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.

Waiting for Salvation--Dec. 30, 2012


 How long we have waited for you, Jesus!
It could be said we are waiting still--
at times you seem to hide yourself.

Yet you are the one to bring us our salvation,
the pioneer made perfect through suffering,
born to save your people from their sins.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 93; 150; 89:1-18; 89:19-52

Isa. 62:6-7, 10-12
Heb. 2:10-18
Matt. 1:18-25

Selected Verses

Ps. 89:46a

How long, O LORD?  Will you hide yourself forever?

Isa. 62:11a
The LORD has proclaimed
          to the end of the earth:
     Say to daughter Zion,
          “See, your salvation comes…”

Heb. 2:10
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Matt. 1:21
"…[Mary] will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  [An angel of the Lord to Joseph]


Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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