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.

Before We Presume to Teach--March 24, 2011


We have been astonished over the works you have done;
you have done great things for us, and we rejoice in them.

Unlike you, though we are skilled at doing evil,
we appear to know little about how to do good.

Teach us about goodness, we pray,
before we presume to teach others.


Lectionary Readings
Ps. 27, 147:12-20; 126; 102
Jer. 4:9-10; 19-28
Rom. 2:12-24
John 5:19-29

Selected Verses
Ps. 126:3
The LORD has done great things for us,
      and we rejoiced.

Jer. 4:22c
“…[My people] are skilled in doing evil,
      but do not know how to do good.”

Rom. 2:19-21a
…and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? …

John 5:20
The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)