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.

The Light to Our Questions--Aug. 8, 2017


It is human nature to ask questions
about words, names, and rules;
even natural to wonder who we are.
David asked you who he was,
and why you had been good to him--
perhaps he asked out of vanity.
But when Jesus asked his disciples
who he was, it was not vanity.
Jesus asks, I think, to challenge us
to make a decision: to decide
whether he is the fountain of life,
that in his light, we see light.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 12; 146; 36; 7
2 Sam. 7:18-29
Acts 18:12-28
Mark 8:22-33

Selected Verses
Ps. 36:9
 For with you is the fountain of life;
          in your light we see light.

2 Sam. 7:18
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and said, "Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?  …"

Acts 18:14-15
Just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of crime or serious villainy, I would be justified in accepting the complaint of you Jews; but since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves; I do not wish to be a judge of these matters." 

Mark 8:29a
[Jesus] asked [his disciples], "But who do you say that I am?" 

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