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.


Hard Pruning--Apr. 27, 2011


Must you prune so hard, O God?
Do I have to bear more and more fruit?

I would prefer a more leisurely, passive role—
just carried along by others to lie at the Beautiful Gate

and to take what comes. Instead I am pushed to the point of
falling; bees buzz angrily about me. What can I do but look to you?


Lectionary Readings
Ps. 99; 147:1-11; 9; 118
Mic. 7:7-15
Acts 3:1-10
John 15:1-11

Selected Verses
Ps. 118:12
[All nations] surrounded me like bees;
      they blazed like a fire of thorns;
      in the name of the LORD I cut them off!
I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,
      but the LORD helped me.

Mic. 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the LORD,
     I will wait for the God of my salvation;
     my God will hear me.

Acts 3:2
And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.

John 15:2
“…[My Father, the vinegrower,] removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. …” [Jesus to his disciples]

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