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.

You Give Life to the Dead--June 25, 2014


O Lord God of Abraham, you give life to the dead
and call into existence the things that do not exist.

In your ways you are generous,
and in your wisdom you choose,
standing between life and death.

We will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you make us lie down in safety.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 15; 147:1-11; 48; 4
Numb. 16:36-50
Rom. 4:13-25
Matt. 20:1-16

Selected Verses
Ps. 4:8
I will both lie down and sleep in peace;
          for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety.

Numb. 16:48
[Aaron] stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped. 

Rom. 4:17b
…in the presence of the God in whom [Abraham] believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Matt. 20:15
"'…Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?  Or are you envious because I am generous?'  …"  [In Jesus' parable, the landowner to the complaining servants]
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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