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.


What is the Way of the Righteous?--Aug. 10, 2011

[from August 14, 2007 archive]

What is the way of the righteous?
What must we do to inherit eternal life? ;
Although Absalom was unsurpassed in his beauty,
he was too full of revenge and ambition to find the way.
To demonstrate that he had found the way of the righteous,
Paul was advised to go through the rite of purification
and pay for four men who were under a vow.
The demonstration did not turn out well.
Good Teacher, what is the way?
To follow you is the way.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 89:1-18; 147:1-11; 1; 33
2 Sam. 14:21-33
Acts 21:15-26
Mark 10:17-31

Selected Verses
Psalm 1:6
…for the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
     but the way of the wicked will perish.

2 Samuel 14:25
Now in all Israel there was no one to be praised so much for his beauty as Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

Acts 21:24
"…Join these [four men who are under a vow], go through the rite of purification with them, and pay for the shaving of their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself observe and guard the law. …" [the Jerusalem brothers and elders to Paul]

Mark 10:17
As [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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