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.

I Am Yours, Not My Own--March 20, 2014


 Joseph's brothers told him they were honest men;
he knew they knew, they had not always been honest.

O God, make me honest with myself and with you;
may your Spirit live within me, that I may behold
your beauty and inquire into your will for me.

Then let me sleep while you scatter your seed;
and, in your own good time, may your
seed sprout and grow within me--
I am yours, not my own.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 27; 147:12-20; 126; 102
Gen. 42:29-38
1 Cor. 6:12-20
Mark 4:21-34

Selected Verses
Ps. 27:4c
 …to behold the beauty of the LORD,
          and to inquire in his temple.

Gen. 42:30-31
"The man, the lord of the land, spoke harshly to us, and charged us with spying on the land.  But we said to him, 'We are honest men, we are not spies.  …'"  [Jacob's sons reporting to him on their visit to Egypt]

1 Cor. 6:19
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?

Mark 4:26-27
[Jesus] also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  …"

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