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.

What Kind of Goodness?--March 23, 2011


We believe we will see your goodness,
but what kind of goodness will you see
from us?

There are different ways of doing good.
We can return to you with our whole heart,
or only go through the motions.

We can do good, patiently seeking glory
and honor and immortality—surely better
than self-seeking obedience to wickedness
instead of truth.

But would it not be better still (and less
self-seeking) to practice the goodness
of Jesus, who disappeared in the crowd
after he had done a good deed?


Lectionary Readings
Ps. 5; 147:1-11; 27; 51
Jer. 3:6-18
Rom. 1:26-2:11
John 5:1-18

Selected Verses
Ps. 27:13
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD
      in the land of the living.

Jer. 3:10
Yet for all this [Israel’s] false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, says the LORD.

Rom. 2:7-8
…to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

John 5:13
Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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