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.

Your Prisoners--Jan. 19, 2014


[from Jan20, 2008 archive]

We hear no speech, nor any words;
yet your voice comes to call us out.

Sometimes you call us to safety,
to escape the waters of a flood;

sometimes you call us only to
lead a life worthy of your call.

No matter, you have called those
you want; we are your prisoners.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 19; 150; 81; 113
Gen. 7:1-10, 17-23
Eph. 4:1-16
Mark 3:7-19

Selected Verses

Ps. 19:3-4
There is no speech, nor are there words;
            [the voice of the heavens and firmament] is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
            and their words to the end of the world.

Gen. 7:7
And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

Eph. 4:1
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called…

Mark 3:13
[Jesus] went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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