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.

To Stand before Jesus, Alone--Dec. 10, 2014


Jesus, what would it be like
to be left alone standing before you?
Surely I would know that we are a people
who have closed our hearts to pity, with mouths
that speak arrogantly, a people of unclean lips--
and I a person of unclean lips. Woe is me!

But then I believe I would receive
your grace, and your peace.
Lord Jesus, let me have
them even now.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 50; 147:1-11; 53; 17
Isa. 6:1-13
2 Thess. 1:1-12
John 7:53-8:11

Selected Verses
Ps. 17:10
They close their hearts to pity;
            with their mouths they speak arrogantly…

Isa. 6:5
And I said: "Woe is me!  I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

2 Thess. 1:2
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 8:9
When [the woman's accusers] heard [Jesus' challenge], they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.

Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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