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 Preacher's Lament--Oct. 13, 2013


[from Oct. 9, 2011 archive]

In distress we call, and you rescue us.
We try to speak what you have spoken to us,

but those who hear us do not understand;
sometimes they honor us instead of you.

Sometimes they harshly criticize
for kind words said of "sinners."

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 19; 150; 81; 113
Jer. 36:1-10
Acts 14:8-18
Luke 7:36-50

Selected Verses

Ps. 81:7a
In distress you called, and I rescued you…

Jer. 36:8
And Baruch son of Neriah did all that the prophet Jeremiah ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the LORD in the Lord’s house.

Acts 14:11
When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

Luke 7:39
Now when the Pharisee who had invited [Jesus] saw [the woman anointing Jesus], he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.”

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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