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.


Even Shame and Humiliation--Apr. 19, 2011


O God, in you I take refuge;
guard my life and deliver me;
do not let me be put to shame.

So prayed the psalmist, so we have prayed—
for we do not want to be shamed, humiliated.

Yet unless it falls to the earth and dies,
a grain cannot spring forth into new life.

Surely our souls will shrivel and die if our main
concern is preserving our pride, honor, and lives.

Therefore we pray you will use even shame
and humiliation if necessary to transform us,

so that, by your power to make all things subject to
yourself, we may conform to the body of your glory.

Intervene in our lives for good, though it brings
forth our enemies, even shame and humiliation.


Lectionary Readings
Ps. 34; 146; 25; 91
Jer. 15:10-21
Phil. 3:15-21
John 12:20-26

Selected Verses
Ps. 25:20
O guard my life, and deliver me;
      do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

Jer. 15:11
The LORD said: Surely I have intervened in your life for good, surely I have imposed enemies on you in a time of trouble and in a time of distress.

Phil. 3:21
[The Lord Jesus Christ] will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.

John 12:24
“…Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. …” [Jesus to Andrew and Philip]



Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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