]

III. Meditation

You set the faithful apart to yourself,
you set them apart to be servants.

Whoever serves you must follow you;
whoever follows you must serve you

and proclaim your way of salvation
(servanthood is itself a proclamation).

O you who hear when we call you,
teach us to control our tongues, lest

we utter what we do not understand,
speak of that which we do not know.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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