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.

Where Did You Get to Know Us?--March 12, 2011


O great and awesome God,
where did you get to know us?

We were foolish, disobedient, led astray,
slaves to various passions and pleasures,

passing our days in malice and envy,
despicable, hating one another.

Yet though we were beset like a city under siege,
wondrously you showed your steadfast love for us.


Lectionary Readings
Ps. 43; 149; 31; 143
Deut. 7:17-26
Titus 3:1-15
John 1:43-51

Selected Verses
Ps. 31:21
Blessed be the LORD,
      for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
      when I was beset as a city under siege.

Deut. 7:21
Have no dread of [the nations of whom you are afraid], for the LORD your God, who is present with you, is a great and awesome God.

Titus 3:3
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.

John 1:48a
Nathanael asked [Jesus], “Where did you get to know me?”
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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