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.


Still Greater Things--Jan. 12, 2012



God, we confess we are not always grateful
for the choices you make in our behalf.

We lose a child, and you give another one--
perhaps we would have preferred to keep the first.

But what can we do? If we choose
another god
we multiply our sorrows.

Help us hold firm to our hope in you,
confident you have still greater things for us to see.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 97; 147:12-20; 16; 62
Gen. 4:17-26
Heb. 3:1-11
John 1:43-51

Selected Verses
Ps. 16:4a
Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows…

Gen. 4:25
Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, for she said, "God has appointed for me another child instead of Abel, because Cain killed him."

Heb. 3:6
Christ, however, was faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.

John 1:43-51
Jesus answered [Nathanael], "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these."
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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