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.


Naked and Laid Bare--Jan. 14, 2012



Before you we are naked, laid bare to your eyes;
we should be driven out of the temple.

Yet you have provided an ark
to ride out the floods.

In your steadfast love
you have given us a covenant.

Fulfill your purpose for us, O God,
and do not forsake the work of your hands.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 104; 149; 138; 98
Gen. 6:9-22
Heb. 4:1-13
John 2:13-22

Selected Verses
Ps. 138:8
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
      your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
      Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Gen. 6:18
"… But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. …" [God to Noah]

Heb. 4:13
And before [God] no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

John 2:15a
Making a whip of cords, [Jesus] drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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