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.


From the Bare Seed--April 11, 2012



After a night of vigil, you offer a new day.
From death, you raised up Christ;
it is marvelous in our eyes!

And there is a lesson we can learn:
Unless what we sow dies to you,
it does not amount to anything.

Yet from the bare seed we sow
you can bring forth a new body
of your choosing, life from death.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 99; 147:1-11; 9; 118
Exod. 12:40-51
1 Cor. 15:29-41
Matt. 28:1-16

Selected Verses
Ps. 118:23
This is the LORD’s doing;
      it is marvelous in our eyes.

Exod. 12:42a
That was for the LORD a night of vigil, to bring [the Israelites] out of the land of Egypt.

1 Cor. 15:36-38
Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

Matt. 28:5-6
But the angel said to [Mary Magdalene and the other Mary], "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. …"
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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