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.

Woe to the Shepherds who Destroy--March 20, 2015

[From March 27, 2009 archive]

Woe to the shepherds of the world
who destroy and scatter your sheep!
Can’t you see what they are doing:
bombs, war, rape, torture, plunder?

Why are you so far from helping
and from the words of groaning?
God, what then are we to think--
Are you for sheep or shepherd?

O, you did not withhold your Son;
but gave him up for all your sheep.
With him help sheep and shepherd
abide in him, as he abides in them.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 22; 148; 105; 130
Jer. 23:1-8
Rom. 8:28-39
John 6:52-59

Selected Verses
Ps. 22:1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
            Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

Jer. 23:1
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD.

Rom. 8:31-32
What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

John 6:56
“…Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.  …”  [Jesus to those in the synagogue who complained against him]

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