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.

For Release of Innocent Prisoners--July 14, 2015


Merciful God in your holy height, we pray for prisoners:
Some are behind prison bars and doomed to die,
even though innocent like David and Peter.
Some are prisoners of injury or disease
like the paralytic healed by Jesus.
We know you hear their groans--
help us to hear them, too, and make us
passionate for their release, like those who dug
a hole in a roof to let the paralytic down before Jesus.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 42; 146; 102; 133
1 Sam. 19:1-24
Acts 12:1-17
Mark 2:1-12

Selected Verses
Ps. 102:19-20
…that [the LORD] looked down from his holy height,
          from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
to hear the groans of the prisoners,
          to set free those who were doomed to die…

1 Sam. 19:12
So Michal let David down through the window; he fled away and escaped. 

Acts 12:11
Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

Mark 2:4
And when [those carrying the paralytic] could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay.

No comments:

Post a Comment