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.

The One at Your Right Hand--Aug. 23, 2012



God, sometimes there's no one else to do the teaching;
the job falls to me alone.

Sometimes I'm the only one who can break bad news;
the burden's on my shoulders.

O God, there are dark nights I feel as if it's been a day
when Christ has not yet come.

Remind me, your hand is on the one at your right hand,
and he will strengthen me.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 36; 147:12-20; 80; 27
Job 1:1-22
Acts 8:26-40
John 6:16-27

Selected Verses
Ps. 80:17
But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
      the one whom you made strong for yourself.

Job 1:19
"… and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you." [The messenger who came to tell Job all his children were killed]

Acts 8:30-31
So Philip ran up to [the Ethiopian eunuch's chariot] and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

John 6:16-17
When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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