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.

If Faith and Hope and Love Abide--Nov. 2, 2014


God, if faith and hope and love abide,
and the greatest of these is love,
then surely love is your very
essence, the very center
of all that you are.

If you do not deal
with us according to our
sins, nor repay us according
to our iniquities, won't you have
mercy on us?  Yes, you have shown
your mercy through Jesus, who taught us
that we must seek you, and follow you, and
show our mercy to those who have wronged us.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 103; 150; 117; 139
Zeph. 1:1-6
1 Cor. 12:27-13:13
Matt. 18:21-35

Selected Verses
Ps. 103:10
[The LORD] does not deal with us according to our sins,
          nor repay us according to our iniquities. 

Zeph. 1:2, 6
I will utterly sweep away everything
     from the face of the earth, says the LORD. 
…those who have turned back from following the LORD,
     who have not sought the LORD or inquired of him.

1 Cor. 13:13
And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Matt. 18:33
"'…Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?' …"  [The master to his unforgiving slave, in Jesus' parable to his disciples]

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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