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.

Apps or Idols?--Oct. 21, 2012


 O God, you call us to praise you
and warn us against worship of idols.

We do not make graven images or little gods,
but technology produces a host of idols to worship.

Perhaps we have no need to beat our smartphones to pieces
or lay waste to tablets and laptops, media players and apps;

yet if we adhere to Peter's confession, then Jesus is Lord;
and the gadgets that entertain and divert us from him

must take second place to his claim on our lives.
Let all the peoples praise him, O God.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 67; 150; 46; 93
Micah 1:1-9
1 Cor. 10:1-13
Matt. 16:13-20

 

Selected Verses

Ps. 67:5
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
          let all the peoples praise you.

Micah 1:7a
All [of Samaria's] images shall be beaten to pieces,
     all her wages shall be burned with fire,
     and all her idols I will lay waste…

1 Cor. 10:7a
Do not become idolaters as some of [our ancestors] did…

Matt. 16:15-16
[Jesus] said to [his disciples], "But who do you say that I am?"  Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."


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