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.


Restore and Sustain--March 7, 2012



In the name of Jesus Christ and in your Holy Spirit
we have been washed, sanctified, and justified.

Yet when misfortune strikes, we lose heart;
and trembling we turn to one another.

Restore the joy of your salvation;
O, sustain in us a willing spirit

to listen to your teaching,
open to what you sow.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 5; 147:1-11; 27; 51
Gen. 42:18-28
1 Cor. 5:9-6:11
Mark 4:1-20

Selected Verses
Ps. 51:12
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
      and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Gen. 42:28b
At this [Joseph's brothers] lost heart and turned trembling to one another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

1 Cor. 6:11b
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Mark 4:2
[Jesus] began to teach [the crowd] many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. …"
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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