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.

A Sketch and a Shadow--May 17, 2013


[from June 10, 2011 archive]

Our worship is a sketch and shadow of your heavenly worship.
Though we want to sit at your feet and listen to what you
are saying, sometimes your words are a riddle.

At other times your words are all too plain,
and we stand under your judgment. 

We have trodden on what others must eat,
have fouled the water they must drink
and the air they must breathe.
God have mercy on us.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 96; 148; 49; 138
Ezek. 34:17-31
Heb. 8:1-13
Luke 10:38-42

Selected Verses

Ps. 49:4
I will incline my ear to a proverb;
          I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.

Ezek. 34:19
And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?

Heb. 8:5
They offer worship in a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one…

Luke 10:39
[Martha] had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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