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.


By What Authority?--August 16, 2011

"By what authority are you doing these things?"
An accusatory question usually is not helpful.

When I ask one, I am left dangling between heaven
and earth, my head caught in branches of my own conceit.

In my prosperity, I tell myself I shall never be moved;
then to my sorrow I learn that I have been.

Where is the place where I may find safety?
With him who upended authority
and did not seek safety.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 123; 146; 30; 86
2 Sam. 18:9-18
Acts 23:12-24
Mark 11:27-12:12

Selected Verses
Ps. 30:6
As for me, I said in my prosperity,
      "I shall never be moved."

2 Sam. 18:9
Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on.

Acts 23:23-24
Then [the Roman tribune] summoned two of the centurions and said, "Get ready to leave by nine o’clock tonight for Caesarea with two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride, and take him safely to Felix the governor."

Mark 11:27-28
Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, "By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?"




Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)