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.

Strange Things--Sept. 28, 2010


I. Readings
Psalms 12, 146, 36, 7
Hosea 2:16-23
Acts 21:1-14
Luke 5:12-26

II. Selections
Psalm 12:5
“Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,
      I will now rise up,” says the LORD;
      “I will place them in the safety for which they long.”

Hosea 2:18
I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. [The word of the LORD to Hosea]

Acts 21:4
We looked up the disciples and stayed there for seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

Luke 5:26
Amazement seized all of them [who had seen Jesus heal the paralyzed man], and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen strange things today.”

III. Meditation

In the past we have seen you do wondrously strange things.
Rise up now and do strange things again…strange things
like protecting the poor and needy, like saving creation
from despoilment and destruction, or abolishing war

from the world, that all may lie down in safety.
Make us strong like Paul to endure personal
risk, that you may use us to work toward
these strange things. In Jesus’ name.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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