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.

Clamor and Clangs--Oct. 12, 2013


[from Oct. 8, 2011 archive]

Jesus, you had compassion on the harassed and helpless;
and we want our meditation to be pleasing to you;
yet the lesson of love we find hard to learn.

Have compassion, we pray, on our harried attempts;
and teach us to love, lest our tongues
ring out only clamor and clangs.

 

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 104; 149; 138; 98
Jeremiah 35:1-19
1 Cor. 12:27-13:3
Matt. 9:35-10:4

Selected Verses

Ps. 104:34
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
          for I rejoice in the LORD.

Jeremiah 35:13
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Can you not learn a lesson and obey my words? says the LORD.

1 Cor. 13:1
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Matt. 9:36
When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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