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.

Our Suffering and Yours--April 3, 2014


Lord Jesus, when one member of your body suffers--
be it ruthless oppression or pain or rejection or death--
we suffer with them.

How much more, then, do we suffer when we remember
the great suffering you had to endure.  To think of that
is to eat ashes like bread and
to mingle tears with our drink.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 27; 147:12-20; 126; 102
Exod. 1:6-22
1 Cor. 12:12-26
Mark 8:27-9:1

Selected Verses
Ps. 102:9
For I eat ashes like bread,
          and mingle tears with my drink…

Exod. 1:13-14a
The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. 

1 Cor. 12:26
If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

Mark 8:31
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)