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.

When We Are Proud and Scornful--Sept. 17, 2013


 O Holy One, humble us when we are proud and scornful
of those in the world who are low and despised;
when we are full of contempt for those
who sit in darkness and death.

May your great light
shine for them,
humbling us.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 123; 146; 30; 86
1 Kings 21:17-29
1 Cor. 1:20-31
Matt. 4:12-17

Selected Verses

Ps. 123:4
Our soul has had more than its fill
          of the scorn of those who are at ease,
          of the contempt of the proud.

1 Kings 21:28-29a
Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me?  …"

1 Cor. 1:28-29
God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

Matt. 4:16
"…the people who sat in darkness
          have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
          light has dawned."

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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