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.

Whom Crowds Surrounded--Jan. 19, 2011

Great you are, O God, and greatly to be praised.
You form light and create darkness,
make weal and create woe.

Your greatest gift was Jesus, whom crowds
surrounded because he loved us,
gave himself up for us.

His was a fragrant offering and sacrifice.
In imitation of his life, may
we too live in love.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 15; 147:1-11; 48; 4
Isa. 44:24-45:7
Eph. 5:1-14
Mark 4:1-20

Selected Verses
Ps. 48:1
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
      in the city of our God.

Isa. 45:7
I form light and create darkness,
      I make weal and create woe;
      I the LORD do all these things.

Eph. 5:1-2
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Mark 4:1
Again [Jesus] began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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