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.

Lift Up the Gates--Dec. 9, 2012


 O King of glory, lift up the gates of our hearts,
that you may enter in and we may grow
in grace and knowledge of you,
our Lord and Savior.

Unless you enter, the grapes you have planted
in your vineyard will yield wild grapes;
unless you enter we will praise evil
and condemn the good.

Lord, save us from finding fault with those
who exceed us in righteousness--
also with those who in
our eyes do not.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 24; 150; 25; 110

Isa. 5:1-7
2 Pet. 3:11-18
Luke 7:28-35

Selected Verses

Ps. 24:7

Lift up your heads, O gates!
            and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
            that the King of glory may come in.

Isa. 5:4
What more was there to do for my vineyard
            that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
            why did it yield wild grapes?

2 Pet. 3:18
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.  Amen.

Luke 7:33-34
"…For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon'; the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'  …"  [Jesus to the crowd]

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