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.


Unless You Do It--May 17, 2011


Unless you heal it,
my pain has no cure.

Except through you,
there is no reconciliation.

Whether you heed my prayers matters,
not whether others heap praises upon what I say.


Lectionary Readings
Ps. 98; 146; 66; 116
Jer. 30:10-17
Col. 1:15-23
Luke 6:12-26

Selected Verses
Ps. 66:19
But truly God has listened;
      he has given heed to the words of my prayer.

Jer. 30:15a
Why do you cry out over your hurt?
      Your pain is incurable.

Col. 1:19-20a
For in [God’s beloved Son] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things…

Luke 6:26
“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” [Jesus to a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people]
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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