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.

On the Way to Bethlehem, Death and Life--Feb. 22, 2014


 On the way to Bethlehem where Jesus was born,
Rachel died; there Jacob buried her. While we live,
O God, deliver our soul from death--help us love
one another, that we may not abide with death
but pass from death to life. Deliver our feet
from falling as we walk with Christ in the
light of life and die with Christ
at the end of life.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 56; 149; 118; 111
Gen. 35:1-20
1 John 3:11-18
John 11:1-16

Selected Verses

Ps. 56:13
For you have delivered my soul from death,
          and my feet from falling,
so that I may walk before God
          in the light of life.

Gen. 35:19-20a
So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem), and Jacob set up a pillar at her grave…

1 John 3:14
We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another.  Whoever does not love abides in death.

John 11:16
Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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